Today’s vehicles are far too complicated and correspondingly far to unreliable. Just replacing a turn signal is an $800 affair on some vehicles. A fellow can’t change the oil himself on others. Absurd.
The becoming ancient Buick and Cummins we now drive are too complicated and they are closing in on 20 years old but all functions still go. If they still made a Buick Lucerne like the one they quit making and at a similar price I’d buy one today. As for the truck, I have no need for a new one and this one could well be my last.
Parts count matters. I learned that in spades in some of my industrial designs and that goes for electronics too. The more connections you have the more failure points, the more components the more there is to fail. It is inescapable.
I lied a little, the horn contact pad switch on the truck needs to be replaced again. They are an unreliable design.
The more connections you have the more failure points, the more components the more there is to fail. It is inescapable.
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Today’s cars replace cheap reliable mechanical and hydraulic systems with electrical systems. Then they add several layers of intelligent control and error reporting logic circuits. Where there were maybe 5 components to fail now there are at least 100 components to fail..... including the components which exist to detect and report failures.
In the past mechanics were criticized for “unloading the parts canon” to fix a problem. But a few extra parts are cheap compared to a mechanic’s time. The parts were simple, abundant and reliable. That’s all out the proverbial window with today’s cars. If a mechanic can’t zero in on the offending part quickly then the bill becomes outrageous. And that happens regularly with today’s complicated systems.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSvpBQwoP5o
Add that cars are made to be driven by humans. Todays cars have no tactile feedback for drivers from thee steering wheel down to the choice of radio stations.