zlacker

>>mikela+(OP)
It’s funny how I extrapolate car design sessions in my head based on software design sessions.

I sold my bmw after 15 years of multiple bmws because their design is so poor for maintenance. I had cooling system problems that required hours of labor to get to just to replace a plastic part that cost $5 where an aluminum one would cost $7.

It seems to me that bmw was designing for best case scenarios where everything goes perfectly. And since it’s supposed to go perfectly who cares if it’s $5000 to fix because it will “never break.”

Reminds me of Rube Goldberg software designs where 9 things have to happen in sequence for success.

The idea of rubust design that assumes everything breaks and you can still operate is one I value. I look for car companies (and everything I suppose) following this principle.

>>prepen+fJ1
What you're describing is the stereotype for "rich west europe" engineering culture.

Every now and then you see it leak out into some other environment, like Toyota and their pull-apart ball joints that "aren't an issue" because "the user will just service it on schedule" where it reliably causes problems in all sorts of dumb ways (because like anything else, designing stuff to within an inch of it's life takes practice).

Now, don't get me wrong, this European approach creates a lot of cool highly performant products, but it's stuff that tends to fall on it's face real good if you violate any of the assumptions made when designing it and the approach is naturally suited to some products more than others.

>>potato+PL1
Here is an American example, Fox suspensions. Fox is one of the main producers of bicycle suspensions. Great products, but check their service intervals for a fork [0], 125 hours.

Now if you practice mountainbike you may ride your bike 1 to 5 times a week. Let's say you only ride once a week for 4 hours: 125 / 4 = 31, you would need to service your fork every 31 weeks. Add some few more rides and you have to service the fork twice a year.

Each service easily costs $150 if done by a bike shop. If you do it yourself (plenty of tutorials on youtube), you need expensive special tools, oil, special grease and spare o-rings and seals easily costs 30-40$ for every service. And you have to properly dispose the old oil.

[0] https://tech.ridefox.com/bike/owners-manuals/2979/fork--2025...

>>giamma+Qa2
That service interval is pretty common across all bike suspension forks (and dropper posts are usually only around 50 hours).

A SR Suntour fork has a 100 hour maintenance interval, for example.

https://www.manualslib.com/manual/3730626/Sr-Suntour-Durolux...