Information and the Internet

It amazes me how fast we all are to believe in young and fragile technology. Although, when you look at history, mankind has always been a little too trusting. Do you know that at one time doctors thought that if you traveled in a car faster than sixty miles per hour that you would die? Interesting what people thought one-hundred years ago. Public Internet is now just a touch over twenty years old and look at how much faith we blindly put into it. Websites like CARFAX are a great idea, but won’t really be dependable for at least another 5 or 10 years. Why do I say that? Remember the sayings about computers? “Garbage in, garbage out” or “A computer is only as good as the information that’s put into it.” As the years go by and more systems are tied together, I have no doubt that these types of informational websites will be factual and trustworthy. But as of now, they don’t get all the information. They are only as good as the information that is given them. Do you think we upload all our customers’ services onto a public information database? How many shops or dealerships do? Right now only title transfers and accidents are reported (well, accidents that are reported through insurance companies).

As computer technology progresses in cars, you won’t even need the internet. Even now, the later model cars have “pods” instead of keys; these “pods” carry the vehicle service history within them. As of yet, only the dealerships are allowed to have readers for these “pods,” but as cars and technology get older, the information will be released to the independent shops. Newer cars e-mail information to the dealership when some problem comes up, they call emergency services when they are in an accident and even tell them where the accident is.

Forums are a great place to meet people with similar interests. You can share experiences, problems and solutions with each other. But even here, information can be misleading. People claim that a particular car manufacturer has a problem with something when in reality; it’s not a true problem at all, but a result of change and is now a normal part of that cars life. BMW cooling systems are a great example of car manufacturers trying to make components lighter for emissions and fuel economy and less expensive to manufacture, etc. Most of the cooling system components are made of polymers (plastics) and have a shorter life expectancy. Radiators were once made of brass. Did they ever have failures? Not that I know of, not unless a hole got punched in them. Today, in the life of a car, you can expect to replace your radiator at least once or twice. Some problems are regional, shops on the northern east coast see problems we never have, and some of the problems we have are only seen in this region.

Not everything out there is true or correct for your car. It is for these reasons that I have decided to post “My Soapbox” blogs. I would like to do my best to educate, clear misconceptions and confusion about the cars we work on. The more you know about your car, the easier my job is and the easier it is for you to understand what we do to keep your car in top condition.