Auto makers to gearheads: Stop repairing cars

[ardailsmith]

FYI: Auto makers are looking to ban DIY work on your cars.
http://www.autoblog.com/2015/04/20/a...s-car-repairs/

[ChrisBlair]

Yes, this is dumb, idiotic and it sucks. But it's not even recent news. If you've been reading about the industry this has been going on for a fairly long time.

[ardailsmith]

Yes, that is true but they have never been so close to making it happen until now.

[Chevy_cowboy]

They've been working toward this for years, not just with electronics, but with "maintenance free" disposable parts.

I don't think its aimed so much at those of us who really know cars, we're just caught in the crossfire. Improper maintenance cost manufacturers a fortune in warranty repairs, keeping the average joe from trying to work on his car and forcing him to go to the dealer for everything will save them money.

Those of us who never take the car back to the dealer after purchase don't really matter one way or the other.

[ardailsmith]

It will matter once they implant a database in the ECU that will have a list of parts that were on the car when it rolled off the line and every change will have to be updated by an authorized mechanic. It will be just like owning an aircraft. Except the log book will be in the ECU.

[CMYarb]

Facism anyone?

[SnowyCamaro]

Originally Posted by ardailsmith

It will matter once they implant a database in the ECU that will have a list of parts that were on the car when it rolled off the line and every change will have to be updated by an authorized mechanic. It will be just like owning an aircraft. Except the log book will be in the ECU.

I can see them trying that exactly how you describe. But the market is different. Even if they were to implement a system like you describe, people would get wise to this. Either people and non dealer mechanics will find ways to remove, disable and work around it or people will boycott the cars with this kind of structure all together. On top of that they are trying to eliminate all third parties from working on cars, good luck eliminating most of the mechanics around the world, that's a lot of unemployed angry people.

In my opinion. It works for aircrafts because its aimed more at safety and the demographic of people. If you own an aircraft I'm sure you can afford the repairs. The poor kid with the rusted out nissan sentra he bought for 10K doesn't have the money to pay for dealer ridiculous prices.

Plus this article makes no sense from an engineering standpoint because it states that simply modifying your ecm could make your brakes fail? What ? And there are many arguments that make similar ridiculous claims. My grandma understands cars better! One of the most important problems in engineering is "if someone does this wrong, what happens ?". We don't design things to fail in catastrophic ways if we can. Cars are like that now, a tuner can completely f**k up a tune and the car will not explode. It will run terribly and knock in the worst case but no one is gonna die. The arguments they are basing this on, kindof belittle their designs. Which I'm sure a lawyer will be like "so all your cars are atom bombs, requiring one little mistake to explode ?".

Plus this is just like the illegal downloading bit, police and companies put in drm and then people figured out how to get rid of it, they starting tracking downloads so people started using vpns and proxy servers to get around it. You cut off one head and ten more will appear. No matter what people will always find a way around it especially if it has no purpose in terms of saving money or increasing safety.

On top of that, many enthusiasts like myself and the people on this site would probably get in serious trouble for going postal and beating up service managers if we had to go to the dealer for everything.

[ardailsmith]

There using the same technique that they use with all things on the Internet. They work with the conception that the judges won't understand how technology works. As for the third-party repair, they will have to go through a certification and they would recovery a license number that they would need to put in to the computer when they do work.

I also belive that now all the new cars will have WiFi. They will send out system updates to the manufacturer.

[ardailsmith]

Yep

[Ernest T]

Its my understanding that they are trying to get the courts to prohibit owners from modifying the software that comes with the car, i.e. using tuners. As far as I know, they haven't said they don't want owners replacing other parts.

[OrangeVert]

If so, good luck enforcing that on my 2011 Camaro. Or the 1970 model of something I'll go to California to buy. Will go back as far as I need to. Oh I'm sure "they" will find a way to control that too, but by then I'll hopefully be dead and buried.

[Apex Motorsports]

Last week I was up on Capital Hill for some meetings with lawmakers and this subject came up several times. There are some very serious legal issues and implications involved and they are currently looking at making some changes to the DMCA to nip this in the bud.

[BkinBlk]

Maybe it is just me, but I THINK it is based on greed. Just another way for the company's to milk more money from you and I. I don't think that there are really any other valid reasons for doing this. They SAY it is all in the name of safety, but I think greed is driving it. Just my two cents.....

[shine2013]

That will be the day.