What's Wrong With Modern Cars?

Buying a new car should be exciting. But somewhere along the road, cars quietly stopped becoming simple machines and started becoming rolling computers—with monthly subscriptions, constant software updates, built-in surveillance, and repair bills that can make your wallet cry.

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The problem isn't that modern cars are faster, safer, or more comfortable. It's that they're becoming harder to truly own, harder to repair, and easier for someone else to control.

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Here are Five Fast Facts about why modern cars aren't what they used to be:

1. ✌️ Buy It Twice - More and more car makers are leaning into extra subscriptions for features like heated seats, self-driving, and even emergency services. Note: these are already built into your spiffy new car...they just aren't enabled until you cough up the cash (again). Congrats on your purchase; now pay a monthly fee to use it.

2. 💻 High Tech - Modern cars have more software than your teenager's gaming PC. Today's vehicles contain over 100 million lines of code, and repair equipment can cost tens of thousands of dollars, effectively pricing out both independent repair shops and DIYers.

3. 🔧 Right To Repair - Independent shops still handle about 70% of post-warranty repairs, but as cars get more computerized, dealerships are getting greedy. "Right to repair" laws that ensure tools and info are available to non-dealerships are popping up all around the country, but automakers spent $25 million fighting these laws in 2023 alone. Hmm… 🤔

4. 👀 Big Brother (No Really) - Another issue is "safety technology" that uses cameras and sensors to monitor drivers. Using a requirement buried in a 2021 law, if you're doing something the car doesn't like it’ll shut down on its own. This system can also be accessed by police to end car chases or find a stolen car. Or, you know, whatever. Big Brother is now riding shotgun.

5. 🛻 Best Bet - If you don't like the way this is going, consider a truck from the early 2010s. They're cheaper, they’re not constantly spying on you, and you can still fix them with a $30 scanner and readily available parts instead of relying on a dealer's coder named Sebastian.

🔥Bottom line: Oh, did we mention that driver monitoring is also tracking things like how you drive and where you go all the time, and can be used in a court of law or to increase your insurance rates? The NHTSA hasn't yet finished the rules for implementing the 2021 law, so technically even new cars aren't required to have all this monitoring capability in there...but over 90% of new vehicles already have at least some version of it already built in.

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We hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the future of driving looks less like cool sci-fi and more like Orwell's 1984, where your car can't be fixed without selling a kidney but it can literally ghost you while driving if it doesn't like what you're doing. Car companies do not see you as a customer anymore; you are a user to be monetized. But at least now you know.

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Have you encountered any of these issues?

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