Discussion afterhours at the shop I'm employed at has some interesting highs and lows. One particular topic that really got me thinking was the pace of technology and societies' obsession with the latest.
Can you remember when television was the absolute hottest new @!#$ on the consumer market? Neither can I. But it had it's time in the spotlight. With the invention of a new technology, especially in it's infant years, it is usually delicate, complex and plagued by problems or limitations. It advances and has become what it is today. Televisions - -err, TV has become a disposable appliance. The industry that was TV repair become obsolete. 'No servicable components inside' is a popular sticker hiding on the back of many, many appliances and everyday items. What happened to the industry that once serviced such things? It died.
Now, this particular discussion revolved around the automobile. Composites. Computers. Pre-set parameters. Durability (or lack thereof) and out-sourcing for materials and products. Many components on cars that needed often attention in past automotive eras have now become 'sealed' units or systems. You no longer gap spark plugs, set points, adjust fan belts, change carb jets.. etc. Service nowadays includes a regular oil change and perhaps a break service after 50,000 kms. Hardly a large income earner comparable to the past.
Where is this trend going to end? If manufacturers had their way, it wouldn't. They're making good progress in that direction. I can imagine a hood bolted to the chassis, small decal within the grill reading 'No servicable components inside' in the not all too distant future. Crazy? No, I think not. Mechanics and the service industry has a predictable demise, just as TV repairmen of the past. Evolution and progress is a gain, but it comes at a cost of the past.
I know one thing, if it makes it that far in my lifetime to the point I'm 'debugging' a car through a scan tool and never turning a wrench, I quit. I'll never go to ITT Tech just to learn how to fix a car. University and mechanics are as much an oxymoron as is smartass.
This also leads to another scenario. The 'tuner' era has it's demise just as well at the muscle car era did, which begs the quesiton.. when would such a horrific thing happen and what will be the new 'car guy' thing?
I think that essentially the next wave of new car modification will be "hacking" rather than tuning. With guys literally building new multi-platform computers to replace the stock ones in cars that can't be tuned. People already do this with DVD's, TV's, PSP's and other electronic equipment. Cars are not far behind. I suspect that it'll void the warranty so you'll see a glut of guys buying 5+ year old cars and hot-rodding those. Whenever the market gets too greedy, inventive people have a way of slapping it back down to reality.
Besides, there are literally millions of old cars to modify between the years 1980 and 2000. Most of those are dirt cheap. If new cars can't be modified, there's a ton of old ones that can.
If it can be built by an Engineer, it can be broken open by a bored 15 year old with enough time and tools.
Seriously, if you have fasteners or a possibility of something coming loose, wearing out, or otherwise malfunctioning... You'll need a service person.
As for the Televisions VS Cars and no service people: If you toss out a TV because it's not working without at least investigating repairing it, you're a fool. Most people treat TV's as disposable technology, the same as Cell Phones, VCR's, Stereo's, etc. The only difference with cars is that they're about 20 times more expensive. Its worth it to spend $300 on a replacement part versus tossing it and buying a new one. Car prices are NOT going down, and they are not yet so reliable that you can weld the hood shut and not have a problem for 200,000 miles.
There's also a group of mechanics that basically have formed a "Right To Repair" group (as I remember it's name) that have fought the closed-sourcing and "dealer service only" parts. The other thing: if WORSE comes to WORST, you're going to see that the aftermarket industry is going to start stepping up to the demand of new technology in order to provide service when the market demands it. Trust me, as long as there is demand, and the sucker can be taken apart, someone is going to figure out a way to rebuild it, we have the technology. We can make it better than it was before... Better... Stronger.... Faster....
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