Posted to YouTube also.
Kudos to you Scott on your bag of coil packs. From that one experience you learned a lot more and now you are probably more inclined to try fixing more of your own STUFF. However if this continues in the direction it is going even if you want to you wont be able to repair anything. As Clause said and Bill brought forward “You will own nothing and like it”. A little more research on John Deere, Apple and a boatload of other companies that have gone down this road might give you a little more insight into this problem. As an example, I will point out that Deere has made these promises before and have yet to live up to them. I am all for a free market solution for this growing problem. However, part that solution that must be present for the free market to work is COMPETITION on the repair side of these companies and there is very little allowed. . It is thwarted in every way imaginable. There are several manufacturers of many like products such as tractors and computers and you are free to choose from them. The lack of the companies’ willingness to allow competition to the repair side of their business is a problem as is a subscription based model for goods and as I see it they are not going to give up on this cash cow unless prodded to do so. For more insight you might want to look for a channel on YouTube called Louis Rossmann. Louis has been involved in the right to repair movement for several years. He has formed two non-profits to promote right to repair. He uses none of the money for himself. This memorandum appears to be nothing but a PR stunt and a smoke screen to stop legislatures from doing the right thing. Much Like Bill Living in Commiefornia , I live in the PRNY (Peoples Republic of New York). We just had a right to repair bill signed into law that was voted on in the assembly 142 to 7 and 59 to 4 in the Senate both in favor of the bill. The bill as written was a huge step forward for independent repair. It was somehow gutted before it was signed by the Governor. It now does nothing to bring the results that are needed. (I don’t know how that happens, but it did.) Safety is the loudest cry you will hear from the industry. You will now see in that law that a company can deny you access to parts, schematics. and software to diagnose and repair your own things. “Because Safety” The excuse they give that software is intellectual property I will agree with if someone is asking for source code. Truth be known nobody is.They are just asking for end user software. The same tools that authorized repair shops have access to. These are not expected to be given for free but at a reasonable cost to the repair industry, Scott you are dabbling in writing code, and you will know of what I speak. I find it amazing that this has been available in the auto industry for decades and you can literally take your car to any repair shop and get it repaired. Heck, I can even go to a parts store and buy brakes for my car and install them on a 4000 LB car myself. I can purchase scan tools for autos with factory software or aftermarket software that will greatly help with diagnosing faults with my auto .By doing so you can peel back that sticker on that engine Bill mentioned. It is done every day by people that have taken the time to educate themselves. I see no reason that people would not step up to repair tractors or computers or any other device if given a fair shake at doing so. My Mechanics skill set now demands a shop rate of $90 an hour and it beats the dealer by a lot. The cost of taking it to an independent repair shop or repairing it myself will be cheaper than taking it to a company repair center. Recurring revenue is now the goal of these companies. I am by no means a farmer but i spent many summers on my uncles farm. I know that planting times and harvesting times have short windows. Farmers need their equipment now, There is not a Deere dealer in every town. The options for the farmer are to haul a large piece of gear sometimes across half a state via truck at a great expense to a dealer or have a tech come to your farm at their convenience. A shortage of qualified techs delay these repairs for extended periods. Here are a few things that these companies do. Deere serializes parts to a particular piece of equipment in such a way that you will still need a tech from Deere to reprogram a part removed from a like machine and placed on another. It will not work without that service. a GPS device is one example.. Apple does the same thing. Need a battery for your laptop or Iphone ? Take it from one to another, a flag comes up that it is not an authentic battery. Software is needed to correct the false warning..I’ll leave it to you to figure out who has it. Need a charging chip for that same laptop? Apple won’t sell it to you they intentionally changed the design from an off the shelf part to a proprietary one that functions the same as the previous one and they tell the manufacturer to not sell the part to third parties. In this case they drive up the price for repair because you have to buy a $60 brand new charger and sacrifice it for the chip. The part would cost you about $8 if it was made available. Can we talk about E-waste now? This repair would cost about a $100 at a reputable independent repair shop if the part was available. Apple will force you to buy a complete motherboard for hundreds of dollars for the same problem. Repair of said machine may become cost prohibitive at that point but you can always buy a new one. Buy the way say goodbye to any data on that Apple board because they solder in the drives and ram now and Apple does not recover data at any price. Dymo is a leading manufacturer of label printers and have recently introduced DRM into those printers in such a way that you can’t use a cheaper competitors label. Yep, DRM for paper just like the print cartridges for your printer. These are but a few things. Chances are you have appliances in your home now that are set up the same way. Just to add a bit of humor to this Ever wonder why the Shake machine is always broken at the McDonald’s near you? Yep, you guessed it.There is only one repair company authorized that has the knowledge the software and the parts to fix them and they are short on Techs also. (You know you eat at Mickey D’s once in a while) I am old enough to remember when you bought a new radio or such, they often came with all the info to repair them glued to the back or were given to you in a service manual with a fold out schematic. Tube TV’s come to mind also. Most drug stores had tube testers to use for free. In closing please don’t tout this as a win because it is just the opposite. The media ran with this and did not look at history nor did they read the fine print for the future of repair. Being the media we have now they are misleading the public with this.