Just you don’t miss it, the frame is also worthless and towing is a bad idea. The tow ball isn’t even attached directly to the frame, it’s wild.

I’m specifically saying that quoted bit in regards to the fact that general maintenance is not complex or locked down. It wasn’t even the next sentence, it was the same sentence. No one except for enthusiasts are reprogramming their ECUs and after that there really isn’t much else getting in the way. If you put it all back how you found it the car has no clue. There’s almost nothing I can think of that’s actually locked out and when I ask for examples I don’t actually get anything back.

People just aren’t tinkerers as much these days and it’s not even really 100% their fault. They don’t have the money to buy tools/soace and DIY has actually gotten more expensive in many cases. People also don’t have the money to fix fuck-ups and lean towards caution, and they’re constantly told that these things are way harder than they are(like you’re doing here, actually), often by their parents who have enough money to just pay mechanics or plumbers or whoever. That said, people are starting to do more of that stuff again as paying for labour starts to get too much for our shitty salaries and outweighs the risk factor. Whenever I help a friend with cars, woodworking, luthiering, or literally anything I always get them to do it while I supervise so they can build confidence.

The biggest barrier to car repair is shit like the Germans having zero clue how to do their jobs and now you need a whole bunch of expensive specialty tools. Hell, doing the brakes on my friend’s BMW needed a 16mm wrench when nearly all packs of wrenches go straight from 15mm to 17mm. VWs are horrendous even with the right tools. Audi has “the service position” which is basically just removing the whole front of the car.

But for the most part brakes, oil, sparkplugs and wires, headlights, taillights, and changing wheels with the seasons are all easy. You can also do all the suspension work yourself with little more than a sturdy vice and maybe some spring compressors(if you’re clever you may not even need that and can still do it safely). Tie-rods are simple enough, though you need to buy or rent the tool for it. You can even replace broken fuel injectors without much issue. Serpentine belts are mostly accessible, especially if you have a Subaru, too.

TL;DR: You don’t know what you’re talking about. “Lockouts” only exist in highly niche cases and none of them have to do with basic maintenance.

Certainly depends on the car. Also they aren’t so much full-fledged “computers” in that sense as electronics with simple relays and formulas to do stuff like make ABS work, supply the correct fuel/air mixture, or turn your automatic headlights on. Most anything the average person will be doing with their vehicle on a regular basis is completely outside of the electronics.

As far as having a right to work on your vehicle that you own goes, yes that’s absolutely a problem that you would be locked out of those systems but you probably won’t be anywhere near them, either. As far as bike vs car maintenance goes it doesn’t matter how easy or open the car is, shit’s still difficult for many people, time consuming, and incredibly expensive.

Note: I’m pushing back right now on that one point because the idea that modern cars somehow know everything you do is complete horseshit made up by people who are afraid of technology and act like you need a computer science degree to unplug a sensor and plug a new one back in.

What car is it, though?

I’m sorry I don’t follow what you’re saying with the transmission thing. Like, I do, but I don’t know what car you have or if that’s stock or anything but if you’re talking specifically some kind of highly specialized transmission then ok, but you led with saying that it’s every part in the car.

Ultimately, there’s just no possible way for a car to actually know 99% of what you’re gunna do to it even if they tried without astronomically expensive sensors and RFID chips and a whole lot of other stuff. The only thing that can really confuse them is doing stuff like completely removing the air filter so there’s too much air(which actually hurts performance most of the time anyway) or changing the timing to where it’d be running like garbage anyway. But oh boy can you still fuck up a lot of stuff without the car having a single clue that it’s about to fuckin’ die. Hell, you could set the toe angle to 10deg and put the wrong brake pads in backwards and it wouldn’t even notice.

Fun note: On a 2018 Jetta I had to make spacers for the rear brake caliper because we tried FOUR calipers and they were all wrong, ending up with something that was the right diameter but the wrong offset. The weekend was over and we just had to get it done, but it still works fine years later. Never buy a VW, they are just dogshit and a massive pain in the ass.

I have a BRZ, extra difficult, and it honestly was so easy. I did it in 45min and I was just chilling the whole time, I really don’t understand what the big deal is. I didn’t do any of the engine lifting crap or anything, just moved the battery/fusebox out of the way.

For the record, I’m 6’-5” and have large hands, I’m not built for tight spaces or low engine bays.

Trick is to buy a Subaru. Everything is just nice and simple, and there’s lots of space to do everything. I’ve only owned them but I’ve helped family and friends with all kinds of other makes and it sucked.

Yea that’s nearly 100% untrue, though. TPMS sensors can be a little weird but no one is changing tires themselves, only whole wheels for summer/winter.

Brakes, sparkplugs, tierods, suspension, all oils, many sound systems and/or parts thereof, filters, batteries, and even a whole headlight assembly are all things you don’t need to tell the car about. I put a backup camera in my car and it just figured it out all on it’s own since there was technically an option for it, and I wasn’t even using an OEM camera. And the car usually doesn’t even know what’s wrong but if there IS a code you can just use an OBD2 reader, they aren’t exactly expensive and they’re super easy to use.

You either have no idea what you’re talking about or are a mechanic that I’m glad I’m not taking my vehicle to. My 2015 BRZ that has literally none of that, not even TPMS sensors(I know 2015 is not that new anymore but people have been saying this shit for decades). This is exactly why I show people how it works, so that they can understand that it’s not that hard or complicated.

P.S.: if it’s a German vehicle just shoot yourself, it’ll be a much less painful experience than realizing that a bunch of high-paid engineers with great reputations among the laypeople are really just the dumbest motherfuckers on the planet. Also less physically painful, too. You can still do the work, they just put everything in terrible places and use bolts that have needlessly unique and more fragile heads. Fuck you, VW, you idiots.

Exactly!

Don’t forget that maintenance is super cheap AND most people, with only the most basic tools, can do the work in their living room or even just on a sidewalk. And if I don’t get it right and the brakes don’t work perfectly I probably won’t fuckin’ die.

Hi, car owner here. I do all the work myself and it requires a fair bit of knowledge, expensive tools, space, and a childhood where I was never told I couldn’t do that work if I was thoughtful about it. That’s a high fuckin’ bar and requires a whole lot of privilege-oh there it is, too many people with privilege like to shit on those without and most of North America has dogshit for public transit or bike infrastructure and the “freedom of movement” with a car is all there but heavily artificial. Thanks auto industry and their lobbyists.

Intel CEO is leading that company as it just falls further and further behind. They laid off a bunch of people and got rid of a lot but they still gave him a $6mil bonus.

We don’t even really get bonuses when we do super well but these fuckwits will get millions of dollars while their choices actively destroy the company they’re supposed to working for.

Ok so he’s threatening people who have the advantage with…something? I mean they could just as easily go “no, we’re good” and then the US would have neither chips nor factories.

If he’s hoping to have that technology here so the US can steal it, well obviously that’s crazy and these companies have already considered that.

And even if he was going to be nice to them that’s kinda wild that Mr. Super-racist would be so ok with using American labour to enrich foreign executives.

Is “the Art of the Deal” about how you can put yourself in absolutely awful bargaining positions while begging for others to do your job for you? ‘Cause he’s excellent at that.

Do you have to ask? Why do you have zero desire to share anything with your friends? Dry isn’t the word I’d use, but “bothered” sure is. You text like you want them to piss off and you want them to know it without saying it.

It’s absolutely both, and I never said that they should not be held accountable. They are unclever gorillas smashing the place up and yes, it is absolutely for evil, evil reasons but that doesn’t mean these are deep, well thought-out schemes. It’s basic garbage for garbage people, a idiot’s genius. Yes, it’s calculated, but the math is of a grade one level and even then they don’t always get it right but you bet they’re still trying to be as evil as possible.

Being a conservative almost requires one to be dumber than a bag of hammers. The only reason most of them get anywhere is because other idiots like the useless centrists refuse to hold them accountable so we all act like they’re clever when really they’re just shielded from consequences. Elon Musk is as dumb as they come and we all know exactly what he’s doing it’s just that when he buys Twitter for way too much money and blows it up he doesn’t have to deal with any fallout and can keep that shitstorm running out of pure spite and lighting billions of dollars on fire.

I mean, c’mon, maybe that was a case a while ago but a) yes they fucking are, the most selfish thing you can do is take care of others because that’ll come back around into a support system no one can take from you, either, and b) all the “smart” ones created all these dumb as rocks ones and now the idiots they created have come to be in charge.

They absolutely are stupid, and it’s a huge fucking problem.

Money does, however, buy security. Money would solve all of my worst problems and make the other ones easier to handle. We don’t need a lot, but sure as hell need more than we have now and people like him don’t deserve a damn fucking cent(besides any universal social programs because that’s what universal means and I ain’t gunna be that guy).

I didn’t exclude ground meat, only ground meat that was not carefully prepared.

That’s only because a hunk of beef is so large that many unsafe elements can’t penetrate. You trim off the outside and are left with something much safer, so long as it is consumed quickly enough. It is the same reason why you don’t need to freeze tuna, because tuna are fucking huge.

Also, be careful when grinding meat, or even cutting it, because if you end up with the shit on the outside being pushed into the cuts on the inside then none of it matters and you’re back to square fucked.

Not to mention that those same people will post shit about “why are we helping foreigners when people at home are suffering”-sorry stop me if you’ve heard this one ten-thousand times before.

It’s literally the point.

Media literacy and reading comprehension really are dead arts, huh?