Well aged technology

Last night, I was at a “second delivery” event at my dealership and got a chance to talk to the techs that work on my vehicle anything that I wanted. I asked about the mysterious acceleration while breaking (it happens in the Camary as well, likely something about the MG tourque) and boosting – someone can boost me, but I can’t boost others. But this wasn’t the kicker…

The kicker was that all the hybrid owners there were geeks of some stripe, and many got the hybrid a much for the technology in it than anything else. So many were talking about hacking their Navi and the like. I don’t have Navi or many of the other gadgets in mine, and to tell you the truth, I’m happy. Why? Well, if I want a new nav system, I can get a standalone system and update it as easily as bring it into the car. I don’t have to deal with systems becoming obsolete over the life of the vehicle. Some of the owners have already had to deal with their vehicle not liking their phones for the bluetooth connect feature.

Sure these toys are nice for the first couple of years, but consumer electronics are dead and buried in that time and most people will own their cars for at least five years, so that miss match is what makes me now think twice about gadgets in cars.