First trip this year - whats going to break?

[GaryB]

…….back to modern car maintenance. Back in 2020 I hit a pheasant at 70mph in my previous V90, it hit the lower part of the bumper in the middle, the only damage was the clips holding the front parking sensors snapped. Volvo wanted £1,000-ish to supply, paint and fit a new bumper as the clips were part of the bumper. After undoing about 25 inaccessible screws and some polyurethane adhesive all was repaired for £0.

 

[Sam Vimes]

It's multi path problem:.

Products are generally becoming more complicated, to meet customer demands, and to meet tighter regulation and legislation. Many products are being miniaturised, which makes handling components more difficult without specialised tools which are often beyond the scope of DIYers. More products are being designed to be manufactured but not dismantable without damaging them. With many products there is marketing push to be able to call them "Digital" becasue the public have been brian washed into thinking Digital is better.

Its only in recent decades we have become more aware of how wasteful we have been as a throw away society and how protectionist some companies have become about the products they make. The right to repair may change some of this, but in the UK the legal right to repair only covers a very limited scope of products.

But we also do have a skills gap. The oldest generations still alive may well remember the post WW2 period where make do and mend was still a way of life, but with the push to get more people through university, it has tended to polarise more recent generations to focus on a small area or engineering, and that means an electronics graduate for example is less likely to have transferable knowledge and skills to other area's

Government has enacted an increasing amount of legislation which has been protectionist in nature, making it illegal to under take some types of work unless you have recognised evidence of competence in the field.

I agree.

We seem to live in a society where instant solutions are needed for every aspect of life.

This also applies to academic life since I read some months back that there was a decline of hardware engineering students with more take up on software engineering - why? - because courses for hardware engineering were harder and covered more topics.

What's also compounding the issue is that corperate bodies are more interested in profit and don't consider the social impact of their actions until pushed. Back in the dark ages when I was qualifying as an engineer one of the subjects we had to take and pass was called 'The Engineer in Society' An attempt to give us a view into how our actions would impact on society. I confess I found it boring

 

[Beachball]

…….back to modern car maintenance. Back in 2020 I hit a pheasant at 70mph in my previous V90, it hit the lower part of the bumper in the middle, the only damage was the clips holding the front parking sensors snapped. Volvo wanted £1,000-ish to supply, paint and fit a new bumper as the clips were part of the bumper. After undoing about 25 inaccessible screws and some polyurethane adhesive all was repaired for £0.View attachment 4645

Looks like someone very handy with hands a job well done

 

[GaryB]

Looks like someone very handy with hands a job well done

Necessity driven by a tight wallet!

 

[Buckman]

Necessity driven by a tight wallet!

The photo in #32 is that perhaps an old Ford Ranchero being rebuilt. Cannot remember the name of the one Chev built.

 

[GaryB]

The photo in #32 is that perhaps an old Ford Ranchero being rebuilt. Cannot remember the name of the one Chev built.

Yes, it's a 1957 Ranchero by Ford, Chevrolet introduced the El-Camino from 1959 to compete with it.

 

[Buckman]

Yes, it's a 1957 Ranchero by Ford, Chevrolet introduced the El-Camino from 1959 to compete with it.

My work colleague had a RHD El-Camino. Love the sound of that V8. Sadly I had a Ford Customline in the sixties, but loved the V8. Had a Blaupunkt valve radio which kept you warm in winter months. LOL!"