Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The rise of the disposable car

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 267 posts

Re: The rise of the disposable car

#201

Post by jmrm »

ssl-3 wrote: post #177
jmrm wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 'Maintenance free' transmissions are very common in newer cars I take advantage to your comment to write this PSA (that probably you already know): All transmissions require maintenance, and even manual ones. Those automatic tagged as 'maintenance free' from the brand aren't, and if you call the manufacturer of that transmission, Getrag, ZF, or whatever it is, they should say which ATF and filters it needs and in w…

How does find a phone number for General Motors that lets someone talk to the person who knows these details and is both willing and able to relay them? [insert rant here about BMW's "lifetime" fluid in the 4L30E that they used in E36s]

I'm not a mechanic, but they can see the brand and model on the part and call the manufacture or just google it. If it's the same as the car's brand, or if they don't give any information, you can check forums to get that information, otherwise sometimes they can find this information in their AutoData service.

Checking that state of the fluid isn't difficult, as is bright red when it's new, and turns more and more brown when it's used, and it's mostly used normally between 50k and 100l AFAIK.

Buying the required fluid, and filter if needed, is as easy as looking it in the internet or going your local AutoZone, O'Reillys, AAP, or whatever you have near btw

Re: The rise of the disposable car

#202

Post by SkyPuncher »

bityard wrote: post #193
neuralRiot wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The catch is that most banks won’t finance “rebuilt-titled” cars, you don’t have a dealer warranty (and most plainly refuse to work on rebuilt cars) and the vehicle has a 50-60% (or less) resale value than a “clean-title”.

Huh. Well I happen to be shopping for a used care right now and in my area at least, Craigslist and Facebook are completely swamped with rebuilt title cars. And the vast majority of them are priced the same as clear title cars.

The rebuild titles are almost always 20% to 40% cheaper in my area.

Re: The rise of the disposable car

#203

Post by abduhl »

rconti wrote: post #194
snakeyjake wrote: post #127

The increase in total loss designations by insurance companies is due to the extremely high costs charged by the shops contracted by them to do repairs. The designation of a car as "totaled" is often an illusion and there is a thriving parallel market of auction houses, repair shops, salvage titling companies, and resellers who take the "ruined" cars, fix them, and sell them on the used market. Insurance companies co…

Actually, insurance companies are already _very_ aggressively steering their customers into "lower-cost" shops, leading them to believe they should accept subpar repairs in order to keep costs down and profits up. In many cases they use non-OEM parts to keep repair costs down. I think the real reason they total a car at 60-70% is because the cost is just an estimate. They don't want to keep sending an estimator out t…

>> It's why I keep rental car coverage for our vehicles even when we don't need it -- to hold the insurance company's feet to the fire, so they feel the financial pain, too, when they hold your car hostage for a month.

Most rental car coverage only lasts 30 days maximum (sometimes it’s even less). It’s unlikely that carrying rental car coverage does anything in practice when netted against the increase in your premiums and in light of the limited coverage plus the discounted rental rates insurance companies get from rental car companies. I would imagine your car insurance provider is ecstatic that you pay an extra $X amount a year to “stick it to them.”

Re: The rise of the disposable car

#204

Post by AlotOfReading »

karma_pharmer wrote: post #179
bobthepanda wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

right, the $42K Rivian fender bender was a particularly egregious example. https://www.theautopian.com/heres-why-that-rivian-r1t-repair...

oh my god. what exactly were the rivian engineers thinking?

They weren't thinking about repairability. They were trying to get smaller BOMs and reduced assembly costs.

Re: The rise of the disposable car

#205

Post by toast0 »

jmrm wrote: post #201
ssl-3 wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does find a phone number for General Motors that lets someone talk to the person who knows these details and is both willing and able to relay them? [insert rant here about BMW's "lifetime" fluid in the 4L30E that they used in E36s]

I'm not a mechanic, but they can see the brand and model on the part and call the manufacture or just google it. If it's the same as the car's brand, or if they don't give any information, you can check forums to get that information, otherwise sometimes they can find this information in their AutoData service. Checking that state of the fluid isn't difficult, as is bright red when it's new, and turns more and more b…

> Checking that state of the fluid isn't difficult, as is bright red when it's new, and turns more and more brown when it's used, and it's mostly used normally between 50k and 100l AFAIK.

Yeah, but getting to the fluid to see it is hard. They stopped putting in dipsticks, so hopefully there's a check plug somewhere you can get to.

Re: The rise of the disposable car

#206

Post by _yb2s »

bityard wrote: post #200
_yb2s wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Older cars are massively undervalued in the USA because of social norms, which is a massive opportunity to anyone willing to exploit it to get reliable transportation for nearly free. People are afraid that older cars are dangerous, unreliable, or (worst of all) will make you look poor, but all 3 are just misinformation. Boats and airplanes are just as reliable when old as new because they're maintained well- and car…

There is no such thing as owning an "older car" here in the midwest rust belt states. The frames corrode to orange dust on _every_ car when they get to be between 10-12 years old. You _do_ see cars older than that on the road, but that's only because we don't have mandatory inspections in my state. The only exceptions here are the "toys" that people buy for summer use only. (Sports cars, vintage cars, etc.) Once in a…

As someone that loves old cars that sounds terrible.

Are you sure every car? Some of the higher end European cars have a hot dipped galvanized frame. Volvo advertised pretty heavily that the 1980s 740s were galvanized… I’m pretty sure I’ve seen some that ended up out here on the west coast from the midwest and you can’t undo a suspension bolt, but the chassis was fine.

You could always buy a used car out of state and drive it back.

Re: The rise of the disposable car

#207

Post by SkyPuncher »

bityard wrote: post #196
nimbius wrote: post #75

The rich have been flogging this idea since cash for clunkers. That, because they run through cars like shit through a goose, you will too. Speaking as a master diesel mechanic, this is a deleterious line of thinking for anyone with less than a few million dollars. Every car has 20 years of parts, and most Japanese cars have closer into 50 years of parts. Any engine built after 2010 will likely last half a million mi…

I live in the rust belt, where the average life expectancy of a car is about 10 years. 12-15 if you _really_ baby it. Except for one car that was totaled (got rear-ended by a texter), all of the cars I no longer own succumbed to a rotted out frame. Engines were fine, bodies were fine, interiors were fine. But a frame. Can't really replace a frame. You can _sometimes_ repair it. You can buy some time by paying for an…

I’ve had the same experience.

I’ve started buying high mileage cars that are roughly 2 years old. Essentially off lease vehicles, but more likely some sort of corporate vehicle.

Rust is by far my biggest enemy. I’ve never had an engine or transmission go. Really haven’t even had any major components go either.

But rust, rust just kills everything under the car.

Re: The rise of the disposable car

#208

Post by rightbyte »

bityard wrote: post #196
nimbius wrote: post #75

The rich have been flogging this idea since cash for clunkers. That, because they run through cars like shit through a goose, you will too. Speaking as a master diesel mechanic, this is a deleterious line of thinking for anyone with less than a few million dollars. Every car has 20 years of parts, and most Japanese cars have closer into 50 years of parts. Any engine built after 2010 will likely last half a million mi…

I live in the rust belt, where the average life expectancy of a car is about 10 years. 12-15 if you _really_ baby it. Except for one car that was totaled (got rear-ended by a texter), all of the cars I no longer own succumbed to a rotted out frame. Engines were fine, bodies were fine, interiors were fine. But a frame. Can't really replace a frame. You can _sometimes_ repair it. You can buy some time by paying for an…

The secret is to paint it and apply rubber coating, when it is new. It is DIY territory.

Paint alone will chip due to gravel and start rusting away.

Re: The rise of the disposable car

#209

Post by yesthisiswes »

magicalhippo wrote: post #116
throwaway48476 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modern cars aren't designed to be easy to work on which really inflates the labor hours required for even trivial issues.

The my front left indicator light went on my BMW i3. Tried looking up the specs for the bulb to buy a new one. Of course it wasn't that simple. Oh boy was I naive. No, it required a whole new headlight assembly, $800 plus labor. Funnily enough, the car got totalled shortly after, before I had decided to go ahead with the repair. Someone hit my SO as she was in a roundabout, and the impact moved the car several meters…

$800 is steep.

I have a 2018 Subaru Outback. I got in a fender bender that caused the right front headlight unit to snap near the top bolt where it attached to the car. I found out when my car failed inspection.

I called the dealership and they quoted me $500 just for the headlamp. I went on rock auto and bought one for $250 and installed it. I had to take the front bumper off the car to install the headlamp. Passed inspection after I installed it though so it was all good. Just can’t believe they were marking up parts like that.

Re: The rise of the disposable car

#210

Post by keyworkorange »

userabchn wrote: post #37
jseliger wrote: post #9

I live in Phoenix and now take Waymo regularly, and it seems like we're close to a world in which most people take self-driving cars most of the time, crash rates plummet, and these kinds of articles come to resemble articles from 1910 about horse-related problems. Humans suck at driving: https://jakeseliger.com/2019/12/16/maybe-cars-are-just-reall...

I wonder what we are going to do with all of the car parking that will become as obsolete as horse stables.

I envision a bunch of those car carousels with charging plugs!

https://www.siemens.com/global/en/company/stories/research-t...

https://www.parkmatic.com/automated/carousel/

Post reply on HN