A few people I know have had car problems recently. (Possibly *most* of the readership of this blog actually.) And it gives me cause to think about why I drive what I drive... I drive older cars. If a car is not at least 12 years old, I wouldn't consider driving it...
"But Howard", people say, "all I want is a car that's reliable. One that gets me from A to B." - and there's the rub... Perhaps reliability shouldn't be measured in terms of how infrequently something goes wrong. But in how simple/cheap it is to fix when it does go wrong.
My first car was a VW Beetle. From 1967. And I learnt a lot from that car. I had adventures. I learnt the pain and anguish of rust & corrosion. I learnt how NOT to adjust the valve-train. I learnt how to do an engine swap after the original dropped a valve. (Lot's of expensive noises!) And I learnt all sorts of other interesting lessons.
But mostly I learnt the value of learning how things worked. And what was fixable and what was beyond my capability. And I learnt the value of simplicity.
These days I don't do so much car maintenance. Partly due to lack of facilities. Partly due to lack of time. And maybe I'm just not that good at those kind of skills anyway. But I still appreciate knowing how things work. And I don't tend to trust things which are too 'electronicky' or 'comes as a sealed unit mate' and needs experts or special tools or whatever.
I'm drawn to the "Makers Manifesto" idea. I'd like to live in a world where motor manufacturers were just a bit more altruistic, hacker friendly and less 'controlling' and money-grasping. There was a time when cars (and other things) were engineered with maintenance in mind (even user-maintenance!) Some cars were even designed to a specification rather than a market : VW Beetles, Citroen 2CVs, Land-Rovers certainly fit into that category.
So, what car to own... In the absence of a truly open-source car, I believe it might be best to seek out 'cars with community'. If there's a bunch of enthusiasts who can help you understand your car, warn you of pitfalls, give you advice - then all that might add up to a more reliable, enjoyable, richer experience of motoring. You might even make a few friends along the way. (And you didn't really need that built-in bluetooth/sat-nav/electrickery anyway did you?)
This is all very true. Cars these days are a nightmare, and not just for hopeful tinkerers but for "proper" mechanics as well. The garage I took my Seicento to for all its problems liked the car because, apart from being a bit of a tight squeeze to work in, it was a "proper car" - no anonymous bundles of electronics or unnecessarily sealed units. Compare and contrast to some premium cars where you open the bonnet and you're greeted with an almost entirely sealed away, obfuscated engine with idiot instructions on where to put oil, washer fluid and coolant. The first time I saw one of them, I was hugely disappointed.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, my new car is a Fiat Panda, as you know. One of the reasons I went back to a little Fiat (apart from enjoying the ride) is that there's an excellent online community at FiatForum.com, better than what I've experienced for any other car I've had. Genuinely helpful people will chime in with advice when you're baffled by something, and some of these people have stripped their cars back to nothing and rebuilt them, and the ones I've spoken to in the past have been great because they gave me, a random voice on the web, the time of day and enthusiasm. As a Linux fan, I really appreciate helpful strangers sharing their knowledge and that's what I've got for my car!
An open-source car ... you know I've been thinking about doing that. Wouldn't that be brilliant?
ReplyDeleteThank Mr Shed. It's very reassuring to know that some modern cars can have community. (I wasn't really aware that any did.) And if they're economical and fun too - so much the better!
ReplyDeleteJustin. It would be great. I wonder what we'd come up with though?
Seems someone has already thought of it... but it's still in concept stage at the moment:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OScar_(open_source_car)