Today's cars are more appliances, than transportation. No user parts
inside. They, for the most part, all resemble a Toyota Camry, even once
proud brands like you could instantly recognize, like a Chevrolet Impala
have gone over to the "dark side". Is this a good thing? Big brother seem
to be just fine with it. If our socialistic leaning politico's have their
way, we will all be driving plug in, performance limited, cookie cutter,
Frigidaires with wheels, or, better yet, crammed into public transportation
like they do in Japan.
But, there is an up side to all this. Reliability has made some
incredible strides in recent years. 250,000 miles on the clock is not that
uncommon. American cars of the 50's and 60's seldom ran half that distance
before major work was required. Technology exists today to allow big
brother to remotely turn off your car, on bad smog days, or during high
speed chases, etc. Will it come to that? Only if good men sit by and do
nothing to prevent it from happening. (Rant off)
Stay well and healthy out there, life is short, live each day fully.
Jim Hupy
Salem, Oregon
On Wed, Oct 7, 2020, 10:33 PM Vadim Jitkov via Gmclist <
> > This thread seems to have stimulated some interest -- even though we're
> > immune with the GMC. So it was interesting to find
> > in today's Georgia "Farmers and Consumers Market Bulletin" an article on
> > the same topic, regarding tractors. Farmers are facing the same dilemma:
> > They MUST use the manufacturer's technicians and new and used parts on
> > their recent models. Not certain how many companies enforce that policy,
> > but John Deere does, according to the article. State "Right to Repair"
> > laws have so far failed to pass. It's a bad situation when a tractor
> dies
> > in the midst of a harvest and the scarce technicians are already busy --
> > not to mention the uncontrolled expenses.
> >
> > Ken H.
>
> You are correct about impact of this technology on farmers. The
> convenience offered by electronic controls, GPS, speed sensors, etc., is
> invaluable,
> but only as long as everything works. I work in Ag. research, so I
> interact with many farmers throughout the season. Over the years I've run
> into
> several situations, where the farmer was literally stuck in the middle of
> the field with their tractor, unable to continue. In one case this was due
> to some sensor on the tractor stopped working. The tractor went into a
> "limp" mode and would not produce enough power to pull equipment even to the
> edge of the field. The fella went through every step of troubleshooting
> over the phone with the dealer mechanic - check this, check that, restart,
> check, etc. - No luck. They had to borrow a tractor from the neighbor to
> finish work (lucky for them a tractor of similar size was available). At
> the
> same time they had to wait for the dealership mechanic to show up with the
> special diagnostic tools to figure out what is going with their tractor.
>
> This reliance on the stealership mechanics is getting bad enough in
> agriculture that the farmers are not even able to make what used to be a
> simple
> repair/modifications to their machines. Another grower I know, wanted to
> add a front PTO (power take off) to his tractor. Dealership quoted him some
> outrageous amount, so the farmer of course opted to bolt on the unit
> himself. After all, how hard can it be? Well, bolting the unit on was easy,
> as
> well as connecting hydraulic lines to the pump distribution bloc (which
> had provisions for front PTO). Unfortunately, the farmer still had to have
> a
> dealership mechanic come out with his tools (computer) in order to "flip"
> some internal switch in the tractor software so that it "knew" that it now
> has a front PTO drive. I don't know about you, but I would be really
> furious if I had to do this for every repair on the equipment on which my
> livelihood depends.
>
> The standardization of OBD II system in the cars had given tree shade
> mechanics ability to at least access basic to medium level of diagnostic
> information on cars and work on fixing some things. I recall the times
> when I had to pay a shop $70 to just tell me what the DTC code was stored in
> the car computer ($140 if two codes were stored). Talk about the ripoff.
> New advances in computerizing automobiles should come with an ability to
> access that computer diagnostics as well. It seems that right now every
> manufacturer has their own idea of what software to run on cars and that is
> what causes everyone to "hold" their cards close and lock out and hide as
> much as possible. One way to address the "software secrets" is to provide a
> "diagnostics" menu withing their computer systems/software. Something
> that is built into each car (can't be that hard to add few hundred extra
> lines
> of code). Then folks who want to work on their cars, can at least see
> diagnostics information and decide if this is something they are willing to
> work on by themselves or if this is past their abilities. Yes, the 300+
> volt batteries in EVs and hybrids are dangerous, but we are not talking
> about
> sticking a screwdriver between battery cells and wiggling them. We are
> talking about Macintosh vs. PC approach. With one you have a pretty box and
> graphics, but you can't touch or tweak anything. Can't even change a
> battery or keyboard in the laptop. While the other one may be not as shiny
> and
> stylish, but you can add and modify components even if you have just a
> rudimentary computer knowledge. There are people who buy a PC and NEVER
> open
> its cover. They are happy with what they have. Those are the people that
> will take their "wheeled" PC (i.e. their super electronic car) to the
> dealership for diagnostics and repair. When they grow tired of it, or
> want new features, they'll simply trade their car in and upgrade. On the
> other
> hand, there always were and always will be people who buy a new computer
> and as soon as they get home they open it up and start tweaking with the
> internals. Those are the people who would be just as comfortable making
> small tweaks to their car computers (within reason). If you do that, you
> know the risk and you proceed according to your level of knowledge and
> comfort. If we don't have options to do any sort of work on our cars, it
> means
> we don't really own them. We are just parking them temporarily in our
> driveways. Truly owning something means you can tweak it, break it and even
> destroy it (intentionally or unintentionally). You take on responsibility
> of maintaining the thing, as well as any risk associated with modifying it,
> even if it means risking to make something work worse that when it rolled
> off the factory floor. Without those risks, we are just Another Brick In The
> Wall...
>
> P.S. sorry for the long rant. I guess the topic stuck a nerve.
> --
> Vadim Jitkov
> '76 Glenbrook 26'
> Pullman, WA
>
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