On Tue, 05 May 2015 13:56:56 +0100, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

It's now relatively expensive and complicated to be able to
diagnose
even a simple engine or even transmission faults. That's assuming
the
owners have even an inkling about how a car works let alone any
desire to service/maintain it themselves.

You can buy code readers for most cars these days. Usually for less than
the cost of an oil service at a dealer.

Does a "code reader" enable to you to control various aspects of the
vehical. Say inflate/deflate the nearside rear air spring whilst
monitoring the output of the ride height sensors in real time?

Or does it just give the stored fault codes that it might translate
into brief explanatory text.

The fact is like many things these days, most can't be bothered to learn
how a car works.

Which is why when the all-in purchase package comes to an end they
trade it in. They can't service it themselves and don't want those,
percieved to be, huge and unpredictable servive/repair bills. Even if
those bills come to £1000/year (unlikely) the fact they were paying
£150/month (£1800/year) doesn't matter it's a fixed regular amount
that is easy to budget for. And of course, far more importantly, be
seen with a spanking new car with half an extra bell and a useless
whistle.

--
Cheers
Dave.