Quote:
Originally Posted by olrocker
Just to play devil's advocate, the right to repair crowd would disagree very much so.
Back in the day you could pick up a Chiltons for $15.00 and fix anything on your car. It's not customers and owners fault that the complexity of modern cars now requires 9 volumes of 1000 page service manuals, and after the warranty expires anyone should be able to have access to the complete service manual for their car at a very cheap price, but also full access to ALL software and encoded operations of the vehicle without having to buy expensive software from the manufacture or go only through the dealer.
My point is, after your warranty is up, and most certainly after you've paid off the car, you should be able to fix ANYTHING yourself if you desire without expensive diagnostic equipment, software, or manuals.
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Okay, I'll play (by the way, I am not taking GM's side here and agree with you on the right to repair as your stated, which I'm also a strong believer in).
Modern cars are increasingly more complex, with more electronics and computer software than ever. This is not a trend one can stand up against, it'd be simply pissing into the wind, since people normally learn, improve and advance the state of the art in every field. You cannot possibly demand that you are somehow automatically "rendered" able to understand and repair these without the new tools of the trade and for free. Just like you don't work for free, those who design the car's mechanical and software systems put thousands of hours into these designs, so this sort of demand is simply not sustainable.
On the other hand, provided one does have the necessary expertise, they should not be artificially prevented from working on their vehicle by the copious use of manufacturer-friendly encryption, obfuscation and exclusive parts availability, which forces people onto "official" and also copiously "greased" repair channels. This is the right to repair stance that I strongly advocate for.
Now, I purchased the service manual for my 2018 for $250, it has 10,000 pages of information with diagrams, drawings, specifications and exact procedures. This document must have taken thousands of manhours to produce, stealing it is simply not right, but it is 10x more wrong to resell the stolen work product. Just because you think the "system" is broken, you can't go into a shop and clear it out as "compensation" for your troubles in life either. Fencing the stolen goods afterwards takes that even further. (Disturbingly, some people [certainly not you] have adopted this mindset these days and you see in the news what that amounts to.)
In summary, fighting for the right to repair and forcing manufacturers to be less of a dick this way is great, showing GM the middle finger by reselling their intellectual property is not.
What do you think, olrocker?