Why nothing lasts anymore

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that many episodes in this Norwegian series are in English, nor that a lot of people on the street seem to speak English by default. The series might be a good way to learn Norwegian. On the other hand it probably tells you that you don't really need to.

Thanks for that,

Nick

The classic example was the Singer sewing machine. It was so well engineered that it passed from grandmother to daughter to granddaughter and so on. Once everybody who wanted one had one, the business collapsed.

There are other factors: most people prioritise buy price over likely length of life or maintenance needed i.e. will not generally pay more for something more robust.

Also, the cheapest production methods do not allow for repair. A control stalk on a car's steering column could usually be dismantled and individual switches changed. Now there are no parts available smaller than the entire stalk, and then it is likely to be a major job to exchange it, as it will have been fitted before the surrounding covers were riveted into place. And so on. The 'right to repair' is all very well, but it will lead to more expensive products, which will not sell easily against items with less repairability.

No, everybody else apart from the inheritance line bought a later updated competitor's model that did an awful lot more.

My attic is full of 40 - 50 year old perfectly serviceable items that no-one, not even me, would use in their right mind.

The right to repair doesn't necessarily mean down the smallest component, nor does it mean by the DIYer.

No, but it means details like being able to dismantle the thing without damaging it, and if necessary the manufacturer making available instructions as to how. Example: VTech make toy cars and other toys that talk and do clever things. They can all be dismantled with at most, a few screwdrivers, without damage. Everyone elses' plastic toys, no matter how sophisticated, are assembled with glue or one-way plastic clips.

I once had a Braun battery shaver in which the batteries got old and died. The case of the shaver was deliberately designed to be impossible to open, to comply with German battery disposal laws. People were thought to be more likely to dispose of the entire shaver correctly, so the waste of the shaver itself was seen as less important than not throwing just the batteries in the bin. This was clearly before the EU thought repair was a good idea.

Because its fast and lowers labour costs

I had a freelander that got water into its light cluster and some of the lights no longer worked

I removed the cluster and discovered the edge connector on a PCB was eaten away with corrosion. Both the board, and the connector that went on it.

Total replacement loom with connector loom and cluster and labour around £1000

I couldn't get just the connector. anywhere.

Neither could I understand why there was a connector there at all, and I realised is was so they could fit the loom first and then spend 5 secs plugging the cluster in and one more clicking it into place...

I removed the connector and soldered the wires onto the PCB

Took 20 minutes and 5p of solder

Worked perfectly forever as far as I know

So much on $%&! cars is quick to install at the factory and a PITA when it's 20 years old and you need to get it off. Plastic clips are the new pingfuckits - so much trim, undertrays etc are held on with clips that are in theory reusable, but the head snaps off and you then get to spend half an hour digging out the remainder of the clip that stops your trim dragging on the ground or launching across the carriageway when it fails. I've resorted to ordering new OEM clips from Japan as they might last some years... Amazon's finest Chinesium are effectively single use.

(I asked here about it a while ago, the other sources turned out to be not a great deal cheaper than $1/clip from Japan)

Theo

No luck tracking down that box of goodies from Lidl then ? and .... did you speak to a human at Woolies ?

Its much more complicated than that, particularly with the more fancy stuff which could be done with no skill

Lidl didn't any available at the time, and I expect they're not going to last.. Woolies offerings were about 30 years too old for my era, I didn't see the point in asking. One of the other suppliers in that thread had better stock, but it was something like 65p per fastener from them against $1 OEM, and if I'm ordering other OEM parts the carriage is already paid. (although I do feel cheated when the price is always exactly $1.00 no matter what small fastener it is)

Theo

Which was exactly the point I was making: building things to be repairable increases the price, and not many people will pay the extra, given that there's no way to tell how long anything will last.

All our grandchildrens' VTech stuff came from charity shops, and were two or three pounds each then. They're about £15-£20 new. Being battery operated, many didn't work as someone had left old batteries in them, but new battery contacts solved that. That was a practical proposition because the cars came apart easily and without damage.

I am convinced that they build cars around the loom and the heater matrix. I have visions of them being held in place in the factory as the panels are welded around them

No, the wiring loom is wound separately and fed through holes in the bodywork.

Sigh, it was a leaden attempt at humour. Or maybe humor.

I used to know a bloke at a bodyshop who had a bit of a sideline of buying written off cars from salvage dealers, and then buying a complete replacement body shell and swapping everything over.

Obviously odd bits of trim / headlights and other parts had to be sourced as well.

I was quite surprised when he told me that the single most troublesome item was the business of getting the wiring loom back in the right position - closely followed by the headlining nightmare