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Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

reuters.com

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Re: Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

#141

Post by megablast »

mrweasel wrote: post #94
kayone wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

most things you mention are mandated by the government, you can't sell a car in any western market without tire pressure monitoring, stability control, back up camera etc. the manufacturers have no choice, it would be like suggesting they sell cars without seatbelts.

I hate tire pressure sensors, they are amazingly flaky and makes you uneasy about driving. That and the stupid alarms in my car that informs me that the temperature is below 4 degrees, it disturbs my driving.

You should be uneasy about driving.

For most people, it’s the most dangerous thing you will do today. If you are going to kill someone, it’s with your car.

Re: Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

#142

Post by codazoda »

kbaker wrote: post #114

One important part of the chip shortage is the massive amount of price gouging going on. Every IC is being bought up by new 3rd party distributors to scalp to desperate electronics manufacturers. Take a look at this chip we are just now crossing as an example, click on 'Non-authorized stocking distributors': https://octopart.com/tps2052bdgnr-texas+instruments-699312?r... Win Source has a bunch, but you will pay 6x th…

I think this would be against the law in the U.S. (although probably hard to prosecute). After looking through a few of these, however, it looks like most of them are in other countries, so different laws apply.

Re: Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

#143

Post by nradov »

markb139 wrote: post #95
WaitWaitWha wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That maybe true, but my anecdotal evidence is the opposite. > cars used to break down much more often and require much more skilled maintenance. My '78 John Deere 4640 (not a car I give you that) if it breaks down, I can fix it. If I cannot I can order the part. If I cannot, I can have the part made within a week. None of that is possible with a 2021 6145M. If it breaks, I have to sit and wait for JD to bless me with…

Indeed. We have an aging Audi that has adaptive cruise control. Recently the radar unit failed. To get it replaced at a dealer will cost about half of what the car is worth.

This is why it's foolish to purchase a German luxury car, either new or used. The electronics aren't designed to last any longer than the warranty. If you really want to drive one then lease, don't buy.

Re: Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

#144

Post by Ekaros »

baybal2 wrote: post #111
redisman wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heck, why not? It’s a market economy and we are a commodity. Why resist your price going up?

It's an ultimate irony to see that 200mm fabs in the West were closed one after another for "low profitability" just to see them missing out on this money volcano

If those fabs where still around probably profitability would be even lower and there wouldn't be so massive profits. Irony is that we haven't been paying some more, to keep slack in supply.

Re: Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

#145

Post by eMSF »

asdff wrote: post #50
usmannk wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't imagine anyone would want the car you described, for market-sized values of "anyone"

Anyone driving a car thats older than 15 years old is already driving the car that OP is describing.

Is a typical new car buyer currently driving a 15-year-old car?

You could say that's plausible. In a way it even makes sense, that people buy cars and then drive them for as long as they reasonably last. But if you had to, would you guess that this is how the market operates?

Re: Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

#146

Post by Ekaros »

asdff wrote: post #42
slownews45 wrote: post #7

Man - the magnitude / impact of these chips shortages on autos in particular is crazy. Regardless of Opel popularity, in the US the F-150 was a best selling vehicle and massive cash cow and they had unfinished vehicles sitting out. These chips have GOT to be a relatively low margin / somewhat lower cost item (ie, feature size can be large). What a miss not to have more coverage for them.

Auto makers should just buy back leased cars from dealerships and harvest the chips. These are cars after all, so the chipsets have probably been the same underpowered crapware for the last ten years.

Would this actually ever make any sense? Not counting totalled vehicles. There really isn't so much profit in new cars price that it pays for used car fully. Unless that used car is really heavily used. Which then leads to questions of how much lifetime left the parts have.

Re: Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

#147

Post by isoprophlex »

whiteboardr wrote: post #4

@kliment summarized the why pretty well: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26931498 Curious if this is true for all manufacturers.

What an amazing comment; penetrating insight clearly communicated. Thanks for sharing.

Re: Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

#148

Post by tschwimmer »

emidln wrote: post #69
_moof wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I'm not sure what kinds of pressure sensors cars use, but I can tell you the ones I need have been impossible to source for months.

TPMS works by calculating the RPM of the wheel and knowing the tire size and vehicle speed. Most TPMS setups don't know the actual pressure, they infer it.

This is true of cheaper cars, like my Honda. German cars like Audis and Porsches have direct TPMS that can actually tell you the exact tire pressure.

Re: Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

#149

Post by oblio »

88840-8855 wrote: post #131
oblio wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First of all, your original comment was this: > I try to simplify the root cause like this: > - people kept getting money while not working > - those people did not work, hence, no goods were produced > Same amount of money without the goods in the market. Inflation and good shortages. I believe that those government helicopter money was a huge mistake. It would have been better to lay off people; many have money sav…

I think you are wrong.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58230388

Re: Chip shortage leads carmaker Opel to shut German plant until 2022

#150

Post by blackguardx »

minhazm wrote: post #136

Tesla has done a decent job of mitigating some of the chip shortages since they are so vertically integrated. Though obviously Tesla produces way less cars than Toyota/Honda/VW. But other manufacturers simply can't do this even if they wanted to since they outsource most of this stuff. > “We were able to substitute alternative chips, and then write the firmware in a matter of weeks,” Musk said. “It’s not just a matte…

They also just completely dropped a feature - radar - because they couldn't get parts for it. I'm not sure other manufacturers would be able to do that either due to internal processes or being able to risk their reputation.
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