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Business Insider's reporter and his disastrous experience with GM's Blazer including the infotainment system:
(www.businessinsider.com)
this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2023
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Someone tell me please why I can't find an EV with manual door locks and manual windows, rear view mirrors with maybe just one rear-view camera/sensor in a cost-affordable repaceable spot and only a radio. All it needs to be an EV is to be battery/electric powered. Dumping in all the gadgetry just increases complexity, driver distraction, power required to run, and cost of simple repairs.
Counterintuitively, having those alternatives would likely RAISE the cost of that car.
What is being discovered is that the most expensive component of the car isn't any specific tech. Its the labor to put it together. Making a design decision which shaves off 60 seconds of human assembly saves millions of dollars, and allows the car to be priced lower.
Ways to decrease assembly time include making modules with multiple functions together into one unit. This is one reason why your HVAC, infotainment, backup camera are usually one unit in the car. If your requirement of a replaceable radio is introduced, you've now doubled the modules that need to go into the car and drastically increased the wiring needed (wire looms are time consuming to assemble).
Further, your desire for a car with manual door locks and windows is likely not very common. So if this variant of a car were produced it would now have to have a separate logistical change and assembly line. This means more factory space, additional training for workers (there's that labor again), etc.
Because nobody outside an absurdly small niche wants that. They don't want the current base models and go out and over spend on upgrades.
Agree, I've been driving a bolt for 167,000km and the one thing I wish it was is simpler, like my old Mazda. Buttons and dials.
I still have my 2015 Nissan Leaf, despite cycling through three other EVs since then. And while the Leaf isn't going to work for a lot of people, it does have manual door locks and in general the electronics are far simpler than other EV models. It's by far the most reliable EV I've driven - never failed to start or experienced a mechanical problem. So I get what you're saying. Wish there were more simple options out there.
It does feel like Nissan's mission with that car is to make sure to use the most outdated technology possible. That includes charging it.
There are a few firms in LA that will turn any classic ICE car into an EV. Kinda thinking about getting a cheap '86 SAAB and converting it. You can find them with manual sunroofs.