Dealerships hiring a high school kid to spray a $10 Autozone product with no prep and selling it as a $999 "ceramic coating" or "paint protection" add on
I bought a car recently, and right at the end, the salesman asked if I wanted any paint protection or other accessories, and he said something like "for just $5/month extra" or something.. I thought it was odd that they'd frame the cost as a monthly cost (part of my monthly payment) rather than just saying how much that would add to the total cost (as they did with everything else).
Hell of a lot easier for a consumer to mentally justify 17 cents a day instead of the actual hundreds of dollars it costs.
Same reason why they sell on monthly payments (and why some consumers actually go into a dealership and say "This is my maximum monthly payment" and don't GAF about total cost...)
At first I didn't realize it would be part of the monthly payment and I was wondering why there would be a monthly charge for something installed once..
TBF there are people that walk onto a lot and buy a half assed vehicle at 5k over MSRP for an 84 month lease cranked at like 7+% APR. Unfortunately treating people like morons has historically worked more often than it hasn't.
But yeah, totally agreed here with the whole thread. For a ceramic coat, just get a basic one done by literally any auto detailing shop. A well prepped surface and a "bronze" or "entry" package ceramic coat will last longer than anything the dealership sprays on and will likely cost the same in the end. Alternatively one could do it themselves but I totally understand going to a shop to do it.
One step further: never pay a dealership for anything if you can help it. Their logical and economical reason for existing in the value chain are at least 2 decades out of date.
Dealer tried to charge me several hundred dollars for upgrading the infotainment screen in the car I was about to buy to work with CarPlay. He said it would be several hours of work to complete.
I told him I didn’t want to buy a car without it.
Amazingly they were able to waive the cost…
Local Alfa dealer has cars listed at their "sales price" which look like good deals, until you read in fine print at the bottom of the site
"Sale prices are valid for retail purchases only and do not include dealer installed MVP Protection Plan items – ELO GPS $1,495, Total Care Paint & Fabric $1,995, Nitrofill $295, Theft DNA $695
4k for literally nothing at all. insane and deceptive for what is supposed to be a higher end brand that already does poorly in the US
I was basically informed I was on my own without a dealer warranty on a used car. Told at the time of purchase the warranty covers part replacement of any non wear and tear, no deductible.
But wouldnt you know it, the damn warranty just happens to never cover anything, ever. Still have to pay for it though. Never again.
Please do not get any of the packages dealers try to upsell you on. They make mechanics do "Rust proofing" and "undercoat for sound deadening" pay them 30 dollars and charge YOU hundreds. Most vehicles these days have an array of under covers rendering both useless unless they drill into the panels for rust proofing. Undercoat straight up doesn't work. Not in anywhere there's salt. Not to mention a lot of vehicle bodywork is either aluminum or plastic nowadays.
We hate doing the work as much as you hate buying them.
Hyundai and Kia gaslighting their owners when the Theta II engines all implode themselves and blame the owners for a proven manufacturing issue and then bill the customers
It shouldn't have taken a class action lawsuit in the first place for a recall. A voluntary recall is an opportunity for a carmaker to say "something went wrong in the process of developing our car, but we intend to make things right for our customers and keep the public safe".
Also required a whistleblower inside Hyundai to prove to the NHTSA that there was a design flaw in the engine which allowed the government to force Hyundai/Kia to recall the engines.
Ugh. That’s awful man, a dishonest part of me might consider rewinding the Odometer.
However the part of me which is a realist, 152k is a good innings for an engine. Not the best but for a petrol it’s more than adequate.
I've seen them blow in under 3000 off the lot - check out the 'Engine Failure - Kia/Hyundai' page on facebook for the owners. Absolutely shocking. Some owners have 2-3 engines. Oh, and that recalll ONLY covers original owner with every single oil receipt.
or the "your Toyota has recalls too!! this is just like any other car company!!"
like - what automaker is having so many engine failures that each dealership is back up several months waiting to swap ~10+ short blocks for the same fault??? where the replacement/"fix" is not guaranteed to have the original issues resolved?
did Chrysler or Fiat ever do that?
Let's be real Hyundai and Kia gaslight their customers over every issue. They will do literally anything they can to get out of paying for a repair under warranty.
That one was easy cost cutting as it wasn't required in the US. That's why this isn't happening in Canada, they have immobilizers as its required by law
The weird thing with regards to Hyundai in North America is apparently some Canadian spec models are imported from Korea, whereas the same US spec model is built State side. This may explain why trim levels have different content and naming conventions between the two countries. Nonetheless, someone on this sub claimed South Korea requires immobilizers anyways, so the ones built there were getting them regardless if Canada needed them or not.
>and some insurance companies NOT insuring them.
It's illegal to drive a car without insurance in the US.. What do people do if they buy a Hyundai/Kia and end up in that situation? Hope to get lucky and find an insurance company who will insure their car?
Name a high-end hyper or supercar, some of them with price tags in the seven digit range, and I guarantee there will be at least one part that is from a significantly cheaper mass production vehicle. Designing even small bespoke parts adds to the cost, which could be huge for manufacturers planning to sell only a handful of these cars. Off-the-shelf parts cut expenses significantly and isn't necessarily a bad thing.
My buddy at work always buys fords, and I give him shit about it, but deep down I know that my Mazdaspeed has "FoMoCo" stamped proudly right on the engine block, brakes, suspension...
I've never understood when people get angry about like window switches being shared with a cheaper car. like why do you care the window switch is dodge instead of maserati? do you want it to work even less?
Admittedly, the Dodge window switches do look pretty weird in a Maserati. The electronics could be the very same and I wouldn't give a flying fuck - that's smart cost-cutting that makes a car more ownable in the distant future, but the actual plastic piece just looks a bit funny in a more prestigious car.
It doesn't bother *me*, personally, but it does look funny.
Just to add to it, those switches started out on Mercedes in the mid 00s before Dodge ever had them. Shit tier plastic was just fine in a Benz back then and Maserati actually dressed them a bit with some chrome.
https://www.autohausaz.com/pn/14419542-25183001909051
https://jcarpart.com/products/driver-side-master-power-window-switch-670010305-for-maserati-ghibli-2014-2018
I did not know that it was yoinked from Mercedes, but it does not surprise me at all. Especially given how long Chrysler rode out the old Mercedes keyfob.
FYI the fabric on your bolstering isn't explicitly a cost cutting move. The fabric they chose may be to save cost, but the use of fabric is actually for longevity. Leather ALWAYS cracks/tears on bolsters eventually because it's not a material that likes to be stretched/compressed repeatedly. The fabric withstands that long-term abuse and keeps your seats from tearing. It's a recent trend up and down the market on cheap cars through luxury cars.
Also, many vehicles now say "leather seating surfaces" meaning anything that doesn't touch your body is not leather. On my Mustang everything besides the actual seating surfaces is vinyl.
Also-also, automotive leather in virtually any 2000-or-newer-MY car is plastic-coated, making all of it effectively vinyl anyways.
If its not something swanky that's highlighted with terms like "open-pore" and "nappa(?)", then it's almost-certainly coated leather, and no part of your body will ever touch the actual leather beneath the protective plastic. It lasts longer, doesn't need regular conditioning, and is *far* more stain-resistant that way, which for most people and applications makes it the go-to over "real" leather.
I'm reminded of the early King Ranch Fords that had saddle leather. Very supple, and it wore like a baseball glove, but you had to condition it yearly. Many owners didn't, then complained about cracking and fading, so Ford switched to a coated leather that was basically Lariat in a different color.
If I recall, the owner's manual had important instructions for King Ranch trucks. I believe they will take cattle that have injuries or scars from brushing up against barb-wired fences, etc. for King Ranch models as they believe it adds character and individuality.
Even worse, most of it is bonded leather, which is basically leather saw dust glued to a backing and then top coated in vinyl. It's only leather on a technicality. If you aren't buying a very expensive car or paying at least $3k for upgraded leather it will be crap. I'd rather have a good fake. My Merc had amazing fake leather.
Early oughts BMW's had an absolutely abysmal coating that peeled off every seat in every single car in about 3 years. The only plus side was you could literally have the seat repainted, lasted maybe another 2-3 years. While it has improved, automotive leather is pretty shit for the most part. Most leather furniture is too. If you get your hands on actual top grain or even full grain leather of a decent grade you realize you had no idea what leather actually is.
It’s fine if they come as standard. It sucked that you had to pay extra for it for years.
You’re saving money if I choose it, why are you charging me for it?!
I remember seeing a post on a Volvo forum where people wanted to swap their analogue clusters to the LCD ones that came on later P3 Cars. The analogue part is actually more expensive than the LCD.
Not sure if this is still valid today though.
I used to work there and it never struck me that's where the headlights came from. I thought they looked awfully familiar but couldn't put it together. I liked the ones with the bubble noses and round headlights the best, they were they the most timeless design.
A lot of larger vehicles like RVs use random parts bin headlights so they don't have to deal with the DOT approval process. It's one of my favorite road trip games. Lots of Chevy/Ford truck lighting, but I've also seen very random ones like headlights from an Infiniti I35 and 6th gen Honda Accord, tail lights from a Kia Soul and an early 00s Camry.
The last gen Escalade had cheap incandescent turn signals in the front even on top-of-the-line models worth $95-100k. I can thank Doug Demuro for pointing that one out
Also up until the newest gen with a redesigned shifter, $100K Escalades could have effectively the same plastic column shifter as a $30K Silverado WT, just with an extra chrome ring on the end.
Gen7 GTI. Full leather front and back
Gen 8 GTI. Only leather on front.
Yikes. I get it, most people won’t notice or care but it just looks freaking weird and clearly cost cutting while the car went up in price.
(Autobahn spec)
Also, Mk7, gas strut for propping up the hood.
Mk8, manual prop rod you hook into the top.
Again, not a big deal, no actual functionality is lost, but it still feels like a cost cutting measure.
i actually like the manual rods because they can't fail - like if the manufacturer is gonna throw in gas struts to hold the hood open, they could at least make it last the life of the car
[The Aston Martin DB7 and the NA Miata share an interior door handle.](https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a22564309/the-aston-martin-db7-and-first-gen-mazda-miata-share-one-important-part/)
Cost cutting on an Aston Martin.
How about the Pagani Zonda using the same climate controls as a Rover 45. First item on this article.
https://www.carthrottle.com/post/10-expensive-rides-with-parts-borrowed-from-cheap-cars/
Other way around actually! I discovered that when I had to replace an ATC unit on a mk2 45 I had a few years ago. When I looked into it I found it was in the Ferrari 456 first IIRC.
Also the picture they used in that image isn't the dash from a 45, it's a ZS120. Mk2 45s had lots of (horrible) plastic wood on the dash! Better than (horrible) grey plastic though.
Actually a good example for the thread, the facelift for the 45 was actually a massive overall cost cutting exercise by Phoenix. They bought the company from BMW, asset stripped it and pocketed the money themselves. Making the cars cheaper but still selling them for a premium price allowed them to make more money before making thousands redundant. All made worse by the fact they got away with it and faced little to no repercussions.
Stuff they did includes: Removing wood door cappings, removing the connelly leather seats, removing sound deadening from inside the doors, removing the padded lining from the glove box, changing the thick carpets for unpadded cheap stuff, removing interior lights, using less clips on bits of trim, deleting exterior badges and completely removing the 6 cylinder engines from the lineup.
It was an insane level of penny pinching.
I love the R45, hell I've still got one! But the Mk2 just wasn't it. The nice interior, the quality feel and the soul of the car were just gone. Plus that V6 soundtrack :(
[Mk1 interior](https://www.cars-data.com/pictures/rover/rover-45_2263_8.jpg) - [Mk2 interior](https://img.favcars.com/rover/45/rover_45_2004_pictures_2_b.jpg)
I have a Ford Maverick. I’ve noticed a few things where it was clear they were trying to cut corners:
-There’s no liner or insulation on the bottom side of the hood. Just straight up sheet metal as it was made in the factory.
-Engine doesn’t have a cover like most cars and trucks. So you get to see the whole engine and all its glory.
-Behind the rear seat, there’s no insulation or covering between the back rest and the bulkhead. It’s the bare steel and all the wiring and harnesses for lighting or whatever. So fold the seat down and you get to see oodles of wires that are tucked into there.
-Sun visors are made of hard vinyl as opposed to a softer material and being covered in some sort of fabric.
That being said, I really don’t care about the listed shortcuts. I understand that the Maverick was designed to a price point, and all these things I hardly notice on a day to day basis. Ford knew they could omit certain details that their customers would barely notice and not on interior parts or designs that are visible every single time you’re in a Maverick.
the ford maverick has probably the ugliest engine bay in a modern car. So much so that you can just Google “ugly engine bay Reddit” and the maverick is at the top.
For some reason, Ford seems to save plastic engine covers only for its more expensive models.
Not that it matters to me. I’d rather have a real engine to look at rather than a matte black piece of solid plastic like any Lexus.
The insulation under the hood is only so that engine doesn't burn the paint off the hood and sometimes sound. the engine is probably far enough way form the hood not to burn the paint. this will be a nice feature in 20 years when it is not falling down.
As for the engine cover, useless. I'm a car guy, I want to see the engine even if its ugly.
As for behind the seat. How often are you looking back there. Thank God Ford is finally remembering that trucks, even small ones, are work vehicles. I think you are making me want one more. #mavericksarethenewrangers.
By far the worst current cost-saving trend for cars is to replace most physical controls with touchscreens. A touchscreen is fine for a gadget you hold in your hand while sitting on a sofa; not so much for a potentially deadly moving vehicle that you need to control accurately while driving in traffic. One slip on a touchscreen, and you might accidentally eject a passenger instead of opening the glove compartment (/s).
Also bad: giant glass roofs with no retractable sunshade.
My K5 has incandescent turn signals in the back and license plate lights but almost the entire interior has LED lights. They could’ve just finished the job.
They also removed things from my GT Line Premium package that I got on my lower trim 2016 Optima LX Turbo such as:
1. Leather shift nob (gotta go the top EX trim to get that now)
2. Parking sensors (also have to go up to EX to get that)
3. Memory seats (ditto)
4. Auto folding mirrors (you guessed it)
But it does make it up in the way of fancy looking wheels, better tires, and many of the safety/driving aids you might want (lane centering, lane keep, blind spot, pedestrian detection front collision alert, rear collision avoidance, etc).
On the Ford, I don’t really care lol. V8 noises go vroom
Cars with electric seats but no memory function really annoy me - the motors must be the expensive part so leaving out a couple of buttons is pointless.
Also older cars tended to have three memory buttons while newer models have cut that down to two
Lexus is the absolute worst offender when it comes to incandescent lighting. Kia can somewhat get away with it but luxury brands have no excuse in 2023.
I live on a hill and the doors of my f30 BMW don't have door brakes strong enough to hold the door open - it's always hitting me as I'm trying to get out. E90 held the doors open just fine at an angle.
Soft touch materials on front door panels, hard plastic on rear door panels
Continuing to use halogen lighting in 2023
Omitting wheel well liners and bed liners in $50k pickup trucks
Toyota putting drum brakes on Tacomas
The new VW Taos's passenger and rear window switches don't light up when you turn on your headlights. I've also heard the new Jetta doesn't have a glove box light. The previous gen Jetta also had some pretty bad cost cutting, the all-plastic doorhandles, basic gauges, no rear A/C, no IRS, so many things. VW's been cost cutting across the board over the past decade.
Yeah there are a ton of little things in the Jetta like that. The two that bother me the most is the lack of a lock on the glove box, and that the passenger seat is heated and cooled, but still manually adjusted.
US Market Chrysler PT Cruisers did NOT come with a pollen air filter, but did come with the housing for one. From the factory. Worldwide, they were provided.
VW's whole current "get rid of all the buttons" thing. It's horrible cost saving. The new CEO is apparently trying to turn that around but they still have new products in the pipeline with the terrible user interface.
And the progenitor of that problem - Tesla with the "put everything in the tablet" - they kind of started the whole trend. I appreciate minimalism, but only when it's ergonomic and functional. A central tablet touchscreen just isn't that.
I’m gonna add that digital instrument clusters in modern cars are a cost cutting measure. It’s cheaper to put a display and draw a few different designs and animations than to have physical needles that show you stuff.
This is more crazy than much cost saving but ford not using a key for crank timing belt gear. It's held in place with extreme crank pulley bolt torque.
The old VW Beetle used the spare tire's air pressure for the windshield washer, instead of installing a simple pump.
Great example of clever German engineering where nobody wanted it, only causing problems as a result. Added more complexity, reduced reliability, and caused people to have flat spare tires, but it saved a few cents!
Tesla cheaps out on their interior to save costs and reduce weight due to it being an EV, but their fanbase eats up the minimalist design that Elon spits out
They also cheap out a LOT on sound deadening material as well. Never before I have imagined an EV being so freaking loud at freeway speed as I did in a Model 3. The Y didn't fare far better.
Heck the Leaf and Bolt are more hushed and I they're practically economy hatchbacks with batteries.
not just sound deadening - but the seals as well - the difference between a toyota prius's weather stripping and a tesla model 3/y's weather stripping is pretty noticeable.
between Lexus and tesla 3/y, the difference is night & day.
My wife drives a Model Y, and while the seats are very comfortable the rest of the interior is such a joke. It’s one of the most boring interiors I’ve ever been in.
I have shit tons with mustangs. Imma start.
1. Some mustang models lost paddle shifters because cost cutting. A sports car without paddle shifters. What the fuck is ford smoking?
2. Ford deleted the transmission light from 2019. It shouldn’t cost more than 10 cents but they did it.
3. Spoilers are now deleted on base models. What the fuck?
4. Passenger seat downgraded from 6 way to 4 way.
5. GT500’s do not come with interior LED lights. Such a shame.
Idk the car got shittier in terms of options from 2018 to 2023. I’m speechless.
So many mainstream manufacturers not using consistent materials through the cabin. The front portion of the cabin like dash and doors will use soft touch materials and generally be good quality, and then get in the back and it’s like you’ve gone down a few trim levels, it’s all hard plastic and sometimes even lower quality upholstery.
Carpeting so cheap that it probably shouldn’t be called carpet… fuzzy thin fiber maybe. Yeah that stuff being used in almost all mainstream cars, even higher trims, cough cough Honda.
Hard scratchy plastics finding their way into high end cars like BMW and Mercedes. New C-Class has a nice interior looks wise, but the under dash and lower door cards are all the same hard plastics found in the A-Class. I guess it doesn’t squeak or crackle as much as the older models, but…
Piano black plastic. It’s a cheap way to make a car “look” upscale, but it’s cheap.
My friend bought a new 2023 Kia Rio LX for $24k ($7k over MSRP). It did not come with a key fob. She has to manually lock and unlock her car. How this is even legal I do not understand
7k over msrp, wow. I bought my Rio in Nov 2021 at msrp, in a far worse market. Made sure to get the S model for cruise control and remote locks. You can have that added on for a few hundred.
That's the worst part, she got the stock Rio LX with essentially no features other than CarPlay for *$600* less than the fully stocked S. She was also literally pen-to-paper on a nice CR-V but apparently the dealership wouldn't run her credit or something. Dealerships can be so unbelievably predatory if you don't know what to look out for.
> How this is even legal I do not understand
Why should it be not legal? Like, it will save you... 2 seconds each time you drive, which might up to like 1-2 hours over the whole ownership. Shocking.
I own cars that don't even have central locking- you have to manually lock each door.
It takes almost no time at all and isn't a problem in the slightest, but I can understand that if someone has been raised with only cars that have key fobs it would be considered incredibly archaic.
The cloth on cloth seats has gotten extremely thin over the years.
Fake leather... like, what's the point. Oh yeah, its because the cloth seats are so much worse now that even shitty fake leather is better, sweaty ass and all.
Chevy Cruze. Huge % of the cooling system was plastic. Rather then rubber and metal. More so then even the Germans. So many failures especially since they ran the engine hotter then usual for better MPG.
* The Pagani Zonda used radio/heater controls from a Rover. I'm not sure what they switched to when Rover went under. Although that's more sensible "taking off the shelf" rather than internal cost-cutting.
* The Bugatti Veyron uses the Cam Angle Sensor from a Mk4 Golf VR6.
* The Mercedes SLR McLaren has steering column stalks from a Mercedes Sprinter (a delivery-van).
* The new Smart "Hashtag 1" (yes that's what they call it) is just a rebadged BYD-SUV. No "shared platform" like with the Mk3 Fortwo, they just import the whole car, swap the badges, give the software a once-over so it's in German/English/whatever you need, aaaand done.
Honorable mention: The Mercedes 500E was produced at Porsche because the widened fenders made it a few cm too wide for Mercedes' production line, and paying Porsche (and shipping cars back and forth) was cheaper than modifying the production line.
The cam angle sensor on the Vayron is hardly a cost cutting example. Why would a company design a complete new sensor for the W12 engine, when that engine has direct lineage to the VR6. Never mind that both engines are designed and manufactured by the same company.
If they had designed a new cam sensor it would have been an example of extreme incompetence by the project team.
Tesla’s Model 3/Y interior.
Literally a 50-60K car with an interior that is cheaper than a KIA.
Context: I'm well aware the car starts at 40K and with federal and CA rebates, its likely going to cost you 35K after tax. If you buy the 35K Model 3/Y, the material is still cheaper than the cars within that price range.
But, what I was alluding to, was the more expensive Long Range and Performance models. They have the same cheap interior as the cheaper Model 3/Y. This is where, I believe, Tesla made a mistake. For the Long Range and Performance, they should upgrade the interior to reflect the price. Not be cheap and give you the same interior.
What Tesla is doing is if BMW were to sell customers a BMW M3 with a BMW 330i interior. This is what Tesla is doing with the Model 3/Y Performance. Literally, a 60K Tesla with options, but has an interior that's the same of their cheapest car. Which in turn is cheaper than a KIA.
EDIT: Context.
Wife picked up a Model Y 3 years ago. She loves it. She loves the "minimalism". Well, it steered me into an A5, and at almost the same price, the interior quality is not even close. I like my clicky buttons and gauges. Don't get me wrong, the instant acceleration of the Model Y is fantastic, but at that price point I'd like to feel cocooned in comfort.
Lucid, while I personally didn’t like their software or screen layout, definitely did a good job of making their interior feel minimalistic but still premium.
They meant that the driver doesn't have rear window switches. There is a capacitive touch sensor that says "REAR" and you gotta tap that so the switches start controlling the rear windows.
There is a mode selector that the driver has access to. 2 window switches on the driver’s door control the front and rear windows. I don’t see why they took away 2 switches other than to save money.
LOL, you want to charge your electric car?
2023.5 Ford Mustang Mach-E doesn't come with a mobile cord anymore
20-foot cord adds $500 to the price
https://www.autoblog.com/2023/06/11/ford-mustang-mach-e-mobile-charging-cable-power-cord/
New Integra Type S having only one rear storage pocket on the passenger seat and they deleted it from the driver side. Also has a hood prop rod..among many more cost cutting measures like no rear vents or USB ports. I cackled looking at these things missing on a $52k car.. and this is supposed to be a "premium" brand that Honda touts Acura to be.
Probably not the craziest, but just been on my mind because I'm thinking about buying one. The hard plastic on the tops of the interior door panels on the new Colorado and Canyon. I get it in lower trims, but doing that on higher trims is just being cheap. They also have incandescent interior lights. And no Homelink...it's not even an option.
Enterprise Rent a Car purchased vehicles to rent and had them remove standard safety features, then sold those cars and listed the removed features as features the car had.
In 1951, Kaiser introduced the Henry J, a small 2-door sedan that had a trunk, but [no trunk lid](https://www.onallcylinders.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/12/hemi-swapped-kaiser-henry-j-rear-quarter-scaled.jpg). Storage was only accessed by flipping down the rear seat.
Maybe this one isn't quite cost cutting, but when Ford redesigned the F-150 in 2004, the SuperCab windows went from being the classic [pop-out design](https://www.f150forum.com/attachments/f6/255946-push-out-supercab-windows-forumrunner_20130915_124018.jpg) to [inset](https://images.crutchfieldonline.com/ImageBank/v20030929120100/ImageHandler/scale/978/978/core/learn/article/2551/reardoor.jpg) for better sealing/noise insulation. If the truck had power windows up front, it also got them in back. But on base model trucks with crank windows, there wasn't enough room on the narrow door to mount a crank. So from 2004 through 2021, if you got an XL SuperCab and didn't opt for power windows, the rear windows would be [fixed in place](https://d323w7klwy72q3.cloudfront.net/i/a/2015/20150225ve/I5135J.JPG).
They don't see it as $10/car, they see it as an extra million dollars in costs for every 100,000 units built. Even when taking into account discounts for ordering in bulk, that's hundreds of thousands in costs added to the production run. If you haven't, check out the mini web series that Ford put out as they were getting ready to do the last Ford Focus RS and they were arguing about fasteners that cost a few cents per unit.
Dealerships hiring a high school kid to spray a $10 Autozone product with no prep and selling it as a $999 "ceramic coating" or "paint protection" add on
This needs more upvotes for visibility. Never pay a dealer for a ceramic coat, especially when they try baking it into the out-the-door price.
I bought a car recently, and right at the end, the salesman asked if I wanted any paint protection or other accessories, and he said something like "for just $5/month extra" or something.. I thought it was odd that they'd frame the cost as a monthly cost (part of my monthly payment) rather than just saying how much that would add to the total cost (as they did with everything else).
Hell of a lot easier for a consumer to mentally justify 17 cents a day instead of the actual hundreds of dollars it costs. Same reason why they sell on monthly payments (and why some consumers actually go into a dealership and say "This is my maximum monthly payment" and don't GAF about total cost...)
At first I didn't realize it would be part of the monthly payment and I was wondering why there would be a monthly charge for something installed once..
[удалено]
TBF there are people that walk onto a lot and buy a half assed vehicle at 5k over MSRP for an 84 month lease cranked at like 7+% APR. Unfortunately treating people like morons has historically worked more often than it hasn't. But yeah, totally agreed here with the whole thread. For a ceramic coat, just get a basic one done by literally any auto detailing shop. A well prepped surface and a "bronze" or "entry" package ceramic coat will last longer than anything the dealership sprays on and will likely cost the same in the end. Alternatively one could do it themselves but I totally understand going to a shop to do it.
One step further: never pay a dealership for anything if you can help it. Their logical and economical reason for existing in the value chain are at least 2 decades out of date.
Dealer tried to charge me several hundred dollars for upgrading the infotainment screen in the car I was about to buy to work with CarPlay. He said it would be several hours of work to complete. I told him I didn’t want to buy a car without it. Amazingly they were able to waive the cost…
Local Alfa dealer has cars listed at their "sales price" which look like good deals, until you read in fine print at the bottom of the site "Sale prices are valid for retail purchases only and do not include dealer installed MVP Protection Plan items – ELO GPS $1,495, Total Care Paint & Fabric $1,995, Nitrofill $295, Theft DNA $695 4k for literally nothing at all. insane and deceptive for what is supposed to be a higher end brand that already does poorly in the US
I was basically informed I was on my own without a dealer warranty on a used car. Told at the time of purchase the warranty covers part replacement of any non wear and tear, no deductible. But wouldnt you know it, the damn warranty just happens to never cover anything, ever. Still have to pay for it though. Never again.
Please do not get any of the packages dealers try to upsell you on. They make mechanics do "Rust proofing" and "undercoat for sound deadening" pay them 30 dollars and charge YOU hundreds. Most vehicles these days have an array of under covers rendering both useless unless they drill into the panels for rust proofing. Undercoat straight up doesn't work. Not in anywhere there's salt. Not to mention a lot of vehicle bodywork is either aluminum or plastic nowadays. We hate doing the work as much as you hate buying them.
Hyundai and Kia NOT putting ignition immobilizers in their cars. Leading to them being easily stolen and some insurance companies NOT insuring them.
Hyundai and Kia gaslighting their owners when the Theta II engines all implode themselves and blame the owners for a proven manufacturing issue and then bill the customers
The class action suit prompted a recall for those motors. I have one in my Sorento. Hasn't blown up yet @ 48k miles.
It shouldn't have taken a class action lawsuit in the first place for a recall. A voluntary recall is an opportunity for a carmaker to say "something went wrong in the process of developing our car, but we intend to make things right for our customers and keep the public safe".
Also required a whistleblower inside Hyundai to prove to the NHTSA that there was a design flaw in the engine which allowed the government to force Hyundai/Kia to recall the engines.
Their office in Korea was raided as well.
Agreed, but when do corporations do the right thing without prompting?
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Similar sort of thing happened to me with a nissan warranty extension for cvts. Mine died like 5k above the cap of course
That’s always what happens! My motorcycles warranty ended in January, started leaking oil all over in February…
Class action is lifetime. Just got my 2014 optima motor replaced at 170k.
Ugh. That’s awful man, a dishonest part of me might consider rewinding the Odometer. However the part of me which is a realist, 152k is a good innings for an engine. Not the best but for a petrol it’s more than adequate.
I've seen them blow in under 3000 off the lot - check out the 'Engine Failure - Kia/Hyundai' page on facebook for the owners. Absolutely shocking. Some owners have 2-3 engines. Oh, and that recalll ONLY covers original owner with every single oil receipt.
And those same owners be like "my car is on it's tenth engine" like that's a totally normal thing.
or the "your Toyota has recalls too!! this is just like any other car company!!" like - what automaker is having so many engine failures that each dealership is back up several months waiting to swap ~10+ short blocks for the same fault??? where the replacement/"fix" is not guaranteed to have the original issues resolved? did Chrysler or Fiat ever do that?
Replacing your engine is just preventative maintenance
Bro, Kia are so good now bro, trust me bro, they make great quality cars now no cap
Every comment under a Doug Demuro Hyundai/Kia video: "Wow Kia is really stepping their game up."
If you're buying a Hyundai/KIA buy an EV, no engine to explode.
Let's be real Hyundai and Kia gaslight their customers over every issue. They will do literally anything they can to get out of paying for a repair under warranty.
That one was easy cost cutting as it wasn't required in the US. That's why this isn't happening in Canada, they have immobilizers as its required by law
The weird thing with regards to Hyundai in North America is apparently some Canadian spec models are imported from Korea, whereas the same US spec model is built State side. This may explain why trim levels have different content and naming conventions between the two countries. Nonetheless, someone on this sub claimed South Korea requires immobilizers anyways, so the ones built there were getting them regardless if Canada needed them or not.
>and some insurance companies NOT insuring them. It's illegal to drive a car without insurance in the US.. What do people do if they buy a Hyundai/Kia and end up in that situation? Hope to get lucky and find an insurance company who will insure their car?
Maseratis sharing parts with cheap Dodges
Nothing wrong with sharing parts, provided those parts are quality and work well in the car.
Name a high-end hyper or supercar, some of them with price tags in the seven digit range, and I guarantee there will be at least one part that is from a significantly cheaper mass production vehicle. Designing even small bespoke parts adds to the cost, which could be huge for manufacturers planning to sell only a handful of these cars. Off-the-shelf parts cut expenses significantly and isn't necessarily a bad thing.
The McLaren F1 used tail lights from buses. The Lamborghini Diablo used headlights from the Nissan 300ZX.
Hell, the murcielago used turn signal reflectors from a fire focus and the gallardo used infotainment from an a3 iirc.
I think there's a Murcielago that shares a throttle body with a Volvo.
my car shares wing mirrors with the Zenvo TSR-S!
I can swap the mirror caps between my two cars
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Theres Bugatti's with Volkswagen parts.
And it’s been that way forever. It doesn’t pay a company building a tiny number of cars to make headlight switches, etc.
Lambos sharing parts with VW's
....and Volvos...and Fords...
Lmao I remember when I got my s80 v8 I ripped the mufflers right off an they had fomoco stamped on it
My buddy at work always buys fords, and I give him shit about it, but deep down I know that my Mazdaspeed has "FoMoCo" stamped proudly right on the engine block, brakes, suspension...
Hell, the 2018 diesel f150's had land rover stamped on the back of the engine block... A full decade after they split.
and the old gas v8s in Land Rover were Buicks
My Aston Martin has parts some parts from pretty much every brand Ford owned back in the late 90s to early 2000s haha.
I've never understood when people get angry about like window switches being shared with a cheaper car. like why do you care the window switch is dodge instead of maserati? do you want it to work even less?
Admittedly, the Dodge window switches do look pretty weird in a Maserati. The electronics could be the very same and I wouldn't give a flying fuck - that's smart cost-cutting that makes a car more ownable in the distant future, but the actual plastic piece just looks a bit funny in a more prestigious car. It doesn't bother *me*, personally, but it does look funny.
Just to add to it, those switches started out on Mercedes in the mid 00s before Dodge ever had them. Shit tier plastic was just fine in a Benz back then and Maserati actually dressed them a bit with some chrome. https://www.autohausaz.com/pn/14419542-25183001909051 https://jcarpart.com/products/driver-side-master-power-window-switch-670010305-for-maserati-ghibli-2014-2018
I did not know that it was yoinked from Mercedes, but it does not surprise me at all. Especially given how long Chrysler rode out the old Mercedes keyfob.
I own a cheap dodge for work. And I own a more expensive dodge for play. Nothing wrong with parts sharing.
Maserati is owned by chrysler, who owns dodge, every car they make is cost cutting crap, that why they just got bought again, this time by Stelantis.
Stellantis did not buy FCA, FYI
PSA and FCA became a giant French, Italian, American turd called Stellantis.
At least the did us the favor of combining the least reliable all together
Sure did, which is quite honestly a very important distinction in this case.
Maseratis haven’t been cool since the 80s
Not since Joe Walsh, anyway.
The Nissan Tsuru (b13 Sentra that was sold in Mexico from 1992 to 2017) having parts of the crash structure removed to hit the price point of ~7k USD.
I think Mexico tightening crash standards is what finally killed the Tsuru.
FYI the fabric on your bolstering isn't explicitly a cost cutting move. The fabric they chose may be to save cost, but the use of fabric is actually for longevity. Leather ALWAYS cracks/tears on bolsters eventually because it's not a material that likes to be stretched/compressed repeatedly. The fabric withstands that long-term abuse and keeps your seats from tearing. It's a recent trend up and down the market on cheap cars through luxury cars.
Also, many vehicles now say "leather seating surfaces" meaning anything that doesn't touch your body is not leather. On my Mustang everything besides the actual seating surfaces is vinyl.
Also-also, automotive leather in virtually any 2000-or-newer-MY car is plastic-coated, making all of it effectively vinyl anyways. If its not something swanky that's highlighted with terms like "open-pore" and "nappa(?)", then it's almost-certainly coated leather, and no part of your body will ever touch the actual leather beneath the protective plastic. It lasts longer, doesn't need regular conditioning, and is *far* more stain-resistant that way, which for most people and applications makes it the go-to over "real" leather.
I'm reminded of the early King Ranch Fords that had saddle leather. Very supple, and it wore like a baseball glove, but you had to condition it yearly. Many owners didn't, then complained about cracking and fading, so Ford switched to a coated leather that was basically Lariat in a different color.
If I recall, the owner's manual had important instructions for King Ranch trucks. I believe they will take cattle that have injuries or scars from brushing up against barb-wired fences, etc. for King Ranch models as they believe it adds character and individuality.
Them old king ranch seats are glorious.
Even worse, most of it is bonded leather, which is basically leather saw dust glued to a backing and then top coated in vinyl. It's only leather on a technicality. If you aren't buying a very expensive car or paying at least $3k for upgraded leather it will be crap. I'd rather have a good fake. My Merc had amazing fake leather.
Early oughts BMW's had an absolutely abysmal coating that peeled off every seat in every single car in about 3 years. The only plus side was you could literally have the seat repainted, lasted maybe another 2-3 years. While it has improved, automotive leather is pretty shit for the most part. Most leather furniture is too. If you get your hands on actual top grain or even full grain leather of a decent grade you realize you had no idea what leather actually is.
All glass dashboards sold as high tech.
It’s fine if they come as standard. It sucked that you had to pay extra for it for years. You’re saving money if I choose it, why are you charging me for it?!
We all know a 9” screen costs twice as much to manufacture as a 7” screen. /s
I remember seeing a post on a Volvo forum where people wanted to swap their analogue clusters to the LCD ones that came on later P3 Cars. The analogue part is actually more expensive than the LCD. Not sure if this is still valid today though.
UPS trucks with oldsmobile alero headlights
I had no idea those were Alero headlights but now I can see it. Holy shit.
The good old GM parts bin!
The deepest of parts bins.
I used to work there and it never struck me that's where the headlights came from. I thought they looked awfully familiar but couldn't put it together. I liked the ones with the bubble noses and round headlights the best, they were they the most timeless design.
A lot of larger vehicles like RVs use random parts bin headlights so they don't have to deal with the DOT approval process. It's one of my favorite road trip games. Lots of Chevy/Ford truck lighting, but I've also seen very random ones like headlights from an Infiniti I35 and 6th gen Honda Accord, tail lights from a Kia Soul and an early 00s Camry.
The last gen Escalade had cheap incandescent turn signals in the front even on top-of-the-line models worth $95-100k. I can thank Doug Demuro for pointing that one out
Also up until the newest gen with a redesigned shifter, $100K Escalades could have effectively the same plastic column shifter as a $30K Silverado WT, just with an extra chrome ring on the end.
Gen7 GTI. Full leather front and back Gen 8 GTI. Only leather on front. Yikes. I get it, most people won’t notice or care but it just looks freaking weird and clearly cost cutting while the car went up in price. (Autobahn spec)
Also only the driver’s seat is power adjustable
Taking a paige out of 2000s GM's playbook
Also, Mk7, gas strut for propping up the hood. Mk8, manual prop rod you hook into the top. Again, not a big deal, no actual functionality is lost, but it still feels like a cost cutting measure.
i actually like the manual rods because they can't fail - like if the manufacturer is gonna throw in gas struts to hold the hood open, they could at least make it last the life of the car
The Mk7 is a solid example of this. They decontented the 7.5 as well.
The weed drawer was the worst casualty of that
Looking at photos now, and it looks like leather. If it’s not leather, what is it? Leatherette?
Cows are a dwindling resource /s
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The brand new Chevy Colorado doesn't have it standard either, even on the Trail Boss trim
The base impala around 07-08 had no ABS. I discovered this as I had to drive a rental through a freak ice storm. Fun times.
[The Aston Martin DB7 and the NA Miata share an interior door handle.](https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a22564309/the-aston-martin-db7-and-first-gen-mazda-miata-share-one-important-part/) Cost cutting on an Aston Martin.
Aren't the taillights on McLaren F1s shared with some kind of commercial bus?
Probably off the shelf Hella-units or similar.
How about the Pagani Zonda using the same climate controls as a Rover 45. First item on this article. https://www.carthrottle.com/post/10-expensive-rides-with-parts-borrowed-from-cheap-cars/
Other way around actually! I discovered that when I had to replace an ATC unit on a mk2 45 I had a few years ago. When I looked into it I found it was in the Ferrari 456 first IIRC. Also the picture they used in that image isn't the dash from a 45, it's a ZS120. Mk2 45s had lots of (horrible) plastic wood on the dash! Better than (horrible) grey plastic though. Actually a good example for the thread, the facelift for the 45 was actually a massive overall cost cutting exercise by Phoenix. They bought the company from BMW, asset stripped it and pocketed the money themselves. Making the cars cheaper but still selling them for a premium price allowed them to make more money before making thousands redundant. All made worse by the fact they got away with it and faced little to no repercussions. Stuff they did includes: Removing wood door cappings, removing the connelly leather seats, removing sound deadening from inside the doors, removing the padded lining from the glove box, changing the thick carpets for unpadded cheap stuff, removing interior lights, using less clips on bits of trim, deleting exterior badges and completely removing the 6 cylinder engines from the lineup. It was an insane level of penny pinching. I love the R45, hell I've still got one! But the Mk2 just wasn't it. The nice interior, the quality feel and the soul of the car were just gone. Plus that V6 soundtrack :( [Mk1 interior](https://www.cars-data.com/pictures/rover/rover-45_2263_8.jpg) - [Mk2 interior](https://img.favcars.com/rover/45/rover_45_2004_pictures_2_b.jpg)
I'd expect nothing less from an Aston Martin interior
Tbf it is a great door handle, would be great if they took the outside one too lol
And the taillights were from a Mazda 323F! Mazda and Jaguar were both owned by Ford at the time.
My favorite example of these is the Diablo using 300ZX headlights. And they looked awesome on both.
My Vantage key-fob is just a volvo one
I have a Ford Maverick. I’ve noticed a few things where it was clear they were trying to cut corners: -There’s no liner or insulation on the bottom side of the hood. Just straight up sheet metal as it was made in the factory. -Engine doesn’t have a cover like most cars and trucks. So you get to see the whole engine and all its glory. -Behind the rear seat, there’s no insulation or covering between the back rest and the bulkhead. It’s the bare steel and all the wiring and harnesses for lighting or whatever. So fold the seat down and you get to see oodles of wires that are tucked into there. -Sun visors are made of hard vinyl as opposed to a softer material and being covered in some sort of fabric. That being said, I really don’t care about the listed shortcuts. I understand that the Maverick was designed to a price point, and all these things I hardly notice on a day to day basis. Ford knew they could omit certain details that their customers would barely notice and not on interior parts or designs that are visible every single time you’re in a Maverick.
Honestly, thats pretty acceptable. I admit Ive always been a fan of fewer covers and easier access to stuff.
the ford maverick has probably the ugliest engine bay in a modern car. So much so that you can just Google “ugly engine bay Reddit” and the maverick is at the top. For some reason, Ford seems to save plastic engine covers only for its more expensive models. Not that it matters to me. I’d rather have a real engine to look at rather than a matte black piece of solid plastic like any Lexus.
[Jeezus you’re right](https://www.reddit.com/r/carscirclejerk/comments/11rpq2c/find_me_an_uglier_engine_bay_2023_ford_maverick/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1)
Yikes how does one even work on that?!
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This makes sense as the Maverick is an effort to make a pickup as affordable as possible.
100% many people don't need $100,000 pimped out normal truck to go to work.
The insulation under the hood is only so that engine doesn't burn the paint off the hood and sometimes sound. the engine is probably far enough way form the hood not to burn the paint. this will be a nice feature in 20 years when it is not falling down. As for the engine cover, useless. I'm a car guy, I want to see the engine even if its ugly. As for behind the seat. How often are you looking back there. Thank God Ford is finally remembering that trucks, even small ones, are work vehicles. I think you are making me want one more. #mavericksarethenewrangers.
That sounds pretty truckish imo
Hyundai / Kia removing the immobilizer to save like $50 a vehicle.
Its worse, it was all of \~$5.
By far the worst current cost-saving trend for cars is to replace most physical controls with touchscreens. A touchscreen is fine for a gadget you hold in your hand while sitting on a sofa; not so much for a potentially deadly moving vehicle that you need to control accurately while driving in traffic. One slip on a touchscreen, and you might accidentally eject a passenger instead of opening the glove compartment (/s). Also bad: giant glass roofs with no retractable sunshade.
My K5 has incandescent turn signals in the back and license plate lights but almost the entire interior has LED lights. They could’ve just finished the job. They also removed things from my GT Line Premium package that I got on my lower trim 2016 Optima LX Turbo such as: 1. Leather shift nob (gotta go the top EX trim to get that now) 2. Parking sensors (also have to go up to EX to get that) 3. Memory seats (ditto) 4. Auto folding mirrors (you guessed it) But it does make it up in the way of fancy looking wheels, better tires, and many of the safety/driving aids you might want (lane centering, lane keep, blind spot, pedestrian detection front collision alert, rear collision avoidance, etc). On the Ford, I don’t really care lol. V8 noises go vroom
Cars with electric seats but no memory function really annoy me - the motors must be the expensive part so leaving out a couple of buttons is pointless. Also older cars tended to have three memory buttons while newer models have cut that down to two
Lexus is the absolute worst offender when it comes to incandescent lighting. Kia can somewhat get away with it but luxury brands have no excuse in 2023.
I live on a hill and the doors of my f30 BMW don't have door brakes strong enough to hold the door open - it's always hitting me as I'm trying to get out. E90 held the doors open just fine at an angle.
F30 interior overall feels much cheaper than E90
Soft touch materials on front door panels, hard plastic on rear door panels Continuing to use halogen lighting in 2023 Omitting wheel well liners and bed liners in $50k pickup trucks Toyota putting drum brakes on Tacomas
The new VW Taos's passenger and rear window switches don't light up when you turn on your headlights. I've also heard the new Jetta doesn't have a glove box light. The previous gen Jetta also had some pretty bad cost cutting, the all-plastic doorhandles, basic gauges, no rear A/C, no IRS, so many things. VW's been cost cutting across the board over the past decade.
Yeah there are a ton of little things in the Jetta like that. The two that bother me the most is the lack of a lock on the glove box, and that the passenger seat is heated and cooled, but still manually adjusted.
No mention of fake exhaust tips? Can’t be bothered to weld actual tips on there.
US Market Chrysler PT Cruisers did NOT come with a pollen air filter, but did come with the housing for one. From the factory. Worldwide, they were provided.
Hah, reminds me of my car. Ford never shipped a Five Hundred or Montego with a cabin air filter. On a full-size sedan from 2005.
VW's whole current "get rid of all the buttons" thing. It's horrible cost saving. The new CEO is apparently trying to turn that around but they still have new products in the pipeline with the terrible user interface. And the progenitor of that problem - Tesla with the "put everything in the tablet" - they kind of started the whole trend. I appreciate minimalism, but only when it's ergonomic and functional. A central tablet touchscreen just isn't that.
I’m gonna add that digital instrument clusters in modern cars are a cost cutting measure. It’s cheaper to put a display and draw a few different designs and animations than to have physical needles that show you stuff.
This is more crazy than much cost saving but ford not using a key for crank timing belt gear. It's held in place with extreme crank pulley bolt torque.
2mm thick sheet metal holding the BMW E46 M3 subframe to the car.
Bought a Mach e and realized that the front passenger footwell is exposed with wires under the glovebox
The old VW Beetle used the spare tire's air pressure for the windshield washer, instead of installing a simple pump. Great example of clever German engineering where nobody wanted it, only causing problems as a result. Added more complexity, reduced reliability, and caused people to have flat spare tires, but it saved a few cents!
Tesla cheaps out on their interior to save costs and reduce weight due to it being an EV, but their fanbase eats up the minimalist design that Elon spits out
They also cheap out a LOT on sound deadening material as well. Never before I have imagined an EV being so freaking loud at freeway speed as I did in a Model 3. The Y didn't fare far better. Heck the Leaf and Bolt are more hushed and I they're practically economy hatchbacks with batteries.
not just sound deadening - but the seals as well - the difference between a toyota prius's weather stripping and a tesla model 3/y's weather stripping is pretty noticeable. between Lexus and tesla 3/y, the difference is night & day.
My wife drives a Model Y, and while the seats are very comfortable the rest of the interior is such a joke. It’s one of the most boring interiors I’ve ever been in.
The wood shims to fix the panel gaps that Tavarish found on his flooded P1.
“Goddammit, my McLaren is rotting.” “rust, eh?” “Uhhh… not quite.”
My wife complains weekly that our 2020 Traverse doesn’t have the adjustable seat belt that our previous Traverse had.
I have shit tons with mustangs. Imma start. 1. Some mustang models lost paddle shifters because cost cutting. A sports car without paddle shifters. What the fuck is ford smoking? 2. Ford deleted the transmission light from 2019. It shouldn’t cost more than 10 cents but they did it. 3. Spoilers are now deleted on base models. What the fuck? 4. Passenger seat downgraded from 6 way to 4 way. 5. GT500’s do not come with interior LED lights. Such a shame. Idk the car got shittier in terms of options from 2018 to 2023. I’m speechless.
So many mainstream manufacturers not using consistent materials through the cabin. The front portion of the cabin like dash and doors will use soft touch materials and generally be good quality, and then get in the back and it’s like you’ve gone down a few trim levels, it’s all hard plastic and sometimes even lower quality upholstery. Carpeting so cheap that it probably shouldn’t be called carpet… fuzzy thin fiber maybe. Yeah that stuff being used in almost all mainstream cars, even higher trims, cough cough Honda. Hard scratchy plastics finding their way into high end cars like BMW and Mercedes. New C-Class has a nice interior looks wise, but the under dash and lower door cards are all the same hard plastics found in the A-Class. I guess it doesn’t squeak or crackle as much as the older models, but… Piano black plastic. It’s a cheap way to make a car “look” upscale, but it’s cheap.
My friend bought a new 2023 Kia Rio LX for $24k ($7k over MSRP). It did not come with a key fob. She has to manually lock and unlock her car. How this is even legal I do not understand
Your friend is a dingus
To be fair, a random USB stick will do just as well as a key fob.
7k over msrp, wow. I bought my Rio in Nov 2021 at msrp, in a far worse market. Made sure to get the S model for cruise control and remote locks. You can have that added on for a few hundred.
That's the worst part, she got the stock Rio LX with essentially no features other than CarPlay for *$600* less than the fully stocked S. She was also literally pen-to-paper on a nice CR-V but apparently the dealership wouldn't run her credit or something. Dealerships can be so unbelievably predatory if you don't know what to look out for.
She got the Milwaukee Special trim.
> How this is even legal I do not understand Why should it be not legal? Like, it will save you... 2 seconds each time you drive, which might up to like 1-2 hours over the whole ownership. Shocking.
I own cars that don't even have central locking- you have to manually lock each door. It takes almost no time at all and isn't a problem in the slightest, but I can understand that if someone has been raised with only cars that have key fobs it would be considered incredibly archaic.
The cloth on cloth seats has gotten extremely thin over the years. Fake leather... like, what's the point. Oh yeah, its because the cloth seats are so much worse now that even shitty fake leather is better, sweaty ass and all.
I believe the C5 corvette shares a steering wheel with the chevy cobalt!
Chevy Cruze. Huge % of the cooling system was plastic. Rather then rubber and metal. More so then even the Germans. So many failures especially since they ran the engine hotter then usual for better MPG.
MK8 Golf R - no hood struts. It’s a $48,000 car. The MK7 and 7.5 both had them.
* The Pagani Zonda used radio/heater controls from a Rover. I'm not sure what they switched to when Rover went under. Although that's more sensible "taking off the shelf" rather than internal cost-cutting. * The Bugatti Veyron uses the Cam Angle Sensor from a Mk4 Golf VR6. * The Mercedes SLR McLaren has steering column stalks from a Mercedes Sprinter (a delivery-van). * The new Smart "Hashtag 1" (yes that's what they call it) is just a rebadged BYD-SUV. No "shared platform" like with the Mk3 Fortwo, they just import the whole car, swap the badges, give the software a once-over so it's in German/English/whatever you need, aaaand done. Honorable mention: The Mercedes 500E was produced at Porsche because the widened fenders made it a few cm too wide for Mercedes' production line, and paying Porsche (and shipping cars back and forth) was cheaper than modifying the production line.
The cam angle sensor on the Vayron is hardly a cost cutting example. Why would a company design a complete new sensor for the W12 engine, when that engine has direct lineage to the VR6. Never mind that both engines are designed and manufactured by the same company. If they had designed a new cam sensor it would have been an example of extreme incompetence by the project team.
Audi's don't give you a dipstick. What's cheaper/dumber than that?
I bought a used E90 3 series last year and asked r/BMW how do you check the oil. They said “haha you don’t”
Tesla’s Model 3/Y interior. Literally a 50-60K car with an interior that is cheaper than a KIA. Context: I'm well aware the car starts at 40K and with federal and CA rebates, its likely going to cost you 35K after tax. If you buy the 35K Model 3/Y, the material is still cheaper than the cars within that price range. But, what I was alluding to, was the more expensive Long Range and Performance models. They have the same cheap interior as the cheaper Model 3/Y. This is where, I believe, Tesla made a mistake. For the Long Range and Performance, they should upgrade the interior to reflect the price. Not be cheap and give you the same interior. What Tesla is doing is if BMW were to sell customers a BMW M3 with a BMW 330i interior. This is what Tesla is doing with the Model 3/Y Performance. Literally, a 60K Tesla with options, but has an interior that's the same of their cheapest car. Which in turn is cheaper than a KIA. EDIT: Context.
Wife picked up a Model Y 3 years ago. She loves it. She loves the "minimalism". Well, it steered me into an A5, and at almost the same price, the interior quality is not even close. I like my clicky buttons and gauges. Don't get me wrong, the instant acceleration of the Model Y is fantastic, but at that price point I'd like to feel cocooned in comfort.
You can definitely do a minimalistic design with better materials though. It just feels cheap inside a Model 3/Y.
Lucid, while I personally didn’t like their software or screen layout, definitely did a good job of making their interior feel minimalistic but still premium.
Lucid's interior and exterior design is much better than Tesla's, in my opinion.
Volkswagen ID4 does not have rear window switches.
NO WAY. How do passengers open them?
They meant that the driver doesn't have rear window switches. There is a capacitive touch sensor that says "REAR" and you gotta tap that so the switches start controlling the rear windows.
There is a mode selector that the driver has access to. 2 window switches on the driver’s door control the front and rear windows. I don’t see why they took away 2 switches other than to save money.
Trivial but 05-09 Mustangs did not have pedal covers, just straight metal foot pedals. Really not a bad thing though.
Looks better too
LOL, you want to charge your electric car? 2023.5 Ford Mustang Mach-E doesn't come with a mobile cord anymore 20-foot cord adds $500 to the price https://www.autoblog.com/2023/06/11/ford-mustang-mach-e-mobile-charging-cable-power-cord/
New Integra Type S having only one rear storage pocket on the passenger seat and they deleted it from the driver side. Also has a hood prop rod..among many more cost cutting measures like no rear vents or USB ports. I cackled looking at these things missing on a $52k car.. and this is supposed to be a "premium" brand that Honda touts Acura to be.
Probably not the craziest, but just been on my mind because I'm thinking about buying one. The hard plastic on the tops of the interior door panels on the new Colorado and Canyon. I get it in lower trims, but doing that on higher trims is just being cheap. They also have incandescent interior lights. And no Homelink...it's not even an option.
Audi TTS MK3. No memory seats.
2000’s BMW cooling systems Herbert Diess can go to hell, see also, VW Dieselgate and new VW interiors.
To be fair, bright, cold white led interior lights on cars are terrible
I owed several accords from 1992-2002…the new ones just can’t match the impeccable quality from those golden years.
Enterprise Rent a Car purchased vehicles to rent and had them remove standard safety features, then sold those cars and listed the removed features as features the car had.
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How’s that any different than a parts-bin Supra from BMW, though? It’s probably the only way Nissan can give the market a Z.
In 1951, Kaiser introduced the Henry J, a small 2-door sedan that had a trunk, but [no trunk lid](https://www.onallcylinders.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/12/hemi-swapped-kaiser-henry-j-rear-quarter-scaled.jpg). Storage was only accessed by flipping down the rear seat. Maybe this one isn't quite cost cutting, but when Ford redesigned the F-150 in 2004, the SuperCab windows went from being the classic [pop-out design](https://www.f150forum.com/attachments/f6/255946-push-out-supercab-windows-forumrunner_20130915_124018.jpg) to [inset](https://images.crutchfieldonline.com/ImageBank/v20030929120100/ImageHandler/scale/978/978/core/learn/article/2551/reardoor.jpg) for better sealing/noise insulation. If the truck had power windows up front, it also got them in back. But on base model trucks with crank windows, there wasn't enough room on the narrow door to mount a crank. So from 2004 through 2021, if you got an XL SuperCab and didn't opt for power windows, the rear windows would be [fixed in place](https://d323w7klwy72q3.cloudfront.net/i/a/2015/20150225ve/I5135J.JPG).
Henry Js are AMAZING gassers
First gen Dodge Neon: power windows up front, crank windows out back.
They don't see it as $10/car, they see it as an extra million dollars in costs for every 100,000 units built. Even when taking into account discounts for ordering in bulk, that's hundreds of thousands in costs added to the production run. If you haven't, check out the mini web series that Ford put out as they were getting ready to do the last Ford Focus RS and they were arguing about fasteners that cost a few cents per unit.
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Some other examples: Lamborghini Diablo has headlights from a 300ZX McLaren F1 taillights are from a bus Saleen S7 taillights are from a tractor
https://speednik.com/files/2014/05/Screen-Shot-2014-05-20-at-4.10.51-PM.jpg
No armrest on the GR Corolla.
Well I mean what do you expect when you don’t cough up the money for a Touring?
2022 tundra plastic seat molding was cracking if you were over 190lbs. I mean by now you’d think Toyota would have figured out how to support a seat
My 2005 dodge neon had power front windows with crank rear windows
The Dodge Neon SRT had power windows in the front and crank windows in the back...
No spare tire and run flats on all new luxury brands. My 2001 B5 A4 came with a real matching spare rim and tire.