The future of electric vehicle maintenance

[Ubique]

That's a 'Tom Jones' job across most brands since 2012-ish

 

[daleyd]

 

[Monkey Harris]

They do have a "one life" feel about them - none of them look like they can be repaired for "second life"...

I drove a high spec BYD last week - super thing to drive - really was - but I don't wanna own/repair one for sure....

Hearing of Chinese cars breaking down early.. No parts available..

 

[dobbslc]

It insanity and our own government are pushing no forcing us into this kind of financial death spiral.

 

[brightspark]

It's unfit for purpose,give it back to them.

even if its still in the showroom there not fit for purpose buy one and try trading it in to the garage you bought it off to get a diesel and its price has halved and they still dont want it back as they have allready got new stock at the back that they cant move on

 

[rtcosic]

Quoted from today's business news...

When Doug Fawcett took his four-year-old Land Rover Defender in for a new bulb at his local dealership last August, he did not expect to pay more than £20. He chuckled when the mechanic said the actual cost was £2,629.30, assuming it was a joke.

But the mechanic was deadly serious – and Doug's case is not just a one-off.

Many modern vehicles now require you to replace entire light fittings and remove bodywork, such as bumpers, just to get to them. This can leave customers with garage bills that stretch to hundreds, or occasionally thousands, of pounds.

It is a far cry from a time when all you needed was a practical approach, a screwdriver and a bulb costing just a few pounds.

Doug, 81, a retired cosmetics company owner from Walton-on-Thames in Surrey, says: 'I went down to the local Halfords to get the lightbulb changed, but they said it was a specialist job that my dealership would have to sort out.'

He went to the dealership in nearby Sunbury-on-Thames. The cost was £292.50 for the work to replace the fitting plus £1,898.58 for the new unit – then the VAT.

It gets better.
No2 son is in lighting for JLR and just last night we were chatting about forthcoming new models.

The LED headlight assembly is not just a 'sealed' item complete with integrated self-levelling features, but like windscreens, is now a structural component.

If the stylists and marketers want to make the usual annual model year changes to lighting, the whole car now has to undergo crash testing.

The stylists and marketers haven't grasped this yet, nor the insurance implications of minor crash vulnerable items like headlights costing so much.

He did tell me the cost to JLR of the headlights for a forthcoming full fat Range Rover. They do many very clever things and are relatively small production volumes, so over £2k each - to JLR.

 

[addjunkie]

It gets better.
No2 son is in lighting for JLR and just last night we were chatting about forthcoming new models.

The LED headlight assembly is not just a 'sealed' item complete with integrated self-levelling features, but like windscreens, is now a structural component.

If the stylists and marketers want to make the usual annual model year changes to lighting, the whole car now has to undergo crash testing.

The stylists and marketers haven't grasped this yet, nor the insurance implications of minor crash vulnerable items like headlights costing so much.

He did tell me the cost to JLR of the headlights for a forthcoming full fat Range Rover. They do many very clever things and are relatively small production volumes, so over £2k each - to JLR.

So if a light fails, run into the back of some thing and its an insurance job!

All this new motoring is just far far to complex to really be called sustainable!

 

[Smallfry]

It gets better.
No2 son is in lighting for JLR and just last night we were chatting about forthcoming new models.

The LED headlight assembly is not just a 'sealed' item complete with integrated self-levelling features, but like windscreens, is now a structural component.

If the stylists and marketers want to make the usual annual model year changes to lighting, the whole car now has to undergo crash testing.

The stylists and marketers haven't grasped this yet, nor the insurance implications of minor crash vulnerable items like headlights costing so much.

He did tell me the cost to JLR of the headlights for a forthcoming full fat Range Rover. They do many very clever things and are relatively small production volumes, so over £2k each - to JLR.

Thats more than the value of my 04 plate Combo van ! Which I will be sticking with until the bitter end.

That is absolutely ludicrous. I bet they don't mention this when you are buying one.

Anyone who pays this needs certifying. Even if its a company vehicle and the company are paying, its criminal.

 

[DanZac]

It's all well and good bemoaning the high cost and unreliability of all these things, but the manufacturers are only providing what the consumer wants.

I've no doubt that they could make efficient and reliable petrol engines with 100BHP that would go on forever. But the consumer wants 220BHP and there the problems start.

And it's the same with lights and everything else. If we wanted 50w headlights, that's what they'd fit, but we don't, we want super bright ones that look round corners and light up the front grille like nightrider.

They're only fitting and making what sells, so we've only got ourselves to blame (or the neighbours)

 

[dobbslc]

I'd say the market research groups are just space heads and they then get listened to by the companies and down we go...

 

[premmington]

Hearing of Chinese cars breaking down early.. No parts available..

BYD are OK for parts... Local franchise good on parts.

But an MG electric thing from China - you wasting your time - dealerships can't get anything - not even got a full parts software system that works.

That will be the make or break of Chinese import cars - if they sort the dealer support/parts out - they will run (like Honda from Japan did in the 70's). If they can't they will crash and burn...

 

[ajlelectronics]

It's all well and good bemoaning the high cost and unreliability of all these things, but the manufacturers are only providing what the consumer wants.

I've no doubt that they could make efficient and reliable petrol engines with 100BHP that would go on forever. But the consumer wants 220BHP and there the problems start.

And it's the same with lights and everything else. If we wanted 50w headlights, that's what they'd fit, but we don't, we want super bright ones that look round corners and light up the front grille like nightrider.

They're only fitting and making what sells, so we've only got ourselves to blame (or the neighbours)

I don't agree. These things are driven by marketing teams, not the buyers. Like monochrome paint, it is "the latest thing" so everyone drives dull and twilight invisible colours. iPads to control a car, electric handbrakes et al would never have been asked for by consumers, but it is what they get and they can like it or lump it.

 

[premmington]

I don't agree. These things are driven by marketing teams, not the buyers. Like monochrome paint, it is "the latest thing" so everyone drives dull and twilight invisible colours. iPads to control a car, electric handbrakes et al would never have been asked for by consumers, but it is what they get and they can like it or lump it.

@ajlelectronics - "Grey coloured cars" - I don't mind grey window frames on houses - grey cladding on buildings - but a dull grey expensive car looks like it is still in "primer to me"...

 

[Morris]

The latest thing from China is electronic brakes. No hydraulics, just data and actuators plus a control module to interpret what is supposed to happen.
What could possibly go wrong.

https://thebrakereport.com/chery-claims-first-mass-produced-emb-system/

 

[dobbslc]

I don't agree. These things are driven by marketing teams, not the buyers. Like monochrome paint, it is "the latest thing" so everyone drives dull and twilight invisible colours. iPads to control a car, electric handbrakes et al would never have been asked for by consumers, but it is what they get and they can like it or lump it.

This is it exactly. All they want to do I supsell the latest electronic crxp to make more money.
I think Ferrari have had to do a recall on one of their cars are the customers don't like all the touch screen nonsense.

 

[reb78]

Thats more than the value of my 04 plate Combo van ! Which I will be sticking with until the bitter end.

That is absolutely ludicrous. I bet they don't mention this when you are buying one.

Anyone who pays this needs certifying. Even if its a company vehicle and the company are paying, its criminal.

Same. Once the 110 has its new chassis that will be the only car I really want. I wont be looking at anything new (should say newer, I have never bought a new car) from then on. And when diesel is outlawed it will run happily on veg oil.

 

[Ubique]

It's all well and good bemoaning the high cost and unreliability of all these things, but the manufacturers are only providing what the consumer wants.

I've no doubt that they could make efficient and reliable petrol engines with 100BHP that would go on forever. But the consumer wants 220BHP and there the problems start.

And it's the same with lights and everything else. If we wanted 50w headlights, that's what they'd fit, but we don't, we want super bright ones that look round corners and light up the front grille like nightrider.

They're only fitting and making what sells, so we've only got ourselves to blame (or the neighbours)

Absolutely - and it's one of the things in life where the race is still to the top, not the bottom. Car model development used to be >5 years, now it's ~18 months of generally repurposing existing parts & structures, rigging powertrains to meet increasingly draconian emissions regs and putting some 'lipstick on the pig' so the salesman has some shiny-shiny to wave in front of the people paying a kings ransom to lease it for a couple of years.

Bit of a side-note, one thing that does greatly concern me is the emission standards of EU6+ mean that the particulate matter that 'escapes' is sufficiently small that it stays airborne for longer and is capable of passing through the blood barrier membrane in our lungs. How can that be beneficial to us or wildlife?

 

[Seadog]

It's all well and good bemoaning the high cost and unreliability of all these things, but the manufacturers are only providing what the consumer wants.

Are you sure?
It's the power of advertising, the "Keeping-up-with-the-Joneses" mentality which has driven advertising since the '30s.
How often does a new product have so many features that you'd need a 6 month course before you understood a small percentage of them?

 

[Ubique]

The latest thing from China is electronic brakes. No hydraulics, just data and actuators plus a control module to interpret what is supposed to happen.
What could possibly go wrong.

https://thebrakereport.com/chery-claims-first-mass-produced-emb-system/

That, and 'steer by wire' - no. just No.
There have been vehicles with no brake vacuum booster, just an ABS pump for quite some time, the pedal still has the means to create hydraulic pressure though.

 

[harveyp6]

How often does a new product have so many features that you'd need a 6 mobth course before you understood a small percentage of them?

Errrrr, everything made in the last thirty years or so......