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Sneaky Ways Car Makers Are Ripping You Off - YouTube
Channel: Donut Media
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- Henry Ford famously quipped,
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You can have a Model T
in any color you want,
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as long as it's black.
[6]
And something as simple as car paint
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became the first step backwards
in automotive progress.
[11]
An entire industry designed
around engineering innovation
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began to slow down and take
some of the best it had to offer
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off the table.
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How did car paint make the
market worse for the customer?
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Well it all comes down to a little concept
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of planned obsolescence.
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Shout out Gojira.
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♪ Designed for failure ♪
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- Huge thanks to Omaze for
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Good luck and if you win pick me up,
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we'll go to the beach
and then we'll sit there
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in the parking lot,
'cause I don't surf, man.
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I just surf life.
[121]
(smoke hissing)
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(bell chimes)
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- Planned obsolescence is the practice
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in which a product is designed
to one day be replaced.
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It happens in almost every industry,
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consumers don't just buy a product once,
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but again and again and again, as needed.
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In the automotive industry,
this concept takes many forms.
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Some are more obvious than others,
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but let's start with
the most basic examples.
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A car is a complex machine
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and eventually parts are just gonna break.
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That's nothing new.
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We have a whole industry centered
around automotive repair.
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But faulty parts become a problem
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when replacement parts are not available.
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In the U.S. there is technically no law
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that requires a manufacturer
to continue making parts
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for any model of car.
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Now, most manufacturers see the benefits
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in supporting older models.
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It's great for their brand image
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and it's an added revenue stream.
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Replacing parts is the kind
of planned obsolescence
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most people think of.
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I wanna fix a thing,
but I can't fix a thing,
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so I have to buy a new thing.
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But planned obsolescence
in the automotive industry
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is a little sneakier than that.
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And just to be clear, I'm
not talking about things
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that end up breaking after awhile.
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I'm talking about things
that would work totally fine
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if the world hadn't moved on.
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For example, in 1990 Mazda
was the first to introduce
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a built-in GPS unit.
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From there, the built-in GPS showed up
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in just about every other car.
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But the issue with most GPS systems
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was that only the actual location data
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was being transmitted back and forth.
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For the map data you needed
to load a CD or USB device
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to update for newer maps.
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The tech in your car,
literally, went out of date.
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Updating was a pain.
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Sure, you could argue it was a limitation
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of the technology at the time.
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What was a limitation though,
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was the eventual loss of support.
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Oh, sorry, we can't give you a
new map for your seven series
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'cause we thought you would
have bought a new seven series
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10 years ago.
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Then there's tech like OnStar,
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GM's hands-free calling system from 2002,
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which is being turned off in 2022.
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Even though the functionality
has been replaced
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with a common cell phone,
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the system was also designed
to call 911 automatically
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in the event of a collision.
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And that safety feature
is a big part of buyers
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getting OnStar equipped in their cars.
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And that's still something
a cell phone can't do today.
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But GM's proprietary system
lived and died on their terms,
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and there's no way to continue
using the life saving product
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you paid for.
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Even radios are a form
of planned obsolescence.
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I know technology moves pretty fast
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and there's no way car makers in the '80s
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could have predicted CDs
or MP3s or satellite radio
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or Apple CarPlay.
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But at the time they
had a system that could,
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the DIN system.
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In 1984, the German national organization
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for standardization came
up with the DIN 75490
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as the standard international size
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for any car mount head units.
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Eventually every car had a single DIN
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or double DIN head unit.
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And as the technology progressed,
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you could upgrade your stereo
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and keep jamming out to whatever
was popular that decade.
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But today the DIN
standard is being replaced
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in more and more cars
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with large touchscreen center consoles.
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This started with Tesla's
iPad-dwarfing center console,
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in the Model S and became a trend
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in many other modern cars.
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Sure, these touchscreens are cool now,
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but the upgradability is no longer there.
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Not only are these consoles
heavily integrated into the car,
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but the standard sizing is gone.
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Hey, if you're liking this video so far,
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please go ahead and hit that Like button.
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Now, before we get too much further,
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I wanna say that none of these things
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are things that are gonna stop you
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from driving an older car.
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If you're a car enthusiast
with even a little bit of skill
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or determination, you can get around
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most of these headaches.
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But the point is, is that
they're all little hang-ups,
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ways for manufacturers
to nudge the common folk
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away from an older car and
into a new car dealership.
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But it's not always the small nudges
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from one company's
marketing team or another.
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Sometimes the industry
plays the long game.
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Many people believe that
the best time to sell a car
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is before 100,000 miles.
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Like it's some magic number
that triggers the failure
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of everything in your car.
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And while it's true
that 60 to 100,000 miles
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is usually the end of a
manufacturer's drivetrain warranty,
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there are plenty of cars on
the road with more miles.
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But here's the thing,
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the actual people making
the car, the OEMs,
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are only guaranteed to make
money off the car once,
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when the first buyer buys it.
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And once that buyer
has driven off the lot,
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the OEMs want to sell that buyer,
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a new car as soon as possible.
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And if that buyer's conditioned to believe
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that 100,000 miles is
all a car is good for,
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they'll be back in the showroom sooner,
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100,000 miles was the
life expectancy of cars
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as early as the 1950s.
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My car, the Mustang, has 160,000 miles now
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and it's still running strong.
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Nowadays cars can last much longer,
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but the 100,000 mile mark
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still continues to have a
big effect on the market.
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A lot of used car lots, won't
sell cars over 100,000 miles.
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Most banks won't give you a loan
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for a car over 100,000 miles.
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And the stigma is perpetuated
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partly so you'll go into a
dealership and buy a new car.
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As a result, the average new car buyer
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only keeps a car for about six years.
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That's pretty wild.
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Sure, just about anything
can be repaired these days,
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but for some, dumping
money into their old car
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isn't worth it.
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It's served them well,
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and now it's time for something new.
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For manufacturers this
is a delicate balance.
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They need to avoid over-engineering a car,
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spending money on reliability
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that their customer will never need,
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but they also can't make a car too frail.
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This is the kind of thing
that caught out VW in 2016.
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Their 1.8T engine was having
timing belt tensioner issues
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as early as 50,000 miles
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and they had to pay out
up to $2,500 bucks per car
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in a class action lawsuit.
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Take a hurt.
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One of the places we've seen
planned obsolescence go too far
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is in the world of consumer electronics.
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I'm talking about non-swappable
batteries in cell phones.
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Over time batteries lose
their ability to retain charge
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and become less effective.
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If you can't swap the battery,
you're essentially forced
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into buying a new phone.
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Now that battery technology
is becoming a big part
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of the automotive world, could
we see the same thing happen?
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Maybe, a battery swap on an older hybrid
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is cost prohibitive,
but it's not impossible.
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Chris Fix has a great
video on how to do it
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and that's just with common hand tools.
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But earlier this year,
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Tesla gave details about their new Model Y
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and it's structural battery pack.
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Basically, we could be seeing a battery
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that can't be swapped
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because it's part of the chassis
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and I don't think that's right.
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Planned obsolescence is
the manufacturer's way
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of making sure that they
have repeat customers.
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But if you remember the
beginning of this video,
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you might be wondering,
Nolan, how the heck
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does paint fit into all this?
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(upbeat music)
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Back in the early '20s,
the American auto industry
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had a small problem.
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Manufacturers had made their cars so good
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and so reliable that almost anyone
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who was planning on buying
a car already owned one.
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At the time paint manufacturer, DuPont,
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owned the controlling
share of General Motors.
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Do you see where I'm going with this?
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What could a company that made paint
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do to get people to buy more cars?
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Well, General Motors started
releasing limited edition runs
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of cars in unique paint schemes.
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Before this, your paint
really wasn't a selling point.
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Most people just wanted a
utilitarian piece of machinery
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to move around.
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Now that all of a sudden new paint schemes
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were being offered, the older cars of Ford
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and even GM's own models
looked outdated by comparison.
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Since then car paint has
been changing in style
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and availability in an
effort to entice people
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into the showrooms.
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For a more recent example,
take a look at the Scion TC.
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Over the single decade it was produced
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they had two generations
with only one upgrade
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in performance and overall design.
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But in that same time, it
had 11 Special Edition colors
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that are available for
one model year each.
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True planned obsolescence
is when something absolutely
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stops working and it can not be repaired.
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Luckily, there are moves being made
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to combat planned obsolescence right now.
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Right to Repair laws are being
introduced here in California
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as a way to keep tech companies
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supporting older phones and computers.
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But there's another kind
that can't be legislated,
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it's how a simple paint color
can affect a whole market.
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It's called perceived obsolescence.
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Perceived obsolescence
is a crucial lifeline
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of the automotive industry.
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It's the idea that even though
your car isn't inoperable,
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you still need a new one.
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Otherwise, how will people
know how well you're doing?
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How will you look in the parking lot?
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How will you be able to
look the valet in the eyes
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without a new car?
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I know this kinda sounds like
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the ultimate first world problem
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and I agree, I've never
bought a new car in my life.
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Although, hopefully, that
changes when the Z comes out
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and it's affordable.
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But you can't deny that
the first buyer's opinion
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has an affect on the manufacturer
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and therefore an affect on the market.
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Something that is added
to a car to make it trendy
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will also one day make it dated.
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Headlights and taillights, for
example, change constantly.
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Not just because they
get better necessarily,
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but because they look newer
than what came before them.
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Sequential turn signals look
futuristic and fancy now,
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but we used to have them
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in all kinds of cars in the '60s.
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Headlights and DRLs
started pushing towards
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wider cooler LEDs
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and now some cars have
these orangy yellow DRLs
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and they all of a sudden
looked cool again.
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They didn't get better
necessarily, but they look sick.
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On the one hand, it's
part of the ever-changing
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ebb and flow of style, but on the other,
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it's all designed to
make you want the new car
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that you might not actually need.
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But this is the beauty of being
part of the car community,
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these mind games employed
to sell more cars,
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don't have any effect on you or me.
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Okay maybe a little, that
K5 does look pretty sick.
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But if you want a Special Edition color,
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you can get your car painted
or wrapped or do it yourself.
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Want to update your infotainment?
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You can do that thanks to the aftermarket
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and awesome videos like ours,
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or any other number of YouTubers.
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And if you're looking to
update your car's look,
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no matter what the new trend
is, there's a good chance
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that the car enthusiast
community can provide.
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And if you're like me, and your
car is more than just a box
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that you commute to work in,
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it's something that you love
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and it's part of who you are,
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something that stresses you out.
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If there's a Right to
Repair bill in your area
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or something similar, support it.
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Planned obsolescence isn't it as big
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in the automotive industry as
it's become the tech world.
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And thanks to the awareness
being raised there,
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it looks like we'll be
safe to enjoy older cars
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as long as we can.
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Thank you very much for
watching Wheelhouse this week.
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If you're a Donut Super Freak
[732]
and you wanna chat with
other Super Freak Donut fans,
[735]
check out the Donut Underground,
[736]
you get access to behind
the scenes videos,
[738]
extra content, all that good stuff.
[740]
Hit that Join button down below,
[741]
if it sounds like something
you'd be interested in.
[743]
Planned obsolescence worked on me,
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I got a purple phone
'cause it came in purple.
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I did have a very old phone,
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so I don't feel that
ripped off, but it worked.
[751]
Follow Donut on all
social media @donutmedia.
[754]
Follow me @nolanjsykes.
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Be kind, I'll see you next time.
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