Dieter Rams designed products to last, is horrified how we throw things away
speaking from experience as an engine mechanic, this type of disposable consumerism is absolutely rampant in luxury vehicles.  im not sure if its designed to be an expression of luxury, or if the designers just dont care, but it shows in the quality of the final product that most of these icons of performance and opulence are due for major service every few thousand miles.<p>plastic oil filter modules:  absolute garbage but Chrysler fell in love with them during the Daimler years and now they show up in basically everything built off the E series chassis.  BMW also use them, and they hold up to thermal stress very poorly.  can not be recycled in the US like metal filters and have to be shipped, if you want, to germany.<p>plastic water pumps&#x2F;plastic cooling systems: notoriously BMW, but also show up on Maserati so im told.  they leak like a sieve and youll replace a major part of the system every 5k miles.  cannot be recycled.<p>cheap hydraulics:  im talking about that paddle shift dual clutch weirdness that shows up in high-performance mercedes 6 liter v8 engines with the double turbos.  You build an engine that costs 3&#x2F;4 of the vehicle value and you cheap out at the last minute with pot-steel roller bearings?  in an engine that delivers north of 500 horsepower?  tapered rollers or even high nickel needle bearings would keep the hydraulics running for years, but the hydraulic actuation assembly for the paddle shift stuff is an absolute dumpster fire.  you cant disassemble the actuator, or service the bearings.  the whole thing gets thrown out and replaced.<p>death by cad:  this is more &#x27;right to repair&#x27; but engines that were designed in a laboratory by a grad student from Malaysia who was told to &#x27;make it work.&#x27;  to service the turbo on some lexus F sports, you must disassembly the entire front of the car.  headlights have to come off, the radiator and forward steering linkage too.  its a $400 part, but thats $2300 in labor.