turbopete
Senior Member
- Joined
- Feb 4, 2009
- Messages
- 14,209
- Reaction score
- 331
- Age
- 48
- Location
- Spennymoor
- Your Mercedes
- 2017 '17' Ford Mondeo 2.0TDCi ST Line X 180 (sorry)
or is it really a case now of a car cannot be fixed without plugging it into a computer?
When I left school and started in the motor trade 21 years ago, cars seldom had any sort of diagnostic plug, and the ones that did, were very basic in there operation. now, we have, allegedly, been forced to have ever increasing amounts of electronics in the name of reducing emissions etc BUT are we really any further forward?
for example, I had a 1989 Ford orion 1.6LX (carburettor engine, 90bhp) that would sit at the legal motorway speed limit and return 40-42mpg. and if you knew how cars worked, you could fix it as there were no diagnostic plugs.
jump forward 15 years or so, and we have its modern replacement, the Ford focus 1.6 Zetec (EFI 16 valve engine, STILL 90bhp). electronics everywhere, OBD socket, etc, and can do very little without plugging a computer into the OBD port. A friend has one and at the motorway legal limit it returns 40mpg by his calculations.
so, in 15 years, we have gained weight in cars, added complexity and expense but no gain in power or fuel economy. so WHAT exactly is the point of all this electronic stuff if it doesnt improve MPG etc?
am i getting old, or is there more than me that would prefer to have the same fuel economy, but with less complicated (and seemingly unnecessary) electronics?
Discuss
When I left school and started in the motor trade 21 years ago, cars seldom had any sort of diagnostic plug, and the ones that did, were very basic in there operation. now, we have, allegedly, been forced to have ever increasing amounts of electronics in the name of reducing emissions etc BUT are we really any further forward?
for example, I had a 1989 Ford orion 1.6LX (carburettor engine, 90bhp) that would sit at the legal motorway speed limit and return 40-42mpg. and if you knew how cars worked, you could fix it as there were no diagnostic plugs.
jump forward 15 years or so, and we have its modern replacement, the Ford focus 1.6 Zetec (EFI 16 valve engine, STILL 90bhp). electronics everywhere, OBD socket, etc, and can do very little without plugging a computer into the OBD port. A friend has one and at the motorway legal limit it returns 40mpg by his calculations.
so, in 15 years, we have gained weight in cars, added complexity and expense but no gain in power or fuel economy. so WHAT exactly is the point of all this electronic stuff if it doesnt improve MPG etc?
am i getting old, or is there more than me that would prefer to have the same fuel economy, but with less complicated (and seemingly unnecessary) electronics?
Discuss