I was talking to a car dealer yesterday because the time has come to recognise that my 13-year-old Volvo might have reached the end of its life, at least in my ownership. I have loved its reliability, but that is now open to question, and I can no longer rely on it.
Our discussion was about the options available to me when buying second-hand, of course. What amazed me was how many of the cars now available for sale have automatic gearboxes, regardless of the power system in use.
This change was not something I had considered before. Not being an avid car enthusiast or a keen follower of the car market, I presumed that, apart from full electric vehicles, manual cars would be as popular as ever, but I was quickly put right. Whatever power system they choose, it now seems that most people do not want to use a gear lever. The explanation that I was offered was quite straightforward. I was told that, as with everything else in life, people want their cars to be kept as physically simple to control as possible, whilst at the same time they demand every form of passive electronic information and entertainment system known to humankind to be packed into the dashboard.
There are occasional moments when I realise I am not as young as I once was. This was one of them. Why anybody would want to give up the opportunity to have as much control over the car that they drive as possible is beyond me. Why they also want to cram every conceivable electronic system on earth into that car is equally baffling, when the risk of something going wrong must rise exponentially as a result.
What was politely pointed out to me was that, whether I like it or not, I could no longer avoid the electronics and might even have to learn to give up using my left foot when it comes to driving.
My question is a simple one. It is this: how can this be good for our planet? The vast majority of this technology in new cars is not, by any meaningful definition, recyclable, but it will also condemn cars that have considerable life potential left in them to early scrappage, because whichever unpredictable part fails one day, with a considerable potential repair cost, will ultimately bring about its early demise.
Isn't this the whole crisis that we face? Ever-increasing technology, designed to reduce our capacity to act, is also killing our planet. That seems to be the situation I am being presented with if I wish to continue to drive. It has left me distinctly uncomfortable.
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Max Frisch — ‘Technology is the knack of arranging the world in such a way that you don’t have to experience it.’
🙂
We have come to terms with this too – we bought a second hand 1 litre 2023 Ford Focus to replace two cars the same age as yours, but it has a manual gearbox. It is also big enough to move kids between university, home and their digs and us. It only has 3 cylinders and it has that regenerative technology that just about contributes something green. The doors are fully electric with a manual override. It tells you if your tyres need pumping up.
But everything is electric – the handbrake, the lights come on on their own, it starts and stops at the lights etc. We heard later that the battery is no longer a £50 job, but hundreds of pound to replace; the starter motor likewise, so I turn the engine shut down off when out and about. The best thing about it is the 6th gear on the motorway and fully defrost-able front and rear windows. Handling is very good – a very nimble car, but where as the old model was higher, this is wider and lower. It has mini lights all over the place on the inside and the handbook is huge and has to be read in order to learn how to turn things off. It’s nice – but what will it be like in 10 years time? To change a front headlamp bulb, you have to take it to the garage. And it has a wet timing chain which are notorious if not serviced properly. These cars are built to be dependent on dealerships and expensive to run. I don’t like them. This could very well be our last car. Good luck.
I am coming across all that.
The Volvo cost me just over a tenner and a few minutes at most to change a lightbulb. I now gather such a thing is not possible in most newer cars.
I would suggest finding an older Volvo and a good garage. Our 45 year old Mercedes is very reliable and would appear to be infinitely repairable.
To be clear, it is going to stay in the family in all likelihhod. Tom is going to have it. But he does not do the long disatnces we sometimes do, which is where the issue is.
Soldier on with the Volvo but look out for a second hand one a bit newer with low mileage.
The trouble is, soon after mine hit the road Volvo made the much more heavily elctronic, and I just don’t like the newer ones.
We certainly seem to be living with a fallacy that complexity brings resilience. It doesn’t….it just creates fragility. The major storms of the last year (e.g Storms Eowyn and Goretti) have exposed the fragility of digital communications systems. Just in time systems have undermined food security.
Agreed.