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>Because back then a TV cost an arm and a leg and they broke more often. Being maintainable was a requirement for the initial sale. Cars being a significant ex

>Because back then a TV cost an arm and a leg and they broke more often. Being maintainable was a requirement for the initial sale. Cars being a significant expense do not come today with a schematic or repair manual.

kube-system 4y ago
People took their TVs to TV repair shops in the past, as well. Buyers want their durable goods to be durable. They don’t want to spend a significant chunk of their income on a product and be stuck with a broken product next year. Whether that’s a 10 year 100,000 mile warranty, or a schematic you can take to your local TV repair man, they don’t care.
MichaelZuo 4y ago
Cars are a lot cheaper nowadays per feature then 50 years ago. For example just adding air conditioning to a normal family sedan back then would cost the equivalent of $10000 USD nowadays. If your fine with paying $10000 for an air conditioner, $20000 for an electric driver's seat, another $20000 for an electric passenger seat, $10000 for heated seats, $30000 for ventilated seats, etc... then I'm sure manufacturers would be more than willing to supply a transistor level diagram.
culopatin 4y ago
Don’t they? Not in the glovebox, but there are repair manuals for cars that are easily available. I get access to every model’s repair manual with my .edu account. The thing is that having the manual or not is not the problem, is the equipment you’ll need that is hard to get, and not only that, for cars you may only use them once, for that particular car, that particular repair, and it may cost hundreds. Maybe if you keep the car for 15 years and 300k miles you get to use it again. Same with the equipment you need to do circuit repair nowdays. Back in the day the boards were simple, big and you could use a $10 soldering iron to fix things. Now a regular soldering iron tip covers 3 components at a time.
- sircastor 4y ago
  > there are repair manuals for cars that are easily available. Less than they used to be. It feels like the Chilton manuals have dried up for late model vehicles.
  - bombcar 4y ago
    Chilton manuals were great but they got killed by YouTube. Haven’t been able to find anything that doesn’t have someone on YouTube replacing it.
    - kube-system 4y ago
      For late model vehicles, they're also being partially killed by the vehicles themselves being more reliable and with longer warranties.

kube-system 4y ago

People took their TVs to TV repair shops in the past, as well. Buyers want their durable goods to be durable. They don’t want to spend a significant chunk of their income on a product and be stuck with a broken product next year. Whether that’s a 10 year 100,000 mile warranty, or a schematic you can take to your local TV repair man, they don’t care.

MichaelZuo 4y ago

Cars are a lot cheaper nowadays per feature then 50 years ago. For example just adding air conditioning to a normal family sedan back then would cost the equivalent of $10000 USD nowadays. If your fine with paying $10000 for an air conditioner, $20000 for an electric driver's seat, another $20000 for an electric passenger seat, $10000 for heated seats, $30000 for ventilated seats, etc... then I'm sure manufacturers would be more than willing to supply a transistor level diagram.

culopatin 4y ago

Don’t they? Not in the glovebox, but there are repair manuals for cars that are easily available. I get access to every model’s repair manual with my .edu account. The thing is that having the manual or not is not the problem, is the equipment you’ll need that is hard to get, and not only that, for cars you may only use them once, for that particular car, that particular repair, and it may cost hundreds. Maybe if you keep the car for 15 years and 300k miles you get to use it again. Same with the equipment you need to do circuit repair nowdays. Back in the day the boards were simple, big and you could use a $10 soldering iron to fix things. Now a regular soldering iron tip covers 3 components at a time.

sircastor 4y ago
> there are repair manuals for cars that are easily available. Less than they used to be. It feels like the Chilton manuals have dried up for late model vehicles.
- bombcar 4y ago
  Chilton manuals were great but they got killed by YouTube. Haven’t been able to find anything that doesn’t have someone on YouTube replacing it.
  - kube-system 4y ago
    For late model vehicles, they're also being partially killed by the vehicles themselves being more reliable and with longer warranties.