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The main goal of the car industry (actually almost every industry, but car is one of the most expensive things people buy in their life, with the biggest impact

The main goal of the car industry (actually almost every industry, but car is one of the most expensive things people buy in their life, with the biggest impact on environment) is to make people buy new car every few years, even if the old one is perfectly fine - they want you to feel like you're missing something in life by driving the "old model". I'm probably biased, because I drive a 1998 Mercedes, but I could easily afford a brand new one, yet I can't find a reason good enough to justify this - sure, it would be nice to have the interior in perfect condition, made from better materials, but everything else is just a gimmick. My car has 200kkm on the clock and is absolutely reliable, cheap to maintain, comfortable, safe and a blast to drive. If people would choose quality cars and drive them until they fall apart, there would be 10x less cars produced each year.

elihu 10y ago
I drive a 1996 Civic and feel about the same way. I'll get a new car eventually (and getting an electric does sound awfully appealing, once they start selling models with good range for a reasonable price), but a lot of modern "features" like over-the-air updates seem awfully big-brotherish to me. One of the things I like about my current car is that it can't be remotely bricked by the manufacturer, it doesn't have any built-in location tracking hardware, there's no way to wirelessly access any of the critical electronic components, and no need to apply security patches. It's hard to think of modern cars as anything other than a rolling malware vector. Some of these cars will be on the road for thirty or forty years. What happens when the manufacturer stops patching their bugs after three or ten or twenty years?
Retric 10y ago
Accidents remove a lot of cars every year. Other than that, I think self driving cars are going to push a few rounds of upgrades. Also, safety is still improving fairly rapidly so keeping a 20 year old car is probably a poor tradeoff.

elihu 10y ago

I drive a 1996 Civic and feel about the same way. I'll get a new car eventually (and getting an electric does sound awfully appealing, once they start selling models with good range for a reasonable price), but a lot of modern "features" like over-the-air updates seem awfully big-brotherish to me. One of the things I like about my current car is that it can't be remotely bricked by the manufacturer, it doesn't have any built-in location tracking hardware, there's no way to wirelessly access any of the critical electronic components, and no need to apply security patches. It's hard to think of modern cars as anything other than a rolling malware vector. Some of these cars will be on the road for thirty or forty years. What happens when the manufacturer stops patching their bugs after three or ten or twenty years?

Retric 10y ago

Accidents remove a lot of cars every year. Other than that, I think self driving cars are going to push a few rounds of upgrades. Also, safety is still improving fairly rapidly so keeping a 20 year old car is probably a poor tradeoff.