Thank you in the name of all German engineers. I have also been reading Skook`s reply to your comment. Sadly there is a bit of truth in it but the flaws he points out in the latest models are not really related to the mechanical aspect of Mercedes, Audi, Porsche, VW, Opel etc.
These same flaws have been plaguing every car that`s been made for over a decade now and also appear in the aviation industry.
Engineers call it "pixel salad". That`s when the digital display becomes almost unreadable. The problem is compounded because nobody makes their own dash- or cockpit instrument displays any more.
All that stuff comes from Asia and most of the other car manufacturers don`t even admit that they have the same "pixel salad" problem.
Mercedes, Audi and BMW are fed up and announced only last week that they will manufacture their own digital dashboard displays as early as next year and do no longer want to install any key components that were manufactured and imported from countries that can`t produce reliable products. The ECM`s (Engine Control Module) for most of the German cars came from Siemens any way and they are totally reliable.
I drive a vintage Ford F-150, which has pulled a full size travel trailer 14 times the full length of the Alaska highway over these high mountain ranges during the summer heat and during extreme cold weather.
The worst incident was when at ~ -50 C the oil in the pan became so stiff that it snapped the shaft that goes down from the distributor to the oil pump. I made it home without any oil pressure over 2 mountain ranges all the way to where I lived . But I would never buy a newer car where almost everything is microprocessor controlled.
I had a brand new Toyota company car for a business trip only a few years ago...drove under a HV power line when there must have been a significant power surge. The car instantly died...everything...every damn switch or button was dead. You can`t even hot-wire the ignition and the starter motor in these cars any more. They are designed to be idiot proof, so that a dimwit who does not know where the oil dipstick is can`t start them if there is no oil in the pan. I don`t care if my wiper fluid is low in my old F-150 during the summer....and I don`t have to stare at a blinking warning light or listen to any annoying beepers till I stop and buy wiper fluid just to shut that f-ing thing up.
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(If you got one of these new-fangled cars that keep beeping or blinking the engine warning icon and won`t shut up, even though every thing under the hood checked out there is a simple trick that still works on almost all makes.
Shut off the ignition. Then turn it on an off 3 times inside 10 seconds. The forth time leave it on but don`t crank the engine.
Now the engine warning icon will blink in Morse code the status of of the entire engine and ancillary sensor system.
All you need is a $10 Haynes EMC computer code book and you won`t have to go to a garage. Most of the time they bullshit you anyway and sell you replacements or repairs you did not need... )
Most of the time that engine warning starts and keeps going because you did not have a pre- scheduled service check. All they do is reset your ECM and stick you with a phony bill. Just unplug the ECM ground wire..turn on the ignition, wait 5 seconds and then re- connect the ground wire....it` won`t cost a dime and that annoying warning is off for the next 20 000 or so klicks
Some of these new idiot proof cars won`t start any more after the passenger slammed his door too hard. There is a normally closed impact sensor switch under the dash on the passenger side is...on the other side of the fire wall is the ECM. When that switch is triggered to open, then the ECM shuts down all the fuel injectors and the fuel pump..."thinking" you just had an accident and are about to go up in a fuel-fire ball.
No garage will want to tell you about this switch, because it`s on the ant-theft circuit and on the same circuit how your car can be disabled remotely from the dealer if you missed a payment. All they do is stick a plastic tool through the panel, reset that switch and tell you they had to replace a defective ECM for mega buck$.
All You have to do is rip of a piece of plastic, cut 2 wires, strip them and bridge that switch, start your car drive away and never be bothered again.
Since I retired I live on a Indian reserve which is surrounded by crook-car dealers and as long as I can help it they won`t make a dime with their dirty "computer" tricks
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But I also still got a VW Rabbit Diesel...actually I threw it away almost 20 years ago...I dumped it on a farm that belongs to a friend.
His boys still use it to go off road joy-riding...the damn thing is indestructible.
I should reclaim it...other than fixing the windows that got busted when these kids played Dukes of Hazard there is not much else to be fixed.
But as a footnote I would like to show you how big of a leap it is from the lab to the real deal.
This example deals with the line-loss problem and how super conductor could overcome this SERIOUS problem in long range HV power transmission lines.
It`s just an example, but it also applies to battery research, Solar and wind-power:
http://www.newscientist.de/inhalt/supraleiter-neue-technik-in-essen-a-889857.html
"The long march to the cold wire"Der lange Marsch zum kalten Draht
Germany`s switch to "green power" makes it imperative that these "cold wire" transmission lines are fully operational in 2020 at the latest and at least for the 110 KV power lines...else it`s back to the conventional power generating method, where line losses do not cause an energy shortage.
At the smaller lab scale energy budget experiments the power required to supply the liquid Nitrogen mantle was not really an issue..but already at the pilot plant level sized trial runs it posed a severe problem, because the N2 cooling consumes just as much power at low currents as it does at max-power being transmitted.
Battery technology also hits the same brick wall, because Lithium is as good as it possibly can get. There is no other electrode with a higher EMF and that`s all there is to it. Lab runs with liquid metal electrodes are one thing...but a whole different kettle of fish when you go full scale.
I`ve been around this bend lots of time during my career and can tell you that full-scaling is by far the most difficult section of the path from researching and testing new ideas to full scale implementation.
But back to the cars..
The only way I could be convinced to buy the newest and the latest is when they make the rest of the car as reliable and indestructible as these f-ing set belt buzzers.
My first American car when I arrived here from Germany was a Plymouth "De-Soto" I think it was called. I bought that rust-bucket for $ 20 in Montreal because I could not wait to try out a "boat". It had a push button transmission and when I stepped on the gas the seat separated from the rusted out floor boards...but it laid rubber like a Porsche 911. When I drove it out of the scarp-yard where I bought it the transmission had no fluid in it and they did not have any.
It did just fine after we poured in a few quarts of tap-water.
That`s what I call a car...!!!!
I fixed it up and it was my "Christine" for ~ 5 years till I broke through the ice and got it stuck for good in a creek way up north in Quebec.
I bet you anything if I would pull it out and boost it I could drive it from there all the way to Manitoba right now.
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) so you see dear racist I could care less what ethnicity someone is....I care about the job he was elected to do...and he is terrible at it.
