About five thousand, six hundred dollars. I think driving the economy version of the 150 without all the whiz bang upgrades makes more sense. Dials with moving hands instead of glass screens for instance and, oops too hot a topic....

Might be too long a video to watch, but the short version is there are fancy sensors in the tail light housing which sends information up front to the driver's dash. If the outside glass taillight covering is cracked, everything there inside it can corrode away to ruin.

 

 

With each new generation of motor vehicle, I miss the old, non-computer cars and trucks even more.

I'm with you. "Back in the day" just change the points and plugs, put a new condenser in the distributor, adjust the idle speed on the carburetor and you're good-to-go. Eventually we had to rebuild the carburetor and put new brushes in the generator. But even that was no big deal. All you needed to get it done were a couple wrenches and a screwdriver. This computerized stuff has taken all the fun out of it. And don't even get me started on driverless cars and trucks.  

Edited September 9, 20232 yr by W2DR
kant spel

2 hours ago, stans said:

With each new generation of motor vehicle, I miss the old, non-computer cars and trucks even more.

"According to Motor Authority a Ford GT has over 10 million lines of code, that is much more than what an aircraft needs to fly (2 million lines of code for the Lockheed F-22 Raptor and 7 million lines for the 787 Dreamliner)."

"At CES 2016, Ford indicated that they have 150 million lines of code in their new pickup, the F150!"

"Interestingly, it appears that one of the reason for this explosion is the aggregation within a "car" of several components, each one bringing along its baggage of lines of code. In the aircraft industry there has been a strong drive to integrate the various components from a software point of view and this has resulted in a decrease in the volume of lines of code over the last ten years."

https://cmte.ieee.org/futuredirections/2016/01/13/guess-what-requires-150-million-lines-of-code/

Edited September 9, 20232 yr by dmwalker

1 hour ago, dmwalker said:

"According to Motor Authority a Ford GT has over 10 million lines of code, that is much more than what an aircraft needs to fly (2 million lines of code for the Lockheed F-22 Raptor and 7 million lines for the 787 Dreamliner)."

 

That's bonkers. Software is something legacy car makers do awfully badly. 

6 hours ago, Fielder said:

but the short version is there are fancy sensors in the tail light housing which sends information up front to the driver's dash. If the outside glass taillight covering is cracked, everything there inside it can corrode away to ruin.

 

Then why be daft enough to design it that way. Tail lights often get cracked or leak. Fit the sensors elsewhere. 🙄

And I bet you the REAL cost to manufacture is a fraction of what the customer has to pay. 

Edited September 9, 20232 yr by martin-w

30 minutes ago, martin-w said:

Software is something legacy car makers do awfully badly. 

"In a recent technical briefing on the new GT, Ford Performance chief engineer Jamal Hameedi said the car has more lines of code than is strictly necessary because the company used off-the-shelf components, meaning tailored software was not possible.

Yet Ford also claims the extra computing power will allow the car to provide more assistance to non-expert drivers. Hameedi said the GT will actually be faster around a track with the traction control left on—even in the hands of an expert driver."

https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1098308_the-ford-gt-has-more-lines-of-code-than-a-boeing-passenger-jet

In the old days there were stories  of rogue police officers secretly cracking someones tail light with a baton after stopping them. Just for an excuse of having made the stop. They tell the guy "Did you know your taillight is broken"? All because something about the driver looked suspicions and they wanted an excuse for a closer look inside the vehicle. There are small cameras everywhere now so it hardly ever happens.

2 hours ago, dmwalker said:

Yet Ford also claims the extra computing power will allow the car to provide more assistance to non-expert drivers. Hameedi said the GT will actually be faster around a track with the traction control left on—even in the hands of an expert driver."

Is it a good idea to put this type of car in the hands of non-expert drivers? 🤔

49 minutes ago, Fielder said:

In the old days there were stories  of rogue police officers secretly cracking someones tail light with a baton after stopping them. Just for an excuse of having made the stop. They tell the guy "Did you know your taillight is broken"?

Harder to do with the more robust LEDs used today, I expect.

Buying excellent quality kitchen major appliances with as few electronic controls doo dads as possible, increases reliability and maintenance costs greatly. And laundry room washers and dryers.

If there's no digital controls, then expect seldom or never to have to call the repair guy.

In cars, look for the lower upgrade editions of quality brands. Enormous savings. The car is likely to outlast you if don't get tired of it.

Another silliness is buying "smart" appliances unless you are forced to do that. I can't think of anything more risky than buying a "smart" garage door opener. The thieves are smarter than that convenient software.

 

Had to replace back-up cam in Hyundai Sante Fe a couple weeks ago.  Same thing -- water intrusion.  But those are readily available on Amazon from various Chinese vendors.  Hardest part is all the expletive-deleted plastic fasteners that hold a car together these days.

 

But as regards the F-150.  I had to help my Dad get his 60 F-100 back together (292 Y-block), and dealing with that rat's nest of wires behind the dash is no picnic either  There's also the famed purple resistor wire that Ford used for the ignition that is no fun to work on.  (Resister wire or ballast was in ignition circuit to reduce voltage to the coil, but bypassed with ignition switch in "start" position to get a hotter coil for starting.)

 

scott s.

.

 

What the world needs now is Lucas Electric systems, like the MGB's used to have !

$5600 is about my budget for buying a car, I am currently looking for a 2008 to 2010 Honda CRV and yeah $5500 would be about what I’d pay 🤣

10 hours ago, Fielder said:

Buying excellent quality kitchen major appliances with as few electronic controls doo dads as possible, increases reliability and maintenance costs greatly. And laundry room washers and dryers.

If there's no digital controls, then expect seldom or never to have to call the repair guy.

 

 

 

Hmm.... I have always bought cheaper kitchen appliances without fancy digital controls. I'm afraid they've never been reliable. 

Failure as a designed lifespan is probs the issue. The good old "light bulb model" is still alive and well.

I understand what you mean though, complexity implies more parts that can fail. A certain space company owner often says that the best part is no part.