New Refrigerators, Washing Machines, Furniture and Tires Will All Have to Last Longer, Europe Mandates
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A welcome mandate, especially for electronics. However people are already throwing away so much perfectly fine furniture that I don‘t think it will help much in that regard. A lot of people want something new, not something that just works.
Yeah they buy new because the advertisements give you idea that new is cool, brainwashing one into consuming. We should ban ads
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There are some pretty annoying EVs out there (example bmw i3). It was delightful to drive, but as soon as a single rain droplet fell from the sky, traction control has a lot of hard work
I did drive a VW id.4 but with how high and huge that thing is the handling was horrible. From all the EV's I've been able to drive/sit in the only good ones were currently Tesla and Skoda.
It's not an EV thing, it's a carmaker (and car type) thing.
I very much believe EV's are the future, I just think the EU EV's have slacked a lot because they were so adamant at staying with fuel based engines and because of that a lot of people think EV's are so much worse, while the good and decently affordable EV's sadly come from countries we just don't really like (US and China)
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It's a good thing they think about this. With that said, the tires can wait. Let's start with the low hanging fruit. It's a crime that critical components in home appliances break so easily and are so hard to fix.
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Idk I had a Tesla M3 with stock tires and because of the center of gravity being so low the car had great grip even with fast sharp corners. Seems like you just hate EV's for whatever reason and take it out whatever way you can
Usually it helps for traction if car weighs 300 tons...
Also no, it's not me hating on EVs, it's because Car makers stick lowest rolling resistance tires to improve efficiency and lower rolling resistance also means they grip asphalt poorly.
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A welcome mandate, especially for electronics. However people are already throwing away so much perfectly fine furniture that I don‘t think it will help much in that regard. A lot of people want something new, not something that just works.
Well, for furniture, I totally agree with you and honestly: I don't think there is eomething wrong with redesigning your living room every 10 years, especially when you move around.
I mainly want to be able to buy old washing machines, dish washers, TVs, because I don't care about their appearance.
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It's a good thing they think about this. With that said, the tires can wait. Let's start with the low hanging fruit. It's a crime that critical components in home appliances break so easily and are so hard to fix.
Or impossible to buy spares for, or when you can get the spare part it's often so expensive with shipping that it's almost worth buying a new appliance on offer with the warranty that comes with it.
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I wonder how this translates to tires. Generally, softer rubber translates to more grip and faster wear, and other way around. Does this mean that the tires will be less grippy then?
Mandatory alignment checks?
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Or impossible to buy spares for, or when you can get the spare part it's often so expensive with shipping that it's almost worth buying a new appliance on offer with the warranty that comes with it.
Some stuff are just ridiculously tedious to service due to their design.
Asus laptops are notorious for this. I remember having to take apart everything including the mainboard just to replace the RAM module.
On a similar note, in car context, I've read about instances where one needed to take out the whole engine just to replace the spark plug. I think it was Mercedes A series, as well as some Wuling.
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The three biggest things that kill a tyre are;
- shitty roads
- aggressive driving
- heavy vehicles (like EVs and oversized SUVs)
That said, cheaper tyres are typically made of cheaper compounds that age poorly.
That last point sticks with me.
I always used to get the cheapest, shittest tyres just because cost, but since I became a driving instructor a few years back I got into the mentality of thinking "I need decent tyres because I don't want my learners to lose control of the car"
Normally I'd buy tyres once every 6-8 months after squeezing out every morsel of life from them, but my current Bridgestone tyres have been on for nearly a year now - doing driving instructor mileage on top of my usual - and they're not showing any signs of needing replacing yet.
The fact is I'm actually saving money doing it this way, because whilst the tyres are more expensive, I'm replacing them much less often.
I'm going to try out Pirelli next because it sounds like they've started lining the inside of some of their tyres with that puncture repair stuff and padding them out with foam to significantly reduce road noise.
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That feels like a move on the slippery slope from a market economy to a planning economy.
The objective is honorable, but better value should come from customer choices, not from regulations.
Instead of making those rules and establishing institutions that enforce them, the EU should create infrastructure that allows consumers to compare products objectively. Add the opportunity to finance more expensive but also more durable products easily and there is no need to suffocate everything in regulations.
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Mandatory alignment checks?
Isn't this already a thing in the yearly technical check?
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That last point sticks with me.
I always used to get the cheapest, shittest tyres just because cost, but since I became a driving instructor a few years back I got into the mentality of thinking "I need decent tyres because I don't want my learners to lose control of the car"
Normally I'd buy tyres once every 6-8 months after squeezing out every morsel of life from them, but my current Bridgestone tyres have been on for nearly a year now - doing driving instructor mileage on top of my usual - and they're not showing any signs of needing replacing yet.
The fact is I'm actually saving money doing it this way, because whilst the tyres are more expensive, I'm replacing them much less often.
I'm going to try out Pirelli next because it sounds like they've started lining the inside of some of their tyres with that puncture repair stuff and padding them out with foam to significantly reduce road noise.
That's weird. I'm changing tires every 2 to 3 years and so is the norm in Europe.
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That's weird. I'm changing tires every 2 to 3 years and so is the norm in Europe.
They did mention being a driving instructor. Driving (and teaching students to drive) all day every day is going to put a lot more wear on the tires than a typical driver.
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A welcome mandate, especially for electronics. However people are already throwing away so much perfectly fine furniture that I don‘t think it will help much in that regard. A lot of people want something new, not something that just works.
This is absolutely true and sad, though I get a lot of free electronics to dismantle by rummaging through trash. People have no appreciation of the value of "used" items that either work perfectly fine or have a minor issue that prevents them from working but is easily fixable, e.g. a broken cable (I have many working devices that were thrown away because the cable is severed, which I could easily fix). I think only proper education in this regard will improve things long term.
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That last point sticks with me.
I always used to get the cheapest, shittest tyres just because cost, but since I became a driving instructor a few years back I got into the mentality of thinking "I need decent tyres because I don't want my learners to lose control of the car"
Normally I'd buy tyres once every 6-8 months after squeezing out every morsel of life from them, but my current Bridgestone tyres have been on for nearly a year now - doing driving instructor mileage on top of my usual - and they're not showing any signs of needing replacing yet.
The fact is I'm actually saving money doing it this way, because whilst the tyres are more expensive, I'm replacing them much less often.
I'm going to try out Pirelli next because it sounds like they've started lining the inside of some of their tyres with that puncture repair stuff and padding them out with foam to significantly reduce road noise.
Obligatory Pratchett:
The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.
Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.
But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.
This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.
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That feels like a move on the slippery slope from a market economy to a planning economy.
The objective is honorable, but better value should come from customer choices, not from regulations.
Instead of making those rules and establishing institutions that enforce them, the EU should create infrastructure that allows consumers to compare products objectively. Add the opportunity to finance more expensive but also more durable products easily and there is no need to suffocate everything in regulations.
but better value should come from customer choices, not from regulations.
You mean lower value should come from misleading advertisement, incomplete information, irrational behaviour of actors, and other forms of market failure. Because that is how it works out in the real world.
Also, quoth the constitution (or well what passes as one for the EU), Article 3(3) TEU:
The Union shall establish an internal market. It shall work for the sustainable development of Europe based on balanced economic growth and price stability, a highly competitive social market economy, aiming at full employment and social progress, and a high level of protection and improvement of the quality of the environment. It shall promote scientific and technological advance.
Get out of here with Ayn Rand's fever dreams.
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Well this mandate all but guarantees no trade deal will be made with the US. The things we do make don't last long.
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Yeah they buy new because the advertisements give you idea that new is cool, brainwashing one into consuming. We should ban ads
Disposable culture is a blight on society...
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Some stuff are just ridiculously tedious to service due to their design.
Asus laptops are notorious for this. I remember having to take apart everything including the mainboard just to replace the RAM module.
On a similar note, in car context, I've read about instances where one needed to take out the whole engine just to replace the spark plug. I think it was Mercedes A series, as well as some Wuling.
Spark plugs hit home. The back 4 in my Lexus are a real pain in the arse to get to. they're iridium so they dont have to be done as regularly but when they do it's a good few hours work even for a professional
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Do like Dubai (for this instance) and demand better LED bulbs too.
