Comments on: IP and Car Repair

By: Oldsmobile car parts

Oldsmobile car parts — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 11:36:31 +0000

our store features various car parts such 620 Pickup air conditioning parts, Quest engine parts, 310 engines, 520 Pickup replacement parts, NX CPE accessories, 280ZX cylinder heads, 280 ZX transmissions, Pickup alloy wheels, universal euro lights, replacement Altra EV headlights, taillights, bumpers, radiators, alternators, starters, a/c condensers, ac compressors, power steering pumps, water pumps, suspensions, alternators, transmission parts, cam followers, carburetors, fuel injectors, brakes, brake discs, spark plugs, mufflers, struts and many more Nissan parts at deep discount.

By: JD

JD — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:10:11 +0000

Mercedes is also doing this, as far as dipsticks. Hey, you are buying into a lifestyle there or a prison sentence. Just know what you’re getting into with the upper echelon makes. The stuff is nice, buy like anything nice, comes with a twist. Some have 7 or more onboard computers. My friend’s wife’s BMW 740il was constantly in the shop with the I-Drive distractions. Thus she went back to a simplier 3 Series. An M3 conv. to be exact. VW are another get it to the dealer make. Once again, just be prepared for inconveinence for service. Not always, but shop carefully if you go foreign.

Foreign cars aren’t the only ones trying to harness a captivated audience for their dealer.

Another thing that is annoying are the govt. mandated tire sensors that alot of times must go back to the dealer for reset. Total joke, and yes they are prone to break, and many times unless you raise cane you are charged $50-70 for a new one.

Its sad, but the best bang for the buck car is American, try Chevrolet Z06 or the regular C6 Vette. Yeah, some of the hyper-cars can beat it, but you won’t have tens of thousands of maint. each year. Light/nimble, naturally aspirated/pushrods (less complexity), good fuel mileage for what it is.

The sad thing is that govt. has ruined automobiles, and all the forced mandates that supposedly usher in progress. Really sad, since I have always been a car nut.

Nothing bothers me more than a cliche uppity, oh don’t want to profile, say (modern leftists) professor driving a hybrid with a smug look on his face, believing he is really found the end all be all. As if he ever spent time around real car people. Yeah sorry, I’m a car snob. Just wanna ask those kinda of academic types if they ever heard of trade-offs in anything you do. Their scientific calculations have skewed towards fashion instead of common sense.

By: mikey

mikey — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 09:18:53 +0000

BMW now sells cars with no engine dipstick. If you want to check the oil you have to go to the dealership.
They hoist the car, drain the oil, measure it, and refill.
Repulsed? Dont buy.

By: matskralc

matskralc — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 07:59:33 +0000

Well, there's always IP and cookie icing designs.

By: Volunatry

Volunatry — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 07:53:07 +0000

I promise to never buy brand new cars again in my life. I will always buy jalopies and soup them up myself.

Car companies can rot in hell. Especially that they are run by the government now.

By: Gernot Hassenpflug

Gernot Hassenpflug — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 02:58:09 +0000

A never-ending war between (control) measures and counter-measures. It’s only a matter of time before entrepreneurs find a loophole, or at least a “crack” invisible to the original makers. Much like software cracking for computers, that for cars no doubt has groups of hackers involved somewhere.
I remember when I owned a car I always bought one with a mechanical carburettor, not one of the electronic types that could only be expensively “serviced”. I also learnt quickly via back-channels about the various cheap parts on electronically-controlled cars that broke often and reaped the service centres massive profits via the “expensive” process of “recalibrating”.

By: Kakugo

Kakugo — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 22:39:10 +0000

Electronics are a great way for manufacturers to force you into using their “approved” dealership network. Take BMW Motorrad (of which I am a customer), a classic case: once the bike hits a certain mileage the on board electronics will warn you service time is approaching. The only way to shut off this warning is to take the bike to a dealer. I’ve heard there’s a third party electronic gadget to interact with the bike’s ECU but 1)I am not very sure about its usefulness 2)it’s over 600â‚¬. And this is just part of the picture.
Older Hondas although still loaded with sophisticated electronics were much easier to work on: fault codes were displayed through a simple warning light (easy to read with a workshop manual), components could be checked using commercially available instruments and resetting the diagnostics was a breeze.
So I am with those who believe all these “warranty issues” are nothing more than an excuse to force you into using approved (and more expensive) workshops.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 16:01:37 +0000

Salesman: It’s a great vehicle. Power everything, cruise control, top of the line stereo and mapping system… everything you need.

Buyer: Is it available in an open-source model?

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 14:15:55 +0000

It appears that this is about the automakers’ unwillingness to provide specialized repair information to third parties in the first place.

If so, what is misleadingly described as an “IP” claim in the article is actually one of privacy and protecting a trade secret (for better or for worse from the customers’ perspective).

By: Jeffrey Tucker

Jeffrey Tucker — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 13:09:43 +0000

That’s right that there is nothing wrong with steering people to a certain service provider. The problem is the IP claim – which means that it introduces coercion into the mix.

By: Stranger

Stranger — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 13:05:21 +0000

I didn’t see anything about being disallowed to fix your car, just that this operation requires very expensive equipment.

By: Havvy

Havvy — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 12:46:35 +0000

You forgot the mentioning of a law made to fix it. I’d love to see how that law will mess up personally. At least this law seems to be a deregulation…

By: nirg

nirg — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 12:19:33 +0000

stranger, its not about whether getting your car fixed here instead of there will void your warranty or not, its about who is legally allowed to fix your car, period.

By: Stranger

Stranger — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 12:06:44 +0000

It’s common for all sorts of products to void the warranty if an unlicensed repairman modifies the mechanics. I don’t see why it would be different for cars.

By: Ken

Ken — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 11:17:01 +0000

Okay, I promise not to buy a car new enough for that to matter, and to fix it myself or take it where I like. Happy now, automakers?