The simple answer is “REFUSE TO BUY THE SHIT!”
It is literally that simple. I can’t think of a single person that HAS to buy a NEW car. Keep what you have or buy used. Tell the dealerships and auto makers to fuck off! Explain why a person ever has to buy a NEW car.
As long as people are stupid and buy it the auto makers WILL continue on this path.
The simple answer is “REFUSE TO BUY THE SHIT!”
“For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.” – H.L. Mencken
The reality is, individual boycotts don’t do shit because people who care about their property rights are outnumbered by dipshit consumer whores by a dozen to one (if not worse). The only way to actually fix this is regulatory action by the FTC to outlaw this shit as the blatantly obvious violation of the doctrine of first sale that it is.
Enshitification isn’t solved by voting with your dollar. If it did, the printer market wouldn’t be the shit show that it is. You can’t vote for the good if all the manufacturers mutually agree to only produce shit. Only regulation will keep them in line.
(inb4 “brother is better”, I am aware that brother printers are generally better, but they are far from good.)
Especially when the majority of people will litterly drink shit milkshakes every damn day before they ever dream of using something that isn’t their preferred brand or might require accepting some modest trade-offs.
We all suffer from enshitification because the “average consumer” makes it profitable with their apathy, their ignorance, and their laziness. And there’s nothing we can about that. We’re stuck in these markets with them, and they make up the majority, so they set the trends.
I will say, part of that ignorance, apathy, and laziness is an intentional part of our existing society. You can’t spend the time to research every single product you ever buy, because many are stuck working several job, basically everyone is juggling their work, family, and social life.
A couple months back, I tried putting some effort into finding a printer that had all of the qualifications I wanted.
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usb printing, no network needed
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laser
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color
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not a brand that will fuck you over (looking at you HP)
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within a reasonable budget of $300-$400
And such a product just doesn’t exist. Brother comes close, but the market straight up isn’t producing good things. So at the end of the day all I can do is either get shafted at the local print store, or suck it up and get an inferior product.
But going back to the OP, it’s so much worse with cars because we have a car-centric society. You NEED a car in this place to have a normal life. Our cities and transportation have been intentionally designed to fuck over everyone not in a car.
So there is inelastic demand. The manufacturers can do whatever the fuck they want and get away with it.
You’ve succinctly articulated something I’ve been struggling to for a long time.
We all suffer from enshitification because the “average consumer” makes it profitable with their apathy, their ignorance, and their laziness.
And then you follow up with this banger:
And there’s nothing we can do about that. We’re stuck in these markets with them, and they make up the majority, so they set the trends.
I hate it so much, but what can those of us that actually care do other than try to educate people?
Sadly, people are not rational, and will buy the new car because it makes them feel good. They’ll give them a year of free features and people will forget all about it because it’s a free year and “a $5,000 value!”
I’ve only ever bought one new car, and that got dieselgated. I will never buy a new car again, and you won’t, but there’s not enough of us to stop this from happening.
“You will own nothing and be happy.”
I got an 03 Jetta in good trim with a 5-speed (which hardly anyone makes anymore). I’m gonna keep that fucker alive even if I have to turn it into the car of Theseus.
I will probably continue to buy new cars as I can spend my hard earned on whatever I want. Everyone’s financial situation, wants and needs are different… you shouldn’t bundle everyone else into your opinion.
That said, I wouldn’t buy a car that has a feature that I need locked behind a subscription… I would just buy one that suits. I am not loyal to any particular brand so I don’t care.
“Corp execs literally don’t care about your bitching, and will perfectly coordinate with other companies corp execs to make sure the same blanket policy is pushed and agreed upon by everyone else in the industry, thus making it the new standard and leaving the customer with no choice against it, for the 69 millionth time”
Just a reminder, such collusion is supposed to be illegal.
But we don’t pay attention to those laws anymore.
Good thing new cars are now out of the price range of most people. Credit is not as cheep and easy. All it would take is one place to start making cheep cars in a shed for the whole racket to collapse. And if you look at the history of consumer markets this happens often, even with the collusion and crime.
And if you look at the history of consumer markets this happens often, even with the collusion and crime.
EVs actually seem to make this more inevitable to me. Most people aren’t capable of building a combustion engine and transmission, but EVs are fundamentally easier from the engineering side. There are complications with the batteries but the overall thing is a lot simpler. I think that’s why there are already lots of Chinese EVs available for like half the price of anything here.
Yes and no, the materials to make EVs go are much harder to source. I think ICE engines are at this point nearly impossible to stop people from getting their hands on. I think I could source the parts to make a shitty ICE car/truck/thing but the batteries for an EV that has any chance could be hard. I think it does not really matter what the type of vehicle takes the market, it matters more that the current model loses viability as the consumer base can no longer afford or borrow for the modern car/truck/other.
If you can no longer get a 7 year loan for a 100k plastic monster, you have to get something else. Since there is almost nothing else new, you have to buy used (we are roughly here). Once the used market is hot enough that used cars are worth more then new ones (Think of a lada in hand being worth 2 on order) someone will disrupt that market just out of greed. Once you have another option for a cheap car/truck/thing you will see (or seen as this has happened) lobbyists push to have laws put in place to stop the upstart (CAFE, Chicken tax, motorcycle cc limits etc.). But now you don’t have so much a reluctant market but an impossible one, people will literally be unable to support the old system. At this point something has to give, ether the government protections have to go, the old companies are forced to change, or the increasing the ability of the consumer to spend more (ether though subsidies or cheap loans). I think the overall economic situation means the cheap loans are out for now, subsides are rarely popular for luxury items (the current model has forced vehicles into this category), the governments are not so stable around the world making upholding unpopular laws less feasible, and lastly the old companies are at the end of the day going to pick profit even if it means change.
What is really happening is your car has hardware features that are being disabled, and you have to pay extortion money for the criminals to not disable them. It’s ransomware as a service.
So the question is, who wants to buy from a company that is running ransomware as a service?
The question is, what alternative are we going to have, if all auto makers start doing this?
I just want a vehicle made like they used to be made. No computer chips and physical handles I have to turn to get the window down. An entire vehicle I can fix myself when things break down.
It shouldn’t be a hard ask, but here we are… Overly complex shit, with many features no one needs.
No computer at all? Gonna have to track down something with a carburetor and hope it still runs. The newest you’re gonna find is a 1991 Oldsmobile.
You know the war that’s being fought by developers against YouTube?
Now imagine that same energy directed towards car companies.
I guarantee you the moment this becomes a thing, there will be jailbreaking and a whole industry dedicated to making sure people know how to get all the benefits that their car has installed but not enabled.
Because if buying isn’t owning, then pirating isn’t stealing.
Buy base model ones that don’t have all that shit anyway and install aftermarket?
*You wouldn’t download heated seats would you? *
I definitely would.
That’s not the only way. Simply refuse 100% of the time to ever buy a vehicle where you have to get a subscription for nothing of value added. We have ALL the power here and we don’t need guns (well, laws, ie men with guns who will force you into a cage if you don’t comply) to enforce it, just don’t be an idiot an buy one of these vehicles. I’ll buy nothing but used cars without subscriptions if it becomes impossible to get a new one without bullshit subscriptions.
The demand is clearly high, so if it gets bad enough I guarantee another car company is going to start up and do things better, taking business away from idiots who try shitty practices for a short-term gain and a long-term loss.
Or at least if we’re going to add a law, we need to take away two useless laws, as we have FAR too many.
Distributors only sell new cars, and the subscription is included in the credit plan. New car and fleet buyers are fine with the extra security and backup these services provide.
The distributors don’t care a damn what second hand buyers think.
it’s called magnuson-moss, it already exists
