Too Simple To Figure Out Dept...!?!
The more smart or automatic an appliance becomes the more time and money you'll spend trying to make it work. Net result: You lose time and you lose a ton of money. Great for technician's income...
Forum Discussion
BB_TX wrote:
Yeah, like cars and trucks. In “the old days” if your car developed a miss you spent a few dollars and an hour changing the points and plugs. And you could sit on the fender with your feet inside the engine compartment while doing it.
Now you need a computerized diagnostic analyzer to quiz the vehicle computer for idas about what might be the problem and what might be the fix. And when you open the hood you might be able to see part of the actual engine.
The flip side, of course, is that you can now go 100,000 miles without ever developing a miss...or, in many cases, having to even replace a single spark plug. An electronic control unit is often trickier to troubleshoot and repair than a mechanical gizmo, and for sure requires different tools and equipment to do so, but if well designed and built will often last far longer with few or no moving parts to wear out, and provide more precise and accurate control as well.
At six years and 120,000 miles plus on my Honda Fit, the sum total of my maintenance to date has been light bulbs, a set of spark plugs, windshield wiper blades, a windshield (which I consider a wear item here in Vermont), tires, and a valve adjustment...and the usual fluids and filters. I do need to take the hatchback door handle apart and clean it up as it's rather sticky and gummed up.
And yes, you can see many parts of the engine, albeit frequently not the parts you really want to work on!
