Something has to be wrong, for me to say that. I'm a lifelong motor enthusiast, petrolhead and engineer. Cars are on paper at least, better than they've ever been. Their engines last for hundreds of thousands of miles, they don't rust, and they all handle pretty well perfectly.
So why do I say that cars are crap these days?
A few weeks ago I sat in a new car from a global manufacturer. It's nothing special, most cars from the last decade are to a greater or lesser extent similar. It's got an extremely advanced engine that will return MPG figures impossible a generation ago, it has a galvanised body, and it'll reliably haul a family of four all day in supreme comfort at autobahn speeds.
Yet I am fairly certain that it and nearly all of its model will be headed for the crusher within a decade. Why? Driving it is not the experience we'd expect from a car made a decade or more ago, instead it's a software experience. It has a digital dash whose instruments were as far as I could see mostly on a TFT screen. When you turn the headlights on a switch doesn't complete a circuit to the light, instead its computer sends a signal to the microcontroller in the light to turn on. Same with all the other controls, even the handbrake. Yes, the handbrake, that thing you rely on to stop the car rolling away down a hill, is no longer a cable but a computer
I looked at that car and saw an engineering masterpiece. I'm an electronic engineer, my dad's a blacksmith and I've been around bits of cars all my life. I know how all this stuff works, in intricate detail.
But I also looked at that car and saw something I wouldn't touch with a barge-pole. I know that within that car is something that won't live up to the manufacturer's hard-won reputation for reliability. It may be that digital dash, it may be the microcontroller in the headlight, the one in the brakes, the throttle, or even the network of data cables that carry all that info around the car's systems, but something is going to fail on that car that won't be fixable without telephone number money, and then the car will be junk.
The problem is of course that the manufacturer couldn't care less. The person who owns the car when whatever piece of techno-crap sends it to the scrapheap won't be the person who drove it off the forecourt, because people who are prepared to take the hit of new car depreciation usually do so because they are so desperate to always drive a new car that the money doesn't matter. So the people who keep the manufacturer in business simply don't care about its built-in obsolescence, therefore the manufacturer doesn't care about it either. (I am a rare exception, I've owned my 2001 car from new)
This makes no sense. It's an oft-quoted line, that more energy is used in the manufacture of a car than in its lifetime of driving. Therefore if we can make cars whose engines and bodywork last forever it is irresponsible to throw them away before they are worn out. No, your fancy hybrid is about as green as a coal fired power station if it only lasts a few years.
I can not in good conscience participate in this scheme of car ownership. On an environmental level sure, but also as an engineer, I don't think I want to buy something that's designed to be so unnecessarily complex as to be unfixable, it's just wrong.
So here's my automotive manifesto.
I will buy a car that has in every instance only the technology that is needed to perform the task in hand, not more than is needed. If all that is needed to turn my headlight on is a switch and a copper wire than I do not need a CAN bus and two microprocessors to do it. I am quite happy to pay for the copper wire and carry the marginal extra weight it brings to the car.
I will buy a car that has high technology where it is needed and where its use makes sense. For example a microprocessor is necessary to control my engine or my anti-lock brakes, but is not necessary to provide basic instrumentation.
I will not buy a car that uses high technology to ensure early obsolescence or to lock-in to a dealer network. If your digital dash costs a four figure sum to replace, or if only your dealer can perform service tasks, then you will not see my money and neither will your dealer.
If I can not buy a car that meets these simple requirements then I will not spend a lot of money for a car made in a European, American or Japanese factory. I will simply spend as little as possible on the cheapest pile of Pacific-rim crap-on-wheels I can find, and bin it when it dies. If I do that then I'll have wasted a lot less money than I would binning a fancy car with a dead digital dash.
I'm just one person. My consumer choices don't figure on the radar of a car manufacturer. But I know the automotive frustrations of one can also be the frustrations of many, as for years I kept the Austin Rover faith as they kept churning out frankly awful cars. Where are those Austin Rover factories now? Mostly housing estates, retail, and industrial parks.
I know I won't be alone in walking onto the forecourt of the first budget Chinese carmaker to arrive in my town. Who knows, perhaps it'll occupy the site of the factory where they made that brand new car I mentioned earlier.
The problem is of course that the manufacturer couldn't care less. The person who owns the car when whatever piece of techno-crap sends it to the scrapheap won't be the person who drove it off the forecourt, because people who are prepared to take the hit of new car depreciation usually do so because they are so desperate to always drive a new car that the money doesn't matter. So the people who keep the manufacturer in business simply don't care about its built-in obsolescence, therefore the manufacturer doesn't care about it either. (I am a rare exception, I've owned my 2001 car from new)
This makes no sense. It's an oft-quoted line, that more energy is used in the manufacture of a car than in its lifetime of driving. Therefore if we can make cars whose engines and bodywork last forever it is irresponsible to throw them away before they are worn out. No, your fancy hybrid is about as green as a coal fired power station if it only lasts a few years.
I can not in good conscience participate in this scheme of car ownership. On an environmental level sure, but also as an engineer, I don't think I want to buy something that's designed to be so unnecessarily complex as to be unfixable, it's just wrong.
So here's my automotive manifesto.
I will buy a car that has in every instance only the technology that is needed to perform the task in hand, not more than is needed. If all that is needed to turn my headlight on is a switch and a copper wire than I do not need a CAN bus and two microprocessors to do it. I am quite happy to pay for the copper wire and carry the marginal extra weight it brings to the car.
I will buy a car that has high technology where it is needed and where its use makes sense. For example a microprocessor is necessary to control my engine or my anti-lock brakes, but is not necessary to provide basic instrumentation.
I will not buy a car that uses high technology to ensure early obsolescence or to lock-in to a dealer network. If your digital dash costs a four figure sum to replace, or if only your dealer can perform service tasks, then you will not see my money and neither will your dealer.
If I can not buy a car that meets these simple requirements then I will not spend a lot of money for a car made in a European, American or Japanese factory. I will simply spend as little as possible on the cheapest pile of Pacific-rim crap-on-wheels I can find, and bin it when it dies. If I do that then I'll have wasted a lot less money than I would binning a fancy car with a dead digital dash.
I'm just one person. My consumer choices don't figure on the radar of a car manufacturer. But I know the automotive frustrations of one can also be the frustrations of many, as for years I kept the Austin Rover faith as they kept churning out frankly awful cars. Where are those Austin Rover factories now? Mostly housing estates, retail, and industrial parks.
I know I won't be alone in walking onto the forecourt of the first budget Chinese carmaker to arrive in my town. Who knows, perhaps it'll occupy the site of the factory where they made that brand new car I mentioned earlier.
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