The discerning DIYer will be well advised to look for such tools in chinese e-marketplaces before paying BMW outrageous "free-market tax" for them.
BMW Patents Proprietary Screws That Only Dealerships Can Remove
61–70 of 125 posts
Re: BMW Patents Proprietary Screws That Only Dealerships Can Remove
#62The solution is simple: just stop buying BMW.
It's like they don't understand that making life difficult for owners isn't good for business long term. People put up with it for Apple, but BMW isn't Apple. I wouldn't go without an iPhone but swapping a BMW for an Audi or Tesla is no problem.
>People put up with it for Apple, but BMW isn't Apple.
Actually, for making devices I wanted to own and operate, BMW actually has been Apple, and Apple has never been an Apple up with which I will put. But when I test drove new BMWs 3 or 4 years ago, they weren't Apples any more. So I bought a Porsche Apple.
this feature I like in a car is being able to feel the road and the inertia of the car through handling the steering wheel. Too much power-steering or suspension isolation (or something) and it feels like you're driving a marshmallow. Apple computers have similar qualities on many dimensions actually. "hey look, you can cook a marshmallow on a stick and you can even eat it off the stick, let's make the UX be one stick!" "just one stick?" "yes, just ̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶t̶o̶n̶ ̶m̶o̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶m̶e̶n̶u̶ ̶b̶a̶r̶ one stick!"... "hey look, Steve Narcisstick, you can even poke the mouse the one stick!" "no, I spell my name Narcissdick")
Re: BMW Patents Proprietary Screws That Only Dealerships Can Remove
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
All of that will be accessible for third parties, because afaik it has to be in the EU. The cost is a different question, but I think that's not a surprise for BMW customers.
I don't see how "oh third parties can get a bit for it" is really an acceptable answer. Lightning cables are readily available but that wasn't consumer-friendly enough for the EU. I think the parent is right, let Ford try this and see how quickly the EU goes after them, because this is quite frankly very anti-consumer.
That is a different legislation.
Ford in the EU is a european car manufacturer with around 100 years of history, so yeah, I think the answer will be the same as for BMW. And sure, car makers have special status - they have just recently secured a huge win in reducing the scope of emmission-related fines, which will now be charged from 10g/km instead of 0g/km from 2035. But this too applies to every manufacturer.
Re: BMW Patents Proprietary Screws That Only Dealerships Can Remove
#64That already is old news, lots of manufacturers do that. For example, the Passat 3B and later platforms introduced proprietary screws for the wheels and brakes, so you weren't able to change them yourself. Same for all kinds of sensors that will go rogue when the car is turned off and you change a sensor on the engine. All firmware gradually was modified each generation to allow less modifications and less self repai…
> really frustrating that there is no legislative intervention against this.
Ironically, things are like that in a big part because of legislative and regulatory intervention.
> They made the camshaft structurally weaker, so the engine will blow up more easily. The rest of the engine is almost identical. Talk about being bad at hiding planned obsolescence.
A lot of such things are just workarounds to reduce weight and meet tightening emission standards.
Every thing that can be built with less metal, thinner walls, lighter metals will be built like that when every gram matters.
Tighter tolerances, increased pressures, increased temperatures, higher rotational speeds. All of this leads to increased efficiency, but sometimes (not always) the trade-off will be decreased reliability.
Re: BMW Patents Proprietary Screws That Only Dealerships Can Remove
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Guess eventually people will buy the cheapest car It looks like lots of people choose to lease very expensive cars, and give them back after 3 years for a new one, dropping a obsolescence time-bomb onto the second-hand market and providing a strong signal to manufacturers that there is a substantial maintainability-insensitive market segment. I am still surprised that no manufacturer has a balls-out "buy our cars,…
I also advised some Chinese manufacturers to produce cheap, dummy home appliances and then sell to the Western market with a bit of mark-up, as more people are fed up with the smart ones. Not sure anyone is going to try though. Looks like everyone is in the data business.
China already competes in that market in the USA with Haier.
Re: BMW Patents Proprietary Screws That Only Dealerships Can Remove
#66That already is old news, lots of manufacturers do that. For example, the Passat 3B and later platforms introduced proprietary screws for the wheels and brakes, so you weren't able to change them yourself. Same for all kinds of sensors that will go rogue when the car is turned off and you change a sensor on the engine. All firmware gradually was modified each generation to allow less modifications and less self repai…
>What do you think happened with the Golf 3 engine design? They made the camshaft structurally weaker, so the engine will blow up more easily. Wow, talk about an oversimplification. The Mk3 moved from an 8-valve to a 16-valve engine; yes, this adds more valvetrain failure modes but also brings myriad other benefits, increased power, better fuel economy, reduced emissions… The idea that a carmaker would purposely engi…
> The idea that a carmaker would purposely engineer flaws into core engine components in order to drive future sales doesn’t make much sense.
There is a legend that Mercedes 190D was built like a tank and this caused customers to not buy the next iteration. Mercedes solved this, making cars a bit unreliable.
Re: BMW Patents Proprietary Screws That Only Dealerships Can Remove
#67That already is old news, lots of manufacturers do that. For example, the Passat 3B and later platforms introduced proprietary screws for the wheels and brakes, so you weren't able to change them yourself. Same for all kinds of sensors that will go rogue when the car is turned off and you change a sensor on the engine. All firmware gradually was modified each generation to allow less modifications and less self repai…
Any workshop can command WV screwdrivers, at least in the EU. I think the new regulation is that if you don't have the piece, or the tools necessary to replace the piece, you have to produce the plans on how to do it.
I know someone who had an issue with his old WV Kombi, and thought it would be the last drive (Around 2020-2021). He found an auto shop who could manufacture pieces and replaced every single malfunctioning pieces from plans they got directly from WV.
Re: BMW Patents Proprietary Screws That Only Dealerships Can Remove
#68That already is old news, lots of manufacturers do that. For example, the Passat 3B and later platforms introduced proprietary screws for the wheels and brakes, so you weren't able to change them yourself. Same for all kinds of sensors that will go rogue when the car is turned off and you change a sensor on the engine. All firmware gradually was modified each generation to allow less modifications and less self repai…
Guess eventually people will buy the cheapest cars and treat it as a consumer product that breaks down every few years, like a laptop. Or simply find a remote job and rent a car. Welcome to the Dystopian world.
70's American cars were not very far from this. The competition from Japanese manufacturers really helped to improve this.
And ironically, the reason why Japan invested so heavily in high quality was to overcome their former image of low quality products that severely hampered their ability to sell to international markets.
I am not a libertarian that holds a religious belief on the infallibility of the market, but a lot of times, the market gave us better outcomes than any regulation.
Re: BMW Patents Proprietary Screws That Only Dealerships Can Remove
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Guess eventually people will buy the cheapest car It looks like lots of people choose to lease very expensive cars, and give them back after 3 years for a new one, dropping a obsolescence time-bomb onto the second-hand market and providing a strong signal to manufacturers that there is a substantial maintainability-insensitive market segment. I am still surprised that no manufacturer has a balls-out "buy our cars,…
I also advised some Chinese manufacturers to produce cheap, dummy home appliances and then sell to the Western market with a bit of mark-up, as more people are fed up with the smart ones. Not sure anyone is going to try though. Looks like everyone is in the data business.
Electronics are cheaper than high quality electromechanical stuff, and allow you to give any product a veneer of sophistication and modernity that the modern consumer still perceives as being a sign of higher quality.
Our love of blinken-lights will be our downfall.
Re: BMW Patents Proprietary Screws That Only Dealerships Can Remove
#70Chinese manufacturers: hundred of different companies competing in the free market with a relaxed attitude to intellectual property, producing extremely cheap customer friendly vehicles. This system is called "communism".
Western manufacturers: increasing lock-in to preserve revenues of middlemen