Appliance Buying Rant

Ischgl99 said:
They claim it’s for people who didn’t order heated seats to be able to get that feature at a future date. If you order the car that way, you don’t pay the subscription, at least in the US. The article I read said building all the cars with the most common features and then turning them on if customers wants them is actually a good idea, I object to paying monthly for that since you know at some point there will not be the option to buy outright since there is more money from subscriptions. A lot of software applications are going that way. I’m a photographer and the most popular editing software is subscription based, so if I stop my subscription, I can’t use the software any longer and make any additional edits to my photos that I made previously. I would have to start over with whatever software I switched to.
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That's common practice these days. Not the "subscription", but writing one OS and turning things on and off.

Take my 2016 F150 lariat for example. I ordered it with the 502A option level, which has nearly, but not all, the "expensive" options. Once home, I added adaptive cruise control, hill decent control, parallel parking and lane keeping.

I had to add a little bit of hardware (a few sensors and subordinate wiring harness here and there) and the rest was getting into the "asbuilt" files in the modules to change a few bytes here and there. I've got the software/hardware already, so the rest was just figuring out what turned what on and off.

Other things are just software changes. I added "Lincoln fold" for the power mirrors (they fold in every time you leave the truck and lock the door) and "police mode (if the key leaves the vehicle with it running, the truck locks the shifter in park and locks the wheel). No hardware to install, just software changes.

Modern vehicles are a bit of a crap shoot if you like to work on them yourself. They make some things easier and at the same time, they make other things harder on the home mechanic guy....
 
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Four pages into this discussion, and I'm now curious which one of us will build our own appliance when the new gizmo dies. Seriously, if any bunch is capable it's on here.
I abhor new stuff of any sort from dump trucks right down to weed eaters. Quality Control has been replace with Quality Assurance...which is the devil.
 
great white said:
That's common practice these days. Not the "subscription", but writing one OS and turning things on and off.

Take my 2016 F150 lariat for example. I ordered it with the 502A option level, which has nearly all the "expensive" options. Once home, I added adaptive cruise control, hill decent control, parallel parking and lane keeping.

I had to add a little bit of hardware (a few sensors and subordinate wiring harness here and there) and the rest was getting into the "asbuilt" files in the modules to change a few bytes here and there. I've got the software/hardware already, so the rest was just figuring out what turned what on and off.

Other things are just software changes. I added "Lincoln fold" for the power mirrors (they fold in every time you leave the truck and lock the door) and "police mode (if the key leaves the vehicle with it running, the truck locks the shifter in park and locks the wheel). No hardware to install, just software changes.

Modern vehicles are a bit of a crap shoot if you like to work on them yourself. They make some things easier and at the same time, they make other things harder on the home mechanic guy....
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I don’t have a problem with any of that, it’s the subscription part that is new with cars. Companies are realizing they can make a lot more money on a subscription than selling a feature, and what is encouraging that is people not being able to do the math and realizing how much more they are paying for a subscription than outright buying the feature. Is the future subscription only?
 
I heard about the subscription scam recently, and my reaction has been pretty violent about the whole thing. Repossession of features from not paying on an ongoing basis is extortion. Thuggery. Abuse of the social contract.

The conglomerates are redefining ownership as continuous payment post purchase now. They did it, just like how they redefined durable goods as a 3-5 year good. They redefined lifetime warranty (oh, you mean the lifetime of the product?) years ago. They make these deals with the devil in smoke-filled rooms bubbling with greed. The shareholder comes first, profit must continually increase, the gap between rich and poor must be opened as wide as the feedstock can support. In the end there can be only one.
 
Many appliances have an "energy efficiency rating" which is helpful. What I would like to see also would be a MTBF rating (mean time before failure)
Difficult to do since new appliances don't have a track record yet
 
Are you suggesting some commie watchdog scheme to protect the consumer? Why do you need that, all these poor companies are trying to do is separate you from your money. And remember, to us laboring pukes, time is money and money is time. So the conglomerates are plotting to abscond with your precious life's moments that you trade for cash through your employer. Life-thieves. Capital.
 
I will state up front, I do not want the government trying to “protect” me in any way what so ever from companies ruining their reputation. The only protection I want is transparency, it is my job as a consumer to research what I buy and I only want it required that companies cannot hide negative information. If they did that, I think half the companies would be bankrupt in a month…

I have no problem with a company building $hitty products and letting the market sort things put, that is what a free market is supposed to do, but we are buying products based on a company’s past reputation, and that is where the problem comes in, we need to learn we can’t do that any longer. We bought our Whirlpool appliances based on their reputation, we won’t be making that mistake again. It takes years until enough of the market realizes company X is now crap, and many of us that have bought their products for years, pay the price. But, that company also spends years paying the price when they realize their dumb mistake and try to fix it.
 
Bone Head said:
Four pages into this discussion, and I'm now curious which one of us will build our own appliance when the new gizmo dies. Seriously, if any bunch is capable it's on here.
I abhor new stuff of any sort from dump trucks right down to weed eaters. Quality Control has been replace with Quality Assurance...which is the devil.
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I so agree. I don’t care what comes up somebody with background pops up and KNOWS what they are talking about. The bench here is incredibly deep. Being a devotee of the junkyard army I would like to take each appliance and break it down to like, mechanicals, controls, housing, etc and find the best in each category and make a hybrid. With a list of what to look for in each category and find the appliance that has those pieces (that hopefully are the tons of stuff that’s on the curb 24/7 on CL). A DIY appliance guide. I know it crazy, but I’ve thought the same thing about hobby sized machine tools.
 
Speaking on the depth of the bench, my Kenmore can beat the pants off of your Monkey Wards. Like, I'm loading the dryer before you're even starting spin. Your belts don't even smoke when the light comes on, man, all show and no go. Just 'cause mine's on cinder blocks don't mean it's slow. Told'ya that overbored pump outlet really rips. You gotta get away from that old two-bearing drum, man. That goes out of balance at the top of the load, you're gonna be on manual wash until pay day.

Oh yeah. This has legs.
 
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