Guest Post by Eric Peters
The problem with new cars is they’re too good for their own good. Well, too good for the car companies trying to sell new cars.
Rust has become almost a non-problem. Reliability is a given.
The internal combustion engine has been refined to near perfection; the huge gains made in the past – from flatheads to overhead valves, from carburetors to fuel injection – are no longer being made. 
Hard-starting/stalling, hesitation and surge – these are things which haven’t been “features” in new cars for at least 25 years.
All new cars are largely maintenance-free for the first several years of driving. Most will run for 12-15 years before anything major requires repair. This has been true since at least the early 2000s – almost 20 years ago.
It’s been hard to buy a new car without standard air conditioning since Bill Clinton was president.
It is not possible today.
Power accessories which were regarded as luxuries once upon a time – e.g., cruise control, intermittent windshield wipers, climate control AC and electric seats – are commonplace and generally standard equipment in most new cars and have been for at least the past five years.
Power windows and locks are givens.
Every new car has a pretty good stereo system – included. Most offer a very good one.
No great strides in functionality, reliability or even luxury are happening anymore – as was routine and expected when a buyer went new car shopping for most of the past 100 years. What’s the difference – in meaningful terms – between a 2015 and 2020 car?
Not much – other than the price, of course.
Which probably explains why it’s getting harder to sell the newest ones.
So how to sell them?
Gimmicks!
Electrify everything – including things that probably shouldn’t be.
Two examples come to mind – because they’re becoming hard to avoid in the newest new cars: keyless/pushbutton ignition and electric parking brakes. They offer a marginal increase in convenience, perhaps – if you find it a great chore to insert a key in a switch and turn it.
Or to pull up a lever to set the parking brake.
The marginal convenience these gimmicks provide comes at great cost – in terms of money as well as other things.
A keyless/pushbutton ignition system means electronic key fobs – which transmit a signal to the ignition to start the engine when the driver (who may not be the owner; more below) pushes the button. The fobs are expensive. Some of the latest – the ones that have LCD displays built in – cost several hundred dollars each to replace when they go kaput or you lose them . . . vs. $10 to cut a key.
Which will never go kaput. Even if you run it through the washing machine because you left it in your pants pocket.
Fobs can also be hacked – just like an electric garage door opener. If someone figures out the code, they can start your car without a key. And get in it, too – including the trunk – since the keyless system also unlocks the doors (and trunk, where you left your laptop).
This is not possible with a physically keyed system – unless someone physically breaks into the car and physically hot wires the ignition. This sort of thing is more obvious – and more difficult. A guy jimmying a car door or busting open a steering column to get at the wires is much more suspicious than a guy who just opens the door – or trunk – just as you, the rightful owner would . . . and gets “his” stuff.
Or gets in – and drives away.
There’s an additional issue. An additional danger.
With keyless/pushbutton ignition it is possible to leave the engine unintentionally running. You thought you pushed the button – and maybe you did. But the engine remained on. Or it came back on after awhile – because your car has Automatic Stop/Start (ASS) as well as keyless/pushbutton ignition.
Whenever the car stops moving, ASS makes sure the engine isn’t running – to “save gas” (a rant for another time).
But this sets up a potentially dangerous – even lethal – scenario:
The car has stopped moving – so the engine automatically stops running. But you are parking. Since the engine’s off, you don’t push the button to turn it off. Or you thought you had. But the ignition is still hot – and the engine will come back on after you’ve left the car.
It’s easy enough to do – when you don’t have to turn a key to shut off the engine.
If you’re parking the car, you will do this – turn the key (and thus the engine off) automatically, as a matter of rote.
Because no one parks a car and leaves it there with the key in the ignition.
This makes keyed ignition a failsafe – against theft and death. Unless the driver is wanting that, he won’t leave the key in the ignition – and the engine on – when he parks the car on the street or in his garage and leaves it there.
With keyless/pushbutton, he might. Some have. Several have died – from carbon monoxide poisoning.
An expensive gimmick.
Electric parking brakes are another. Replace a simple pull-up lever and a cable that applies mechanical pressure to the brakes with not-so-simple sensors and wires and actuators.
It adds cost – and takes away control.
You can’t apply the electric parking brake manually – and gradually. It is either on – or off. When on, it applies the brakes full force, just as would happen if you yanked a mechanical parking brake lever all the way up, full force. But with a mechanical pull-up lever, you can pull it up just enough to slow the car in a controlled manner – without locking up the wheels and causing the car to go into a skid – if the main brakes ever fail.
And the mechanical pull-up brake will always work – even if the car’s electrical system has failed. The electrically activated parking brake won’t.
But all you have to do now is push a button!
Well, that – and agree to buy the new car.
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I have an 87 Dodge Ram and an 03 Ram, guess which one is running. The 03 with all it’s wizardry is a nightmare. I have replaced more parts on the 03 by far and the cost of the parts alone were more than the amount I paid for the 87… more than I paid for the whole freaking truck!!! The computer is telling me I need to replace parts that have been replaced. It prob needs a new computer but it serves me better now that it is parked by putting our trash in it until I can go to the dump. How fitting. Ohh, BTW the 87 will start at 20 below zero, the 03 … not below freezing.
Funny you say that. I have a 2005 Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab and I have not had any issues with it. Strange…. But then I live in Memphis, Tennessee.
To give credit where due, when in it’s prime that thing ran like a scalded cat. The part that reallly annoyed me was that it took me a couple of years to really appreciate it(I was happy with my old Dodge) but shortly there after it was starting to let me down. Now it feels like I’m riding in a buckboard. I’ll get used to it again.
So if I read this correctly Mr. Peter’s wants a modern powertrain in a 1977 Chevette. We know from other articles he loathes the Gov’t mandating anything, including safety. The MPG thing always seemed hollow to me since modern cars put out amazing horsepower compared to the good old days pre-CAFE, but now we finally get to the truth of it all. He just wants a base model death trap with a reliable motor.
It’s nice to rally for the little guy (or cheapass) that wants transportation at the absolute lowest cost but my hunch is if an automaker were to actually offer what is desired here the sales would be nil, outside of perhaps Mr. Peters himself, but I’m guessing he would wait to buy it used.
Wrong. If a car company put out a safe (airbags, antilock brakes and crumple zones only) car for $8,000, you’d have sales you couldn’t keep up with. And you can take that to the bank. This is all old tech. Use a proven inexpensive 4 cylinder design and an already designed chassis and body.
I have a 2014 Versa Note … standard trans, crank windows, 40mpg (have gotten up to 48 in west texas!
I paid $11,000 w/ 5k miles on it. It is small, can’t argue that.
I think the fantasy is a vehicle can be built for $8k. Just because something is old tech doesn’t make it cheap. Labor, assuming it’s built in the USA or Canada isn’t inexpensive. Steel and other raw materials aren’t going down in price. Transportation to get the parts to the assembly line and then transporting it to your local dealer isn’t cheaper because a vehicle is old tech. The only real savings from old tech is the engineering costs which you can argue have been fully amortized out. That’s a relatively small cost in the value of a new car. Other indirect costs like accounting/legal/etc. are always still there as technology has no basis of the cost of that in your vehicle. On top of all that a good argument can be made that many vehicles are sold at or near cost by the mfr’s. Yes, trucks and SUV’s are the profit centers these days but the real profits come from the financing with companies like GM masquerading as banks that assemble some cars.
If you want a cheap vehicle buy a well cared for used vehicle. There are plenty available at the $8k price. Only difference from new is someone elses farts are already soaked into the seat foam.
I’m still skeptical this imaginary $8k econobox has a market. The cheapest new vehicles currently do not have much of a market and with cheap credit and 72 month loans even the poor would rather roll around in a flashy SUV than basic transportation – for proof go read a “30 blocks” article.
Most standard cars from the early 1930’s had versions that could be bought for about $7000 to $9000 in today’s inflated money. They were body-on-frame cars that had LOTS of legroom and the Ford Model B could be had with a V8. You can still buy fuel system parts for that V8, and there’s only TWO- a $50 fuel pump and a $350 2 barrel carburetor (Most people buy a rebuild kit for under $50). Can you imagine replacing your entire fuel system on today’s cars for $400? That is why they were cheap- they were very simple.
A,
Good points. I don’t know material costs. I would think simple vehicles could be made immensely cheaper though. Maybe not.
Take away “credit” and the market for them would explode.
The Ford Model B four cylinder engine was essentially a 4 cylinder water cooled lawn mower engine. The whole motor could be bought new for $1700 in today’s money and the 3 speed transmission with clutch for $1300.
Now compare this to the 2007 Ford F150 my cousin has to have repaired. Two TINY burnt out light bulbs in the instrument panel costs $700 to replace. He also has an antifreeze leak in the PLASTIC crossover plenum that shorts out a spark plug. That’s 2 days of down time because half of the fucking motor has to be taken apart and it’s a $1300 repair cost.
You didn’t understand the article. You are conflating it with other articles Mr. Peters has written. He’s making the point here that adding gadgets and technology for the sake of sales can adversely influence safety, cost, convenience, and ultimately sales. Valid points I would say…
Sure, I picked up on that and he does make some points. My contrarian opinion of most of Mr. Peter’s writing is that he espouses his dislike for government or general frugality through comments about motor vehicles as if the automakers are powerless in what vehicles the automakers offer. Here instead of blaming uncle he blames the manufacturers for trying to push up the price of vehicles. There might be some truth to that but honestly I’m HIGHLY skeptical this alleged inexpensive basic transport would sell. All that stuff that Mr. Peters doesn’t like is sought after. If it wasn’t the base models would be top sellers – they aren’t.
I like to wax nostalgic about older vehicles as much as any other old guy. Thankfully I have friends that are collectors and I get to drive some nice collector vehicles on occasion. It’s still just amazing to me that a Corvette from my high school years is a dog compared to my modern 4-door sedan that can out accelerate and out handle it with a smaller displacement engine and much more luxury top to bottom. Modern vehicles are simply better than they ever have been and even traditional economy brands have luxuries available that were unheard of even for Rolls Royce 20 years ago. I’d argue the last 10 years have been more transformative in the auto industry than the 20 years preceding.
’77 Chevette was one of the worst cars ever made.
My wife came w/ a 1980 chevette. We drove it until 1989 for 120k miles. No problems. She paid about $2000 for it brand new.
The 1960 Rambler American with a six cylinder engine and 3 speed with free-wheeling clutch and overdrive could get about 39 MPG on the highway. How many six cylinders today much less a four cylinder get that?
The best one was the 1976 Plymouth Feather Duster; equipped with a 225 Slant Six it was rated at 24 MPG in town and 39 MPG on the highway.
NO modern six cylinder car can do that, and these old “fossil” cars were all equipped with carburetors.
Those Plymouth 225 slant sixes were great. I’ve got one in the barn, am looking for another vehicle to put it in.
The keyless entry and drive system is easily hacked by a thief using a signal booster that detects and amplifies the signal from the fob, and another signal booster that detects and amplifies the signal from the car computer. It fools the car into thinking that the fob is near.
I have a 2017 Nissan Quest Van, a 2005 Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab and the wife’s daily driver is a 2016 Honda Civic 4 door sedan. The Honda has a keyed ignition as does the Dodge. The fob for the Dodge is separate from the key while the Honda has the fob built in. If you have the correct tools you can access the BCM (Body Control Module) to get the key code to create a new cut key for the Honda and program the fob portion. A nice feature if you have lost all the keys.
The Quest has a proximity key like the one shown in the article. It does not have ASS. My chief complaint about the Nissan is you can’t add options like heated mirrors, which my Dodge came standard with, on it without a trip to the STEALERSHIP! Even if the mirrors are present unless the BCM is programmed they will not work. The same goes for Daytime Running Lights or Automatic Headlights. You can buy all the parts to add this option to the vehicle but unless you get the BCM programmed it will not work.
However, I like the van mainly because I have custody of my two great grandsons. The van’s automatic power doors allows them to be opened remotely. My 3 year old GGS is capable of entering the van and getting into his car seat by himself. All I have to do is make him secure. AT my age and with my infirmaries, him being able to seat himself is awesome!
As for the issue of the engine, yes the engine will keep running if you exit the van. This is a design flaw in my opinion. If you exit the van with the proximity key, the system should shut the engine off. BTW, the engine will not start without the proximity key inside the van, literally! So why would it run while the key is not in the van? Gross negligence in my opinion.
I have never exited the vehicle at my home and left it running. I always press the button to kill the engine. Even when I take my two GGS to daycare I always make sure to kill the engine. What I like about the proximity key is that, unless you have special tools you can’t, on a Nissan least wise, steal the vehicle.
Don’t let your gimmick go rotten…
When an EMP hits every parked car will have its emergency brakes locked for life. Every car wont be able to be fixed as there is no key to start it and every car is so full of electronics it essentially gonna be a place to sleep when it rains and used for nothing more. I need an 1984 Ford Bronco……