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Used cars retain designs and features more coveted than their replacements

wsj.com

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Re: Used cars retain designs and features more coveted than their replacements

#11

Post by dexwiz »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #5
Supermancho wrote: post #4

If you had to buy a clothes washer recently, top load is better than side load, agitator is better than no agitator, analog buttons or dial is a plus, et al. Old is better than new. The rude design choices have compounded. Nobody needs an app to know what cycle their washer is at. Anyone using a washer, listens for it. When your display goes out, all the functionality is gone. It's just mind boggling. The 2024 Hyunda…

> Anyone using a washer, listens for it I hate laundry. I still have no idea how to do it; I referred to detergent as laundry sauce a few years ago after forgetting the word. (Thank you, subconscious of mine.) The new machines with screens are a nuisance. Apparently to you, somebody competent. But also to those of us for whom listening to one’s washing machine sounds like advice from a laundry Lorax.

Laundry is not hard. Go watch a YouTube video. When it doubt, sort by color and size, wash on cold, hang dry. Heat can keep things white or dry things faster, but has higher potential to damage clothes.

All mass produced clothes of any value have a care tag that at least has symbols, if not outright written Instructions.

EDIT: Reading your bio makes me think of someone who has probably never had to do their own laundry.

Re: Used cars retain designs and features more coveted than their replacements

#12

Post by JadeNB »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #5
Supermancho wrote: post #4

If you had to buy a clothes washer recently, top load is better than side load, agitator is better than no agitator, analog buttons or dial is a plus, et al. Old is better than new. The rude design choices have compounded. Nobody needs an app to know what cycle their washer is at. Anyone using a washer, listens for it. When your display goes out, all the functionality is gone. It's just mind boggling. The 2024 Hyunda…

> Anyone using a washer, listens for it I hate laundry. I still have no idea how to do it; I referred to detergent as laundry sauce a few years ago after forgetting the word. (Thank you, subconscious of mine.) The new machines with screens are a nuisance. Apparently to you, somebody competent. But also to those of us for whom listening to one’s washing machine sounds like advice from a laundry Lorax.

> The new machines with screens are terrible. Apparently to you. But also to those of us who have no idea what you’re talking about with this Lorax for the laundry talk.

I think it's just a simple statement that, for example, an app that proudly offers to tell you when your drying is done is really offering no service, since you can just hear from the fact that the dryer's not running that it's done—not that we're performing some delicate sound-based diagnosis.

(That's, of course, presumably referring to people with in-unit dryers; I can imagine this being a useful service if one were using shared units, say in a common room in an apartment complex, or in a laundromat. But that's assuming that the app is intended actually to do its advertised job rather than to provide a vector for manufacturers to shoehorn in some other unwanted behavior, which is an assumption decidedly in need of supporting evidence.)

Re: Used cars retain designs and features more coveted than their replacements

#14

Post by hi-v-rocknroll »

Baeocystin wrote: post #8

I love my '98 Jeep Grand Cherokee for everything but the gas mileage. I especially love that everything is under direct button and dial control, and yet somehow its interior doesn't look like that of a 747. If a 26-year-old car can do it, so can modern ones.

My '85 VW Vanagon/Transporter Westfalia with 80 hp has direct port fuel injection and gets ~25 mpg. I rarely drive it because EVs are so much damn cheaper and less maintenance.

Re: Used cars retain designs and features more coveted than their replacements

#15

Post by codedokode »

Panzer04 wrote: post #7

Are these really the problem? I feel like new cars are obscenely expensive right now. Even a basic car can easily run you 30-40k, the same thing a few years used will be The difference between a brand new car and a 10 year old car is almost nil in terms of featureset nowadays (if anything, you get more because you can buy a higher end older model for less), every car has all the basics. Cars just got so good over the…

Why there are no $3k-$4k cars? I am sure most people need cheaper cars, not electric cars, or AI cars, or cars with mobile app and telemetry. Those are toys for the rich.

Re: Used cars retain designs and features more coveted than their replacements

#16

Post by xhevahir »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #5
Supermancho wrote: post #4

If you had to buy a clothes washer recently, top load is better than side load, agitator is better than no agitator, analog buttons or dial is a plus, et al. Old is better than new. The rude design choices have compounded. Nobody needs an app to know what cycle their washer is at. Anyone using a washer, listens for it. When your display goes out, all the functionality is gone. It's just mind boggling. The 2024 Hyunda…

> Anyone using a washer, listens for it I hate laundry. I still have no idea how to do it; I referred to detergent as laundry sauce a few years ago after forgetting the word. (Thank you, subconscious of mine.) The new machines with screens are a nuisance. Apparently to you, somebody competent. But also to those of us for whom listening to one’s washing machine sounds like advice from a laundry Lorax.

While I greatly appreciate the coinage "laundry sauce" I think the great majority of people know how to do this stuff and it's not hard to find out how.

Re: Used cars retain designs and features more coveted than their replacements

#17

Post by amelius »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #5
Supermancho wrote: post #4

If you had to buy a clothes washer recently, top load is better than side load, agitator is better than no agitator, analog buttons or dial is a plus, et al. Old is better than new. The rude design choices have compounded. Nobody needs an app to know what cycle their washer is at. Anyone using a washer, listens for it. When your display goes out, all the functionality is gone. It's just mind boggling. The 2024 Hyunda…

> Anyone using a washer, listens for it I hate laundry. I still have no idea how to do it; I referred to detergent as laundry sauce a few years ago after forgetting the word. (Thank you, subconscious of mine.) The new machines with screens are a nuisance. Apparently to you, somebody competent. But also to those of us for whom listening to one’s washing machine sounds like advice from a laundry Lorax.

Doing laundry is of about the same complexity as boiling an egg.

Re: Used cars retain designs and features more coveted than their replacements

#18

Post by johnea »

codedokode wrote: post #15
Panzer04 wrote: post #7

Are these really the problem? I feel like new cars are obscenely expensive right now. Even a basic car can easily run you 30-40k, the same thing a few years used will be The difference between a brand new car and a 10 year old car is almost nil in terms of featureset nowadays (if anything, you get more because you can buy a higher end older model for less), every car has all the basics. Cars just got so good over the…

Why there are no $3k-$4k cars? I am sure most people need cheaper cars, not electric cars, or AI cars, or cars with mobile app and telemetry. Those are toys for the rich.

I'd like a $4K electric car

Re: Used cars retain designs and features more coveted than their replacements

#19

Post by shrimp_emoji »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #5
Supermancho wrote: post #4

If you had to buy a clothes washer recently, top load is better than side load, agitator is better than no agitator, analog buttons or dial is a plus, et al. Old is better than new. The rude design choices have compounded. Nobody needs an app to know what cycle their washer is at. Anyone using a washer, listens for it. When your display goes out, all the functionality is gone. It's just mind boggling. The 2024 Hyunda…

> Anyone using a washer, listens for it I hate laundry. I still have no idea how to do it; I referred to detergent as laundry sauce a few years ago after forgetting the word. (Thank you, subconscious of mine.) The new machines with screens are a nuisance. Apparently to you, somebody competent. But also to those of us for whom listening to one’s washing machine sounds like advice from a laundry Lorax.

This is like that chess grandmaster who didn't know how to operate an oven. I hope you're good at chess.

Re: Used cars retain designs and features more coveted than their replacements

#20

Post by crazygringo »

dexwiz wrote: post #11
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Anyone using a washer, listens for it I hate laundry. I still have no idea how to do it; I referred to detergent as laundry sauce a few years ago after forgetting the word. (Thank you, subconscious of mine.) The new machines with screens are a nuisance. Apparently to you, somebody competent. But also to those of us for whom listening to one’s washing machine sounds like advice from a laundry Lorax.

Laundry is not hard. Go watch a YouTube video. When it doubt, sort by color and size, wash on cold, hang dry. Heat can keep things white or dry things faster, but has higher potential to damage clothes. All mass produced clothes of any value have a care tag that at least has symbols, if not outright written Instructions. EDIT: Reading your bio makes me think of someone who has probably never had to do their own laund…

I'm an expert at doing my laundry but boy it is hard.

Remembering which clothes I need to wash cold and hang-dry to prevent shrinkage vs. which can be washed warm and dried in the dryer.

Enough detergent that it cleans effectively but not too much that it leaves an irritating layer on your clothes -- obviously the detergent companies are trying to fool you into using too much so that you buy more. Learning to use the "+1 rinse cycle" button to fully get rid of the detergent residue.

Learning not to use fabric softener or dryer sheets. Learning that fragrance-free detergent is an option so your clothes don't smell like a horrid cheap air freshener. Learning how to use bleach and which kind (there are many formulations!) and in which part of the cycle and how much to keep your whites, well, actually white. But not so much it unnecessarily damages them.

Or using a laundry loop to ensure you identify all your white cotton t-shirts that you want to wash and bleach together with your white socks washcloths etc., but then separate so you hang-dry the tees so they don't shrink, without accidentally leaving any in the dryer with your socks etc. and ruining them.

Learning that you should unbutton your shirts so the buttons don't get pulled off, but zip up all zippers so the teeth don't produce wear and tear catching on other garments. Learning to turn certain pants and other items inside out when washing and drying to lengthen their life, learning to throw in a couple of tennis balls when drying something bulky, and so forth. Or learning to check my dryer every 15 minutes in case my duvet cover has decided to twist itself into a kind of rope, where it turns into this weird boa constrictor that's eaten 3 of my pillowcases that will never every dry until I untwist it and remove them.

It's seriously actually kind of shockingly complicated.

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