Have you noticed how stuff is getting a lot more complicated?

Our car came with a short subscription to OnStar and Sirius, which we let lapse. The car only gets about 5,000 miles a year, and spends most of its time in the garage....hardly worth having these options. We have good radio stations and a CD player if we want to listen to music, and we carry a basic TracFone when on the road...so that suffices.
 

Things are silly. Saw a commercial for a Craftsman Lawn Tractor. Connects to your smart phone, tells you when the oil needs changed. Also will check the weather and let you know if it is good to mow.Also keeps track of the frequency of use and reminds you your lawn needs mowing.

I see the "Sleep Number Bed" also connects to your smart phone. According to the commercial some red haired gal apparently is not smart enough to know whether she slept well or not. She checks her phone and it tells her,"Best sleep ever",reassured she goes on to have a wonderful day!
 
My wife's car came with 6 months free Sirius. When it ran out, she decided she didn't want it. A couple months later she changed her mind. Even though she only drives locally, she missed the channels of music she prefers and the lack of commercials. I don't even turn the radio on in my little old car. I love my '97 Escort wagon; manual windows and door locks, regular key to start and lock, and simple but adequate controls. It ain't too pretty anymore, but it gets me around town.

Don
 

Now that I have a key fob instead of a regular car key, I'm really scared to lose it (I'm ADD and lose things often). I do have a spare, but it's at home...if I lose it in town or somewhere, what happens then? Nobody to bring it...Maybe AAA could get it started? Either that or they'd have to take me home (long drive usually) to get it. And they are very expensive to replace.
 
Well, let's not forget the Instant Pot cooker that also has an iPhone app. Good grief. Who wants to deal with a phone when you can just press the "on" button??? Some things are just absurd.
 
It's all an insidious plot by Big Business to render the population at large helpless, or at least into a state of perceived helplessness, so that we feel we MUST rely on Big Business to even change a light bulb and, of course, pay accordingly! I wish I were joking, here, but I see signs of it everywhere, not just in cars. As a devoted DIY kind of guy, I rail at this trend, and will fight it until I am no longer able to do so.
 
C'est Moi said:
Well, let's not forget the Instant Pot cooker that also has an iPhone app. Good grief. Who wants to deal with a phone when you can just press the "on" button??? Some things are just absurd.
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Supposedly it's for people who are at work or out and around. They can activate it so they have food cooked when they get home. I can't imagine using it, but I guess people do. I've read reviews where people say they enjoy the feature.
 
I guess turning something on with the iphone while away isn't all that different to using a timer. My old washing machine can be set to turn itself on in increments of 1 to 9 hours, same with my old oven. I can maybe see the point with the washing machine, but until it's able to take the clothes out and hang them on the line it's not much use to me. If it was a combined washer dryer it might be more useful.

As for the oven, I have always wondered who would actually use that. You wouldn't be likely to put anything containing meat in the oven in the morning before you left for work and leave it in there unrefrigerated for 6 or 7 hours until the oven turns itself on.
 
Leonie said:
I guess turning something on with the iphone while away isn't all that different to using a timer. My old washing machine can be set to turn itself on in increments of 1 to 9 hours, same with my old oven. I can maybe see the point with the washing machine, but until it's able to take the clothes out and hang them on the line it's not much use to me. If it was a combined washer dryer it might be more useful.

As for the oven, I have always wondered who would actually use that. You wouldn't be likely to put anything containing meat in the oven in the morning before you left for work and leave it in there unrefrigerated for 6 or 7 hours until the oven turns itself on.
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I know I certainly wouldn't.
 
Grampa Don said:
I used to buy a Chiltons book for every car I owned and did a lot of my own repair work. As you noted, now it's pretty much impossible. That's probably one reason why car repairs are so expensive now. When I opened the hood of my wife's car when we first got it, I noticed the battery was back under the windshield. I couldn't figure out how you would change it. So, I found a YouTube video of the process. It involves removing the whole air cleaner assembly to give access to slide it out. There is no way I would want to mess with it. Also, if you don't attach something to keep the computer alive, a lot of things have to be re-programmed when you hook up the new battery.

Don
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You can diagnose a problem with your car if you have the right tool. Just plug it in and look up the code.

But fixing it? That's another story.

However. The cars now? You can't fault fuel injection compared to carburetors. So much more reliable for starting in winter.

Those old carburetor vehicles? If you flooded it, you were done for the day.

You can replace your own brake pads. I haven't done it yet but I bought the parts. It doesn't look that difficult.
 
Camper6 said:
You can replace your own brake pads. I haven't done it yet but I bought the parts. It doesn't look that difficult.
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Unless your vehicle has one of those tire pressure monitors, which you'd probably have to be very careful not to disturb.

And if the rotor is scored, you still have to go to the shop.

When I had my last Vette ('88), I used to change my own spark plugs. All was fine with #1-7.

Of course, with #8 you had to hire a double-jointed dwarf to get to it.
 
I think marketers do this because of greed! They make it complicated on purpose to make us buy more, spend more money thus more profit for them. They made us dependable on things that we don't actually need for survival
It sounds awful but what are we to do?
 
My hubby used to pride himself on being a "Shade tree mechanic" .... not any more. In all honesty , I don't even know how to tun on my TV without the remote :(
 

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