What do you think of ICE vs Hybrids?

Don't give up. Pretty much anyone can master the skills of mechanic and enjoy the challenge. That is the value of this web site. Just dig into the sub-forum of your particular ride and ask.

As for a good example, follow the adventures of @cyberpriusII.

Bob Wilson

 

And yet both of those professions suffer from a shortage of labourers.
...as do restaurants.
...durable goods manufacturing.
...wholesale and retail trade.
...health services.

I don't know.
I'm thinking that maybe it's not based on complexity or technology.

 

there's a shortage of healthcare workers, i think they work on fairly complicated systems

 

Non connectorized.....

 

I think the price and repairability of both is getting bad.

When I've had two friends buy non-hybrid ICE cars, that is: pretty newish, low mileage ICE cars, and then have catastrophic transmission failure that costs as much as $9,000 to fix in one case, I'm just upset that the car industry is headed in this expensive disposable mess of planned obsolescence. I almost feel as though I should boycott the whole industry and stop driving.

 

The transmission was probably only $2,000. The cost of the transmission plus installation was about $9,000 total. This was on a car they had owned for only 3 months and hadn't even driven out of town yet.

 

I don't know. It's not the first time I've personally known this happening to an individual. You're car dies and you have to have it towed to the nearest mechanic which already costs hundreds of dollars. What are you supposed to do? Push it down the road to the next town for a second opinion?

On my Avalon I had something making the swaybar loose. In order to figure out how to change the $15 sway bar bushings I got a 2 day ($30) subscription to Toyota Information System (TIS) only to find out that per Toyota's own instructions, the first step was: "remove engine and transaxle."

Cars are more and more being designed to be hard to impossible to repair, and therefore super expensive to do so. As I've said before, I'm very tempted to go get an old, air-cooled, VW Beetle and forget driving anything modern since they are very easy and cheap to repair.

 

Several years ago here on PC the topic was about rudest drivers. One commenter made me laugh when he wrote the name of the BMW manual;
"Your new Car, & the Road you now own"

Healthcare - it's sometimes taking longer to get in to see a doctor then the proverbial bread lines in Russia
.

 

A couple of months ago, I spent time at the hospital ER for a dog bite:

• 15 minutes triage - took off the blood soaked towels and wrapped the wounds.
• 45 minutes of ER treatment
• 7 hours waiting room
  • Initial triage wrapping got soaked with blood. So they gave me a 'doggie pad'.
  • 'Doggie pad' got soaked and went to get another.
  • Bleeding for 7 hours in the waiting room, they moved me to an ER room.

Bob Wilson

 

As a BMW driver.... I find that if I flash my lights or wave to let someone in at a junction, or to let a pedestrian cross the road, they don't believe me. They think "It's a BMW driver - he can't be letting me in". But I am, because I am nice.

I can't say I blame them. The stereotypes of BMW drivers are very true.

 

Maybe it's different in California. In Australia and Britain, they're pretty awful.

When I bought mine, the first thing my sister asked was "Does it actually have an indicator [turn signal] stalk, or do they just not bother putting them in?"

 

Maybe it's different in California. In Australia and Britain, they're pretty awful.

When I bought mine, the first thing my sister asked was "Does it actually have an indicator [turn signal] stalk, or do they just not bother putting them in?"

 

I feel there is a correlation between riches and actions.

If someone who has deep pockets breaks the law their fine is a mere faction of their income or wealth.

As someone who never had a lot of money, my first and only traffic violation ticket cost me a whole month of food because I was without a job and $160 was all I had that month, and that was what my ticked cost me.

This is why I go precisely the speed limit everywhere I go and always use my blinker, even though I have lots of people in new cars in general (not just BMW's) that fly around me in no passing zones, without using their blinker ever, honking, and waving their middle finger at me, all of them thinking that I'm some sort of moron for obeying the traffic laws.

 

There's a ton of funny memes about BMW bad drivers. Two examples;





California is the worst.
Local Orange County (Calif) newspaper posted this article about a BMW driver a few years back - incensed someone shouted "slow down" as he raced through a parking lot ... so the bmw driver turned around and ran the guy over.



California (lived there most years) - Mexico City - outskirts of London - seen it every place I've driven

On a more topical point, that new SUV EV looks pretty darn nice from bmw. All of its specs seem great as well.
Now retired, too rich for our wallet
.

 

I think the automotive repair business is in a huge transition with the increase in hybrids and EVs being produced by the major automakers. While, just 10-years ago, it was pretty easy to find mechanics who refused to even look at an EV or Hybrid, today that's usually not a problem. But for troubleshooting very difficult electrical issues, the dealership is almost always the best place to turn, even though they charge premium prices. (Better to pay premium and get it fixed then to have to return to a mechanic over and over and over, especially with the high prices for parts these days.) You may have a blown head gasket and needs a $2,000 job to replace it but if misdiagnosed you may have spent $4,000 for new water pump, radiator, ignition coils, etc.