The Most Interesting 1-Hour Video You’ll Watch Today
DT E-i-C Vince: It’s not often that we at DT feature something other than random cars for sale…but there’s been a pervasive thought echoing in the back of my head in the past decade that I can’t shake. It’s more than a shadowy thought…it’s an overwhelming sense that new mass market products are, by and large, complete garbage. Cars, dishwashers, clothes washers/dryers, sump pumps, clothing, microwaves– you name it, they only last a few years. I’ve wondered if I’ll ever own a car newer than 2012, and it’s not that I can’t afford a new car; it’s just that I don’t want something that will be obsolete in 10 years when the digital climate control system fails. An old Volvo will run forever, but a new Volvo will be a brick in a decade despite its rounded Chinese styling. Anyway, this YouTube video from a young feller named Quincy Sandbank popped into my feed, and the entire story resonated (and not just because I’ve been restoring/maintaining/driving a once derelict 89 Mercedes-Benz W124) specifically because he articulated the ever encroaching nightmare buffet of hyperpalatable but maginally satisfying pseudoabudnace with a new word I need to add to my lexicon; ehshitification.
Quincy is a cinematographer and new YouTuber with a small 25K subscriber base, but this video has almost 1 million views after 6 days, and does a great job of highlighting some of the major themes of dwindling quality for consumer products in our modern era. I don’t often find myself with the time or attention span to watch a 1-hour video, but this one was worth it. Watch it and drop a comment below.
Interesting video Vince. I had no idea that a 190 had such good resale value. I just got rid of my 2015 B250 4Matic with 55,000 miles on it. Not so great that I wanted to do any of the upcoming recommended maintenance.
Agreed!! I saw his asking price and thought he had WAY overpaid for the car, particularly given the amount of deferred maintenance and overall condition…but the interior is pristine and odo only shows 56K miles — that is why it was WELL above typical 190E market. My W124 wagon was a three figure purchase, but it needed much of the same maintenance that his car needed, but the odometer is 4X the miles.
certainly the linked vid in my comment has had an outsize impact in driving the expanding awareness of (the neologism) enshittification. same concept Quincy covers well. well executed narrative.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4Upf_B9RLQ
I’ll have to check it out!
Have not had the chance to watch the video yet so maybe he mentions this, but the term enshittification is credited to author/journalist Cory Doctorow to describe how all technology platforms degrade over time by design. Worth a read if that sort of thing tickles your fancy at all.
Interesting. Doctorow’s book looks to be more about the Facebooks and Googles of the world trapping people with FREE services that then become clunky ad revenue generators, but the same applies to transportation these days. I’m not sure if I want to read an entire book about the subject, who needs more reasons to be depressed in the modern world?! :)
So what’s the leading candidate for a car that has enough safety features to not feel guilty about other people’s kids riding in it, ie airbags, and a structure that is reasonably well behaved in a crash, but doesn’t have a encrypted network of parts that have to be completely controlled by an operating system that only the dealer can play with?
IE a car to keep long term.
A W123 with airbags is sort of the general idea, maybe a 2000 or later w210?
Some sort of 2000s Lexus?
Current cars aren’t that enticing, and seem designed to fail in new and unusual ways now that engine durability has been legislated as a requirement.
I’d be interested in a dead simple electric when they ever happen.
I mean I would enthusiastically daily drive a MG TD in the absence of other traffic, and would keep something like that around, but for transport on roads with idiots in trucks it’s not really viable.
Any suggestions?
I am totally comfortable with my kids (and their friends) riding around in a W124 Benz, but it has dual airbags and is a robustly built car. W123 would also qualify if diesel because it can’t go fast enough to cause trouble. However, both of those cars require a level of daily maintenance that most people would find frustrating compared to the expectations set by 2004 Toyotas. To be properly robust and reliable (OBD2 fault codes are nice, MPFI prefered to Bosch KE-JET) my perfered cars are any German luxury sedan from the 2000s in this list — BMW E46, Audi A4/A6, and any variety of Benz you could find. Logically, any luxury car from the 2000s to 2010 (Lexus, Infiniti, Cadillac, etc) would meet the minimum requirements of safety and perhaps be un-enshizzified enough by digital screens and plasticy plastics to survive into the Mad Max future. 2029 AD isn’t that far away. https://youtu.be/DHKxoARmjLU?t=36
P1 Volvo (C30/S40/V50/C70) range, 2004.5 – 2013.
https://youtu.be/2D0y4f8LcfQ?is=vewAB6E-5aRpvhUM
I gave away a Volvo S40 on account of all the antitheft and safety systems that were impossible to trouble shoot on account of various interlocking brake, transmission, electronic key key and some antenna in the steering wheel that would occasionally glitch and you would have to stop and restart the car. I jumped some wires and switches so that I could cycle power and restart the car without the steering wheel locking, and the transmission being in park.
All the of the major parts needed to be programmed to work with other which made it prohibitively expensive to fix not knowing if any fix would be effective.
The s40 was really nice otherwise.
I think there is a version of Vida that has been cracked. That allows you to troubleshoot all that now, but otherwise yeah.