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Used cars retain designs and features more coveted than their replacements

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

#41

Post by bell-cot »

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.

$3k-$4k cars, or enclosed golf carts?

In the first world, I'd say:

- the usual Big Government stuff (industry-specific regulatory, bureaucratic, & legal moats)

- brutal economies of scale for highly complex large manufactured goods

- public-good-doesn't-count-for-shit capitalism

That last one is especially brutal. If you could make $20K by selling one $80k SUV, vs. $20K by selling 100 $3k cars (each with a $200 profit) - then it's damned obvious which way you'd want to go. From marketing, to staffing your showrooms, to sales paperwork, to customer complaints, to the long-term legal and forced-recall liabilities - trying to sell the 100 affordable little cars is a 100X worse choice for you.

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

#42

Post by stock_toaster »

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 wish there were some domestic manufacturers of Kei type cars[1] and, even more so, trucks[2] here in the US (or that it was cheaper and easier to import and license).

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kei_car

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kei_truck

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

#43

Post by DavidPiper »

crazygringo wrote: post #20
dexwiz wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It's also extremely forgiving though.

You can ignore everything and just throw things in a cold wash with a little bit of detergent and then hang them out to dry. Things will probably be fine.

Separating whites (if your clothes are particularly prone to running colour) is a mistake you only make once.

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

#44

Post by danesparza »

pkulak wrote: post #33
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…

This is it, and it's probably mostly about CarPlay/Android Auto. You can find 10-year-old cars with CarPlay these days. The cars are old, but guess what, once you plug in your phone, your interface is the latest iOS, same as any other car.

You can also easily put in an aftermarket Carplay stereo and solve that problem in an older car pretty quickly.

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

#45

Post by m463 »

drewcoo wrote: post #21
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. Currently, I have to set a timer on my phone to go check the washer and dryer because my laundry is in the basement and I'm probably on the 2nd floor or outside. I would love it if these things would run on my network with simple, published APIs exposed to tell me status so that I could know that I could have automated alerting and know that they wouldn't fail in the future wh…

I wish everything was like that.

but manufacturers want data, they want a post sales "relationship".

I think only legislation can fix this.

or maybe some elon musk type who makes more open cars, appliances, etc.

with trust, trade is unfettered.

see how people talk about brother laser printers that are trustworthy.

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

#46

Post by invalidator »

drewcoo wrote: post #21
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. Currently, I have to set a timer on my phone to go check the washer and dryer because my laundry is in the basement and I'm probably on the 2nd floor or outside. I would love it if these things would run on my network with simple, published APIs exposed to tell me status so that I could know that I could have automated alerting and know that they wouldn't fail in the future wh…

You can! Get an energy-monitoring smart plug[1]. Set it up on Home Assistant[2] or another smart-stuff system. Then create an Automation which sends an alert when it drops below 25 watts for 3 minutes.

It's all-local, and requires no integration with the washer. 220V dryers may be a little trickier, but still easy enough if you're comfortable with basic electrical stuff. You can put a sensor on an indicator light, or put a current clamp on one of the wires. Usually you only care when the washer is done though, so you can move your clothes over.

[1] I use https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BPY5D1KC for Zigbee, but there are WiFi/Z-wave/other options.

[2] https://www.home-assistant.io/

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

#47

Post by bondarchuk »

crazygringo wrote: post #20
dexwiz wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Hacker news, creme de la creme of technologists, don't know how to do laundry. What a joke. It must be some kind of class signal: I don't have to know how to do laundry.

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

#48

Post by JumpCrisscross »

bondarchuk wrote: post #47
crazygringo wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Hacker news, creme de la creme of technologists, don't know how to do laundry. What a joke. It must be some kind of class signal: I don't have to know how to do laundry.

> I don't have to know how to do laundry.

I don’t, not anymore. But even when I could jot afford to outsource the task, I hated it and literally changed my closet to optimise my time at the task.

I’d venture that most people have a chore they hate, and that they trade off elsewhere to minimise. (Common one being cooking.)

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

#49

Post by tomxor »

igor47 wrote: post #2

I bought an EV, so I'm part of the problem. I hate that it's basically a rack of servers on wheels that I don't have root on, and which track my every move.

The neat classic car conversion kits embody what it could be like, an EV drive train without the fully integrated smart infotainment nightmare world that feels like it might randomly try to force feed you peanuts with an articulated arm at any moment while you try to recall where in the touch screen menu hierarchy the AC controls are located - I digress. Unfortunately they are also prohibitively expensive to be of any practical use to ordinary people.

I think there are cheaper EVs that don't have so much crap in them, but they unfortunately also tend to have terrible batteries. I suppose that is the reason they are strongly correlated, only the expensive EVs have decent batteries and just like most new expensive ICE cars they tend to be chocked full of the worst and most and complex technology.

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

#50

Post by amarant »

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…

Why would a top loaded washing machine be better? They use more water than frontloaders, and in my experience they don't clean any better..

Do they cause less wear on your clothes or something?

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