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Carmakers feel chip crisis easing

bloomberg.com

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Re: Carmakers feel chip crisis easing

#91

Post by cwal37 »

KerrAvon wrote: post #86
walrus01 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Context: for ages, OEMs (the factory) have had a belief that Americans will not wait to buy a car. On the contrary, we recently added a 3rd car, and it ended up being a $4000 used Toyota Camry. My first choice would have been a Corolla or civic but none were available at a reasonable price, condition and mileage. Due to the well known rise in used car prices. It's in good enough condition and meets all the requirem…

I applaud you for not taking the bait on the Model 3, which is overrated, but I cannot fathom purchasing an appliance car like a Camry. You can’t possibly enjoy driving it. Why not at least a Honda?

Perhaps because nearly all car trips are those in which they are mostly acting as an appliance as central to (presuming here) American life as AC is in most of the country.

Personally, I’ve never driven a Camry and thought, “this is awful”, but rather “this is totally fine and wow, great mileage!” In a similar vein, its status as an abundant vehicle with many parts out there and being generally reliable are all similar and useful things I’d consider before buying a new washing machine or whatever.

Re: Carmakers feel chip crisis easing

#92

Post by KerrAvon »

aidenn0 wrote: post #57
csours wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disclosure: I work for GM. Anything expressed here is solely my own opinion and experience. I think each statement is true. Context: for ages, OEMs (the factory) have had a belief that Americans will not wait to buy a car. There's also a bit of a prisoner's dilemma: if any automaker wanted to trim inventories, the customer could go to a competing automaker's lot and buy today. Since customers will not wait to buy a c…

> In future American OEMs may move to a more European model where vehicles are built to specific customer order. This takes on the order of two months at the moment for many legacy reasons, but there is no need for it to actually take this long. You've been able to do this in the US forever; you just might have needed to pay closer to (or even at) sticker (now I'm sure it's higher than sticker).

Only on some makes and some models. Try doing this with a Japanese car or your average Volkswagen and you’d get nowhere. This apparently used to be more of a thing when American cars ruled the industry — custom orders could be quite profitable — until the Japanese makes came along with severely limited optional equipment as a quality and cost saving measure.

Re: Carmakers feel chip crisis easing

#93

Post by hansvm »

kube-system wrote: post #34
syrrim wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could sell the car yourself, and get financing from a bank. Then its only price (fixed), and addons.

I've found (in the US at least) that automaker financing on new vehicles is usually better than any other banks. I'm now wishing I put zero down on my last car, because it's looking like my loan is way cheaper than inflation is going to be over the life of the loan.

Last time I thought financing might be a good idea, the dealership asked who I banked with, applied for a loan in my name without my permission, and presented it to me +0.5% extra profit for them. They were just going to insert themselves as an intermediary.

Re: Carmakers feel chip crisis easing

#94

Post by jazzyjackson »

markus_zhang wrote: post #30
Vladimof wrote: post #10

Still can't buy RaspberryPis... not sure if it's related. But for some reason I can still buy boat loads of ESP8266 and other micro-controllers...

Pico is still available, even in Canada.

I am freshly obsessed with the RP2040 chip, last time I checked Digikey had like 90,000 in stock at 1USD a pop. I am really curious to what extent it could be configured to do the job of many of these out-of-stock chips that the car industry is hurting for, perhaps straight up emulate their I/O ?

Re: Carmakers feel chip crisis easing

#95

Post by aidenn0 »

KerrAvon wrote: post #92
aidenn0 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In future American OEMs may move to a more European model where vehicles are built to specific customer order. This takes on the order of two months at the moment for many legacy reasons, but there is no need for it to actually take this long. You've been able to do this in the US forever; you just might have needed to pay closer to (or even at) sticker (now I'm sure it's higher than sticker).

Only on some makes and some models. Try doing this with a Japanese car or your average Volkswagen and you’d get nowhere. This apparently used to be more of a thing when American cars ruled the industry — custom orders could be quite profitable — until the Japanese makes came along with severely limited optional equipment as a quality and cost saving measure.

The comment I was replying to said "American OEMs" and you could do this fairly recently with both Ford and GM

Re: Carmakers feel chip crisis easing

#96

Post by sharkweek »

cwal37 wrote: post #91
KerrAvon wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I applaud you for not taking the bait on the Model 3, which is overrated, but I cannot fathom purchasing an appliance car like a Camry. You can’t possibly enjoy driving it. Why not at least a Honda?

Perhaps because nearly all car trips are those in which they are mostly acting as an appliance as central to (presuming here) American life as AC is in most of the country. Personally, I’ve never driven a Camry and thought, “this is awful”, but rather “this is totally fine and wow, great mileage!” In a similar vein, its status as an abundant vehicle with many parts out there and being generally reliable are all simil…

My first car, in the early 00s mind you, was a 1989 Camry Wagon and boy did I sure love that thing. Great utilitarian car that could fit friends, got great gas mileage, and basically required no upkeep.

I now drive a 2000 4Runner that has actually gone up in value from when I bought it 12ish years ago. I’ve had two people in the last two years drive by randomly and ask if I was selling.

One of my all-time favorite Onion headlines: Toyota Recalls 1993 Camry Due To Fact That Owners Really Should Have Bought Something New By Now

https://www.theonion.com/toyota-recalls-1993-camry-due-to-fa...

Re: Carmakers feel chip crisis easing

#97

Post by cormacrelf »

cwal37 wrote: post #91
KerrAvon wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I applaud you for not taking the bait on the Model 3, which is overrated, but I cannot fathom purchasing an appliance car like a Camry. You can’t possibly enjoy driving it. Why not at least a Honda?

Perhaps because nearly all car trips are those in which they are mostly acting as an appliance as central to (presuming here) American life as AC is in most of the country. Personally, I’ve never driven a Camry and thought, “this is awful”, but rather “this is totally fine and wow, great mileage!” In a similar vein, its status as an abundant vehicle with many parts out there and being generally reliable are all simil…

They're even reliable in the way they break down. Parts are cheap worldwide, every mechanic ever can work with them, and the service life of components seems to be staggered such that you only get a couple of issues a year even on a 20 year old model like mine. If you think all is lost at 500,000km, just buy a new engine for like $1000 and sail away in your little Ship of Theseus that refuses to die. The purchase price is so low and the maintenance so consistent it's like you're renting it.

If you are struggling to build your self-worth through a car or think you need to spend $50k to get that, try fixing an old Camry yourself for dirt cheap, and then see how you feel. No need to fight for right-to-repair laws either, just buy a part anywhere and clean or replace it according to the manual, which is just a 1000 page PDF on the internet of every possible repair. (Although my next car will be electric, because of climate change. Sorry Camry.)

Re: Carmakers feel chip crisis easing

#98

Post by CameronNemo »

d110af5ccf wrote: post #83
walrus01 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Context: for ages, OEMs (the factory) have had a belief that Americans will not wait to buy a car. On the contrary, we recently added a 3rd car, and it ended up being a $4000 used Toyota Camry. My first choice would have been a Corolla or civic but none were available at a reasonable price, condition and mileage. Due to the well known rise in used car prices. It's in good enough condition and meets all the requirem…

> no more paying comprehensive insurance Assuming you can afford to replace it on your own if you need to, this one really adds up.

When I removed comprehensive coverage, the lady from the insurance company audibly said "wow" before telling me my new yearly rate. It dropped quite a bit. Over 50% decrease IIRC.

Re: Carmakers feel chip crisis easing

#99

Post by jazzyjackson »

ck2 wrote: post #60

Just in time for $6 gas. Are people seriously going to buy anything other than a hybrid or full EV at this point?

I don't really see how $6 gas is materially different from $4 gas

And yea, F150s and Tundras are still going to outsell anything less than 5 feet tall, don't really know what to tell ya

Re: Carmakers feel chip crisis easing

#100

Post by CameronNemo »

cormacrelf wrote: post #97
cwal37 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps because nearly all car trips are those in which they are mostly acting as an appliance as central to (presuming here) American life as AC is in most of the country. Personally, I’ve never driven a Camry and thought, “this is awful”, but rather “this is totally fine and wow, great mileage!” In a similar vein, its status as an abundant vehicle with many parts out there and being generally reliable are all simil…

They're even reliable in the way they break down. Parts are cheap worldwide, every mechanic ever can work with them, and the service life of components seems to be staggered such that you only get a couple of issues a year even on a 20 year old model like mine. If you think all is lost at 500,000km, just buy a new engine for like $1000 and sail away in your little Ship of Theseus that refuses to die. The purchase pri…

I really hope an electric car model will take up the mantle for reliability and repair ability. Toyota is lagging hard in the EV space. Maybe those Chevy Bolts will last a while? Or the Kia EVs? Probably the F150s, but I'd prefer a compact.
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