Quote:Dartz wrote:Yeesh. Sounds like the only sort of fault that can be uncovered by sticking the transmission into a test rig, set it to simulate several days of hard driving, and keep a computer monitoring the transmission's computer to see what the hell is going on when it finally does fault. In my experience, faults like this are caused by either an intermittently faulty valve, or a garble bit of code.Quote:nemonowan wrote:*Jeapordy Jingle*
Indeed. Unlike other items, safety regulations require a minimum of quality in the materials and engineering that go into making a car.
So the normal ways of forcing planned obsolescence upon consumers cannot be used.
But if nobody can access the software, only they can fix any problems that pop up, capturing that revenue stream. And if they decide that they won't fix problems in cars with unsupported versions of the software, you are out of luck.
Even worse, they can program it to start failing much sooner than the mechanics would.
"What is Limp-Home Mode?"
Volkswagens already do this. Go into limp-mode at the drop of a pin. Some renaults also. The last car we owned - and it was an awesome car - was sold off because the gearbox liked to randomly declare it had a fault and go into limp mode. For no reason beyond phase of the moon - nobody could ever find anything wrong with the thing. The car had to be sold, because it resisted all attempts at fixing.
I don't suppose they ever did a checksum check on the transmission's memory chip?
Quote:Rod H wrote:What, really? What gave you the impression I was after a Land Rover? This is what I'm after!
The 25 year rule, you can import an '89 diesel Land Rover Discovery now, though thanks to the spirits of Lucas Electrics, why?