Re: Electronics
This Doom & Gloom scenario is not as truthful as you might think. Comparing an 8 year old car (computer) to an 8 year old computer is totally bogus. Before you start to dismiss my comment, understand I have been working for Intel for the last 11 years and have been in the computer industry since the early '80s.
One of the respondents mentioned the same thing. He pointed out that the 8 year old computer had to contend with all the operating system and software upgrades, something that is not necessary with an car's computer. In 8 years it will still be doing the same job with the same software and firmware as it did when it was new.
As far as reliability goes, it is the moving parts within the computer and not so much the electronics (especially the CPU) that fail into the "when not if" failure category. The processor and electronics associated with them fail at a very low rate. One of my jobs My job is to convince independent manufacturers that their customers really need a new computer to keep up with all the changes. There is something called "Moore's Law" that says that computing power and speeds double approximately every 18 months. This has held true for over 20 years and in fact has accelerated in the last two.
Again the problem isn't so much with the computer, but with all the new strides in the OS and programs. If those things had not changed, those 8 year old (and older) systems would still be state of the art.
This is not to say they won't fail, just that they are far more reliable than the mechanical parts. The biggest problem lies with, if they do fail 10-15 years down the road, will they be available? I think I just might have to buy a replacement and keep it in a dark dry place just in case. LOL
Last edited by SRT SIX; Dec 16, 2007 at 12:31 PM.