Featured The Reality Of Modern Car Repair is an Expensive One....

I wasn't aware BEVs had "large open lower grille area"s. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure mine doesn't

 

Absolutely. But they generally don’t have “large open grill area”s. I thought it chuckle worthy that you warned people to especially watch out for that for BEVs.

 

toyota is notorius for unprotected frontal components. my bolt is completely protected from road debris

 

Behind the front bumper plastic is moderately open like a balloon, launched a bear with my volt and things were pretty empty down below.

Stupid design honestly and stupid expensive

 

Not that I've ever been a big aerodynamics follower of sorts, but at the ( 29:39 / 1779 sec ) timestamp in the video the thought at the moment was that aero wasn't a big design consideration for highlander..

I've always thought that wind turbines behind cowl induction fluid aero would be a nice touch for regen, especially at hwy speed.
But, I've also read many slightly aggressive responses about how stupid it would be to use wind for regen.
Maybe those who think that way are right, and tuning aero though regen turbines doesn't make any sense eco nomically. Especially if / when it breaks !
Especially since from what I've observed while watching regen in 2 hybrids is that it provides at best around 1/4 as much energy in as it takes to go the same distance and / or opposite elevation change ( climbing up in EV compared to regen gained going down ) Still a wind based Charge mode of sorts has always intrigued me.

 

I buy base model cars and trucks because there are fewer things to go awry even without a collision.
Cars are expensive enough without being up-optioned.

Even bottom feeders in the Versa/Mirage/Forte class of cars will walk away from the better part of $25K after all of the mandatory add-ons.
Higher interest rates, maintenance, fuel costs, and hideously high insurance and taxes only add to the fun.

 

The cost of repairing anything today is outrageous

 

.... because that never happens to quarter century old vehicles. Best to get out a little more frequently



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With many brands, it does seem at times that car longevity peaked in the 1980's before computer simulated wear and tear could be used to determine the cheapest materials and processes for each part. Fast-forward to today, and now all car manufacturers simulate the longevity of their parts in order to make the cheapest possible that last "just long enough."

On the one side, this should mean we should be able to get very cheap parts. They were designed to be as cheap as possible and still be good. But it seems like those savings aren't passed along to the customer. It seems that with more stringent safety and emissions standards, modern day cars are usually only somewhat cheaper or around the same price as the same cars from decades ago (if you take in account inflation. Note that the same models are usually bigger too, so bigger and cheaper), so the result is that manufacturers have to make more profits somehow. (And add to that that shareholders want a return on their investment too.)

However, when it comes to longevity and repairability, things don't always go as one would hope. I've seen a few vehicles barely make it past the warranty period and suddenly need a thousands of dollar repair. An example, I've personally known three Ford Escapes owners that have ended up needing transmissions with quotes from $7,000 to $9,000, all within 70k to 90k miles on their Escapes. One buddy of mine had his Escape for only 3 months, and didn't even take it out of town the whole time, and still ended up with a dead transmission, a $9,000 out-of-warranty quote, and several months waiting for the re-manufactured transmission to come in and be installed.

Another example is my Avalon. The infotainment system went out. I'm not exactly sure how much it cost to get it repaired, but I'm pretty sure it was in the several hundreds of dollars. Then a couple years later the infotainment system went out again.The car was only 5 years old at the time. I've decided to just live with it, I'm getting the stupid infotainment system repaired for hundreds of dollars every couple of years. I really wished there were a way I could fix it myself, but so far I can't find any info on how to do it.

 

The “infotainment system” (touch screen for oven) on out previous electric range went out, basically bricking the oven. Replacement of that component , with labour, rivalled the cost of replacement of the full range, so we went that route.

Our new one has thinner sheet metal, smaller pots/pan drawer, one-instead-of-two electrical outlets. Its infotainment system crapped out, soon enough, but this time I researched the replacement part. Replacement part was partially defective, but I managed to cobble a combo of old and new and got it working. The payoff: parts supplier acknowledged the defective component, refunded full price. So stove fixed for free.

but yeah, everything’s planned obsolescence now, cars becoming like Bic lighters.

 

and...

many cope by teaching themselves how to work on cars and do their repair themselves -barely uttering a whine in the whole process.

this forum is full of such people.

many entries on ebay for Toyota Techstream - the software technicians use- for under $20.

 

I do not know. South Main Auto guy is not prone to whimper, stoically repairing the full spectrum of the automotive industry, everything from deep-dive mechanical to maddening electronics. In upstate New York rust belt.

in a recent video: some component needed replacement, manufacturer doesn’t make them anymore, he can gamble on salvage, but: it has to have the car’s VIN entered into it. This required multi-hundred dollar subscription to the manufacturers software, which he did, and damn thing STILL didn’t take. He eventually elected to mail it to a “guy”, who’s able to hack the firmware. He shared an aside: basically these cars are never going to be in classic car shows; that era is over.

 

Mendel I was mainly responding to the poor me victim mentality of post #12. I believe they were referencing an older Avalon.
I now own a 2019 KIA and 2020 Santa Fe and i do understand that some newer modern cars do have a challenge if there is a software issue.
Also consumers now days are demanding so many different customizable options (especially on entertainment systems) the manufacturers only option is to make the car programable and this does add complexity so I agree with you!

Here is a job I recently completed on our oven - it was a whirlpool and took some work but the used part cost me $20 on ebay(it was used but returnable and guaranteed to work - for what that is worth) - I put it in myself- it was a little challenging

 

When the CD player in my 2004 Prius broke, I replaced it with a salvaged one which broke in the same way soon after, There was a design/manufacturing defect in the OE CD mechanism. The solution was to install a third party stereo. You could do the same at any good car stereo shop for about the cost of a repair and not staying stuck in the failure cycle.

JeffD

 

Sounds like you took the bull by the horns and made your problem disappear with good old-fashioned ingenuity and diyer know how!

On our 2008 Prius when the brake actuator gave up the ghost with much trepidation bit the bullet and replaced the brake actuator and resister myself than recalibrated and bled the brake system - was nervous the whole time on the repair but am glad I tried it and did it myself.

...and of course many people's talents come in many different forms and mechanical/electrical repairs may not be their cup of tea but they probably have a talent equally if not more valuable in other areas of life.

 

Yea ... we 'had' a stock Jensen combination satellite receiver / GPS / stereo unit. With several roads showing non-existent, we bought a map upgrade from them for well over $100. Roads over 8 years old still didn't show up. Thank you Jensen for your sucky worthless upgrades & absolutely non existent human product support. Contrast that against Google updates & the housing that contain them.
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Another tact is to let some of the “froth” fall by the wayside. Vacuum cleaner power switch crapped out: just bypass, vacuum turns on when you plug it in.