Planned Obsolescense

[MikeF2316]

I agree with you totally. It is never going to balance correctly with all factors involved when a corporation by very definition has profits and the wellbeing of the shareholder as its' first and primary priority. Everything else is required by law and the very definition of a corporation to come second. I can't pretend that I know a better way that could be easily achieved, as it is all very complicated, but it just seems like that core dynamic will always cause this sort of a problem. It will always make the environment, the quality, the customer, etc. a secondary concern at best. It is also what causes corporations to worry about their image, their brand messaging, etc. They are businesses, they are not your personal friend. They will change their image or brand on a dime if research shows that it will sell more to do so. You end up with something like breast cancer "awareness" becoming a cash cow for a company that makes yogurt etc.

I watched an interview as part of a documentary talking to the heads of Walmart where they openly said that they could care less if the food they sell is organic or not. They have an organic section and sell organic food because there is enough demand for it so that they can make more money using that part of the store for organic food than for something else. That is all there is to it. It had nothing to do with the environment, the health of customers, etc.

The problem isn't so much greed per se, but very short term greed. Nobody seems to think long term any more, just maximize profits today. Back in the day, I worked in a car dealership, just before the end of every month was a panic/stampede to put as much work through as possible. I asked my boss what the big deal was, we'd just have the numbers in the next month. His reply - we worry about this month this month, and worry about next month next month.

That's the problem.

You want to trade on your good name by selling **** at the same price, but with a higher margin? Profits go up - short term anyway, shareholders and analysts call you a genius. Then when that strategy starts to bite you in the ***, maybe it's someone elses problem, or you just find some other solution.

 

[jeremy v]

The problem isn't so much greed per se, but very short term greed. Nobody seems to think long term any more, just maximize profits today. Back in the day, I worked in a car dealership, just before the end of every month was a panic/stampede to put as much work through as possible. I asked my boss what the big deal was, we'd just have the numbers in the next month. His reply - we worry about this month this month, and worry about next month next month.

That's the problem.

You want to trade on your good name by selling **** at the same price, but with a higher margin? Profits go up - short term anyway, shareholders and analysts call you a genius. Then when that strategy starts to bite you in the ***, maybe it's someone elses problem, or you just find some other solution.

I would agree with you there, and your way of thinking seems to tie in directly with mine if applied more broadly as well. Worrying about the highest profits now is causing an environmental toll that will be paid later vs. spending a little more now to do things in a more environmentally responsible manner. Selling "breast cancer awareness" yogurt now to boost profits for the quarter vs actually putting forth a concerted effort to accomplish something for the cause instead of just riding it for temporary monetary gain etc.

Maybe the problem is more tied to how the profits are calculated instead of it being the pursuit of profits above all else being the problem. Profits are not bad by default, only profits that come at the expense of something else that is very likely more valuable are to be avoided. If the calculations of total quarterly profits included monetary earnings as well as a known increase in quality of life in some way that people could recognize like the demonstration of increased efficiency, less pollution, higher quality from the same raw materials, greater safety for the employees, greater support for the nearby community, etc. If that sort of stuff all contributed to the total profit number for the quarter then there would be an incentive for all those things to occur for the better of everyone in the corporation and outside of it while still working within the existing system.

I would think that brand loyalty would soar for the corporations that did the best consistently and I for one would feel more proud to actually own stock in a corporation that scored itself that way in comparison to how the scores are tallied now.

Sometimes it is hard to balance the desire to invest long term while at the same time wondering if there is something that corporation is doing that I don't know about that I would never want to be a part of at any cost if I knew that was going on.

 

[Jsf721]

What are you using them for?

Then I can give you a proper answer.

Acids and bleach will tear these up pretty good no matter the quality.

Sprayers with Viton Seals are the better sprayers. Most of the time it is the seal that fails and no you cannot replace them becasue it is in a molded compartment.

Can you tell me where to get or how to spot the better sprayers?

I bought some "industrial" empty spray bottles awhile back and even they only last about a year.

 

[Gotmayhem]

I could be wrong here, but what about the old American and British Vise companies? I'm no expert on the subject but I've been told that the problem with all the old bulletproof vises from "back in the day" was that once you bought one you had it for life. My understanding is that they were built so well, and had little room for improvement over the years, that it wasn't a very sustainable business. If the same Columbian that your grandfather used is still doing the same job that a new chinese vise does just as well or better then there is no reason to "upgrade". So it would make business sense to make new vises with cheaper materials so that there will be a future market once they wear out or break.

It's a shameful practice, but if non-consumable items don't fail or give a reason to upgrade then the market won't support the company selling them.

 

[cburnscrx]

I tend to agree with you, but when they first started they were the only ones to have the whole "look at us we make dirt go in circles inside a clear container" thing going for them so that has to account for something as a counterpoint to the "always ****" argument.

The design and idea was a good one. The execution of the idea was ****. I've had shoes last longer than those things.

 

[Oldbear]

I don't think you can add wiper blades to that list if you get a year out of them. Mercedes literature that I've seen going back several decades has always suggested a 6 month replacement schedule (or close to it).

Rubbing alcohol on a cloth will "rejuvenate" a tired blade. Plus, in my climate, not using them as ice scrappers helps too...

 

[Oldbear]

I'm surprised you guys have so many issues with CFL's...I'm nearly 4 years in my current house, entirely on CFL bulbs, some of which came along with me from my old place and have lost a total of 2 so far.

Some of my old ones are still going after 5 years or more. But the ones after that last about a year. I've started writing the date of install also.

 

[ssentt]

You want to trade on your good name by selling **** at the same price, but with a higher margin? Profits go up - short term anyway, shareholders and analysts call you a genius. Then when that strategy starts to bite you in the ***, maybe it's someone elses problem, or you just find some other solution.

Sears craftsman tools come to mind here.

 

[IndyGarage]

What are you using them for?

Then I can give you a proper answer.

Acids and bleach will tear these up pretty good no matter the quality.

Sprayers with Viton Seals are the better sprayers. Most of the time it is the seal that fails and no you cannot replace them becasue it is in a molded compartment.

Well obviously you know about sprayers and I don't.

One of those that failed is one I use with dish soap and water - to check for leaks in tires, air fittings, my kids water toys etc.

I use another one for ZEP industrial cleaner - which is much stronger chemical.

And then there's the ones where I've bought quick detailer - probably just distilled water .

None of them will last very long.

 

[IndyGarage]

The design and idea was a good one. The execution of the idea was ****. I've had shoes last longer than those things.

I never fell for those dyson vacs - one look at them as an engineer told me they were made for style and not function - and that hard plastic was not going to be very durable.

Unfortunately their marketing was so good that the entire industry followed them.

 

[IndyGarage]

I think mass production has brought us to this problem. Not from the manufacturers necessarily, but from the customers.

People want products made by the millions, so they know they aren't getting a bad one. And they want them as cheap as humanly possible - so they can produce thousands of **** items:

Look at all the TV shows about blasting through a home renovation or a "chopper" build or a 4x4 "build", or a restaurant makeover - hurry, hurry - order the materials. Get it done in a week.

How many shows are about the guy who spent 20 years building the ferrari replica?

You can make quality products a few at a time, in a small shop. It reminds me of what the Aero 1946 guys are doing or what the guys in that Ax video are doing.

When products are made this way, then the company doesn't/didn't care if it sold you only one in your lifetime - they would sell the next one to somebody else.

I have a 70 year old lathe and next to it a 69 year old mill and down the way from it a 60 year old grinder, and two 80 year old vises in my shop. They all can work on 5 year old equipment just fine.

 

[honcho]

One evening, you have a EUREKA moment when you conceive in your mind a terrific product, something that everyone will want. You make a prototype, you get a patent, you produce it at the highest quality level possible. You build it to last. You support your product with great customer support, well-stocked repair depots and repair parts inventories. You sell tons of your product, your customers are happy but your shareholders not so much. Once most of your market has purchased one of your product, since they can be kept in service almost indefinitely and are very cost effective to repair, your sales taper off and since you did a great job with you initial design for ease of repair, you're selling $5 parts instead of $500 new items. It's almost as though it's a model to destroy a business.

What do you do to save your business? First, you redesign your product and hopefully improve it's performance or at least the appearance. Next, you cut costs in manufacturing by molding something instead of machining, using lighter components, etc.... You introduce your new product as "New & Improved, Now 10% less $$$ with a longer Warranty" You skipped all the repair-ability and depots well-stocked with repair parts. It's still a good product, just not as long-lived as the old one and you've got a great brand name reputation in your product category.

You sell a bunch of the new product and consumers are happy. They're getting your product for less money than before. A few of the new product fail under warranty and your customer service, still very responsive, quickly replaces them--note, they replace them, not repair the warranty claims. When the warranty runs out and a customer needs service, they find out repair parts are not available and guess what? 9 out of 10 buy a new one of your product and your back to selling more $489 (instead of the old $500 price) items instead of inexpensive repair parts. Sure, a few grumpy folks are upset that they can't repair their units, but they need one / want one and will have to purchase a new one.

Of course, this tale doesn't talk about moving the manufacturing to China or making it even cheaper to manufacture or selling basically the same thing at different price levels under different brand names. It's just the way much of the design, manufacturing and sale of goods happens today. We can complain about it a lot, but the economy produces things that more and more people can have and enjoy like flat screen televisions, computers, laptops and smartphones. Near infinite variations on clothing, cars that are safer and more fuel efficient than ever before. There are lots of things I don't like about our economy but the reality is that it is not going to go backwards no matter how much we complain. We vote everyday with our dollars and the marketplace responds.

 

[jeremy v]

Look at all the TV shows about blasting through a home renovation or a "chopper" build or a 4x4 "build", or a restaurant makeover - hurry, hurry - order the materials. Get it done in a week.

One thing I have always wondered about those types of shows, especially ones like American Chopper is what percentage of the total build cost ends up going towards next day air shipping. It seems like everything is next day air and that can easily get above $100 for each and every shipment.

I have a 70 year old lathe and next to it a 69 year old mill and down the way from it a 60 year old grinder, and two 80 year old vises in my shop. They all can work on 5 year old equipment just fine.

I am with you to some extent. I have a 10ER shopsmith that was passed to me by my grandfather. It is almost all cast iron not aluminum like the newer ones. I love it, it is easy to keep running and I use it for all sorts of tasks, but mainly as a drill press. One thing I will never use it for though is as a table saw, because as a table saw it is pretty weak and downright dangerous with that completely open blade spinning on the end of a shaft like that. Especially with kids or my dog around There are some tools that go out by default just because they are dangerous or less useful than a newer version.

 

[zakmartin]

My favorite example of engineered obsolescence was a part in the Volkswagen fuel pump (they don't do this anymore because of the bad publicity they got) would go bad because it would eventually dissolve in gasoline. Then you'd need to spend $$$$ to buy a proprietary tool from Volkswagen to change it out. Quite the scam they had going there for a while.

 

[MikeF2316]

One evening, you have a EUREKA moment when you conceive in your mind a terrific product, something that everyone will want. You make a prototype, you get a patent, you produce it at the highest quality level possible. You build it to last. You support your product with great customer support, well-stocked repair depots and repair parts inventories. You sell tons of your product, your customers are happy but your shareholders not so much. Once most of your market has purchased one of your product, since they can be kept in service almost indefinitely and are very cost effective to repair, your sales taper off and since you did a great job with you initial design for ease of repair, you're selling $5 parts instead of $500 new items. It's almost as though it's a model to destroy a business.

What do you do to save your business? First, you redesign your product and hopefully improve it's performance or at least the appearance. Next, you cut costs in manufacturing by molding something instead of machining, using lighter components, etc.... You introduce your new product as "New & Improved, Now 10% less $$$ with a longer Warranty" You skipped all the repair-ability and depots well-stocked with repair parts. It's still a good product, just not as long-lived as the old one and you've got a great brand name reputation in your product category.

You sell a bunch of the new product and consumers are happy. They're getting your product for less money than before. A few of the new product fail under warranty and your customer service, still very responsive, quickly replaces them--note, they replace them, not repair the warranty claims. When the warranty runs out and a customer needs service, they find out repair parts are not available and guess what? 9 out of 10 buy a new one of your product and your back to selling more $489 (instead of the old $500 price) items instead of inexpensive repair parts. Sure, a few grumpy folks are upset that they can't repair their units, but they need one / want one and will have to purchase a new one.

Of course, this tale doesn't talk about moving the manufacturing to China or making it even cheaper to manufacture or selling basically the same thing at different price levels under different brand names. It's just the way much of the design, manufacturing and sale of goods happens today. We can complain about it a lot, but the economy produces things that more and more people can have and enjoy like flat screen televisions, computers, laptops and smartphones. Near infinite variations on clothing, cars that are safer and more fuel efficient than ever before. There are lots of things I don't like about our economy but the reality is that it is not going to go backwards no matter how much we complain. We vote everyday with our dollars and the marketplace responds.

You might be missing one detail in this story. Somewhere between the first and last paragraph the shareholders force you out because they want more sooner, and a faceless conglomerate takes over.

 

[bobcatdan]

I'm surprised you guys have so many issues with CFL's...I'm nearly 4 years in my current house, entirely on CFL bulbs, some of which came along with me from my old place and have lost a total of 2 so far.

My dad switched to cfl bulbs before I can remember and I just turn 30. To my knowledge all those bulbs lasted over 20 years. The old school ones that flickered for 30 seconds before they turned on.

 

[ganymede]

There are more and more people on Earth every day. Around 4 to 4 1/2 billion in the early 80's (when the tide of cheap import tools and outsourcing of jobs began to accelerate) to 7 1/4 billion now. I don't think the idea of running out of consumers is applicable in trying to rationalize 'throw away culture'.

 

[e-tek]

We live in a cheap as possible throw away society. Let's say you have a item that's $10 but will last 5 years then you have one for $5 that only lasts a year, people will buy the cheap one that after 5 years will cost them 2 1/2 times the quality one.

I find it so ironic that there are so many intelligent people (like on this forum for example), yet the general population is so dumb (short-sighted?) that they generally choose cheap/short-lived over more costly/high-quality in most everything they buy.

What really does greed mean??? You do realize that if you earn over $35,000 dollars a year that you are in the top 1% in the world? Does that make us all greedy? To 99 % of the people the answer is yes....

I think by greed he meant the people at the very top, making the decisions to cut costs on everything in order to turn more of a profit - for themselves or their shareholders - regardless of the outcome.

I have believed in planned-obsolescence forever, but can see the argument that much of it is just due to greedy cost-cutting and short-sighted consumerism.

 

[fivespdcat]

It's not planned obsolescence most of the time it's design life engineering. We can't over engineer something or it will cost too much for the consumer. There has to be market research done to understand the market you are playing in, then try to produce something innovative to beat the competition, whether that is a new feature or longer life. It is very rare, when something is made that it is so earth shattering that a consumer will open their wallets wide and pay for it. Generally, consumers will cross shop your product with the competition and decide based on their value, and overall lifetime doesn't have that much to do with it. As engineers, we can generally make whatever you want and have it last as long as you want. However, you would not want to see that bill, so we have reduced lifetime products to meet what the customer will pay.

I don't think many people, even on this forum would pay $400 for a light bulb that lasted forever, or what about lifetime tires? $1k each? You would probably sell 2 of them. Everyone wants something that lasts forever and does everything, but no one wants to pay for it. Unfortunately we must also consider volume in the design equation, because if we miss the volume targets everything is shot, because the prices double.

Contrary to what some think, I believe cars are the best balance of just about any products. They last for quite a long time, live in every environment on earth and mostly do it without complaining. Try that with your ipod.

 

[andyray]

Major appliances, like Fridge, freezers and dishwashers now last about 8 years instead of 20 or more.

Yes, this is my pet peeve. I've had a dryer, cooktop, microwave, and dishwasher all fail inside of 5 years. And this was not 'low end' gear. In this particular area it appears impossible to buy quality. I talked to a repair guy, and he basically confirmed this. He said - the issue is they may use the same Chinese sourced component in a Viking and a Frigidaire, so its a crapshoot.

I find it so ironic that there are so many intelligent people (like on this forum for example), yet the general population is so dumb (short-sighted?) that they generally choose cheap/short-lived over more costly/high-quality in most everything they buy.

"We have met the enemy and he is us". The general population of consumers have made it clear that they don't actually care if their products are of low quality, destroy American jobs, or are made in sweatshops. As long as they are cheap!

Good news is we can change our behavior, and hopefully that will encourage others. It has to start somewhere. We have to recognize that paying more for quality products made in countries that support the quality of life we want for ourselves and our children, is critical to protecting our own quality of life.

 

[Olafur]

We tax labor but not the use of raw materials. Hence we plow through (often limited) natural resources with no regard of the consequences for coming generations.

Actual production cost is frequently in the 5-10% range of retail. So "over engineering" would hardly drive prices up very much.

Our (rather fuc*** up) ideas about money result in monetary system - dysfunctional absent robust economic growth. So pretty much all policy makers on the planet have their work cut out for them; to create growth.

Unfortunately; industrial revolutions or great leaps in technology and knowledge do not happen every decade to sustain massive growth. And with population growth in the "west" slowing in past decades something gotta give.

To keep the show on the road consumerism has been taken to new level: resulting in pumping more goods, ever faster through the economic chain via means of globalization assisted by ever more creative financial engineering and ever more sophisticated marketing (brainwashing) techniques. The end result is shorter product life - it is part of the equation.

Fun part is: I am not sure this was at all planned to begin with.

 

[johnnie5]

cell phones they all last about 2.5 years before the battery starts to go bad,

mine lasted about 18 months

$15 on ebay and 10 seconds to replace and still going strong

 

[Danglerb]

Zep at Home Depot, Rubbermaid wherever, sell a quality duck bill spray bottle for about $3.50.

I don't recall wiper blades ever lasting a long time, or working really well for longer than months, but definitely the washer systems put more wear and tear on them. Classis wiper failure mode is hot day, rubber melts to windshield and tears on next movement. Rainx Repel seem about the best right now.

Computer stuff is coming out that stops working after 2 to 3 years.

Ink cartridges that stop working even if they still have ink when the printer decides they are done.

Houses built from lumber that already have termites in the wood.

Simple fact, none of the early computer companies that shipped products without significant bugs have survived.

 

[KenS]

In a recent episode of Wheeler Dealers, Edd China is working on a Land Rover with a bad suspension height compressor. He takes the compressor apart and finds that the piston ring-- designed to be a sacrificial wear component-- has worn out. The ring looks like a $10 part, but you can't buy one from either Land Rover or on the aftermarket. He ends up having to buy an expensive remanufactured compressor, but at least he didn't have to shell out for a Land Rover OEM.

 

[kc-steve]

It's not planned obsolescence most of the time it's design life engineering. We can't over engineer something or it will cost too much for the consumer. There has to be market research done to understand the market you are playing in, then try to produce something innovative to beat the competition, whether that is a new feature or longer life. It is very rare, when something is made that it is so earth shattering that a consumer will open their wallets wide and pay for it. Generally, consumers will cross shop your product with the competition and decide based on their value, and overall lifetime doesn't have that much to do with it. As engineers, we can generally make whatever you want and have it last as long as you want. However, you would not want to see that bill, so we have reduced lifetime products to meet what the customer will pay.

I don't think many people, even on this forum would pay $400 for a light bulb that lasted forever, or what about lifetime tires? $1k each? You would probably sell 2 of them. Everyone wants something that lasts forever and does everything, but no one wants to pay for it. Unfortunately we must also consider volume in the design equation, because if we miss the volume targets everything is shot, because the prices double.

Contrary to what some think, I believe cars are the best balance of just about any products. They last for quite a long time, live in every environment on earth and mostly do it without complaining. Try that with your ipod.

Although I agree with a lot of what you say, you are still speaking idealistically rather than real world.

I have a couple of working light bulbs in my basement that are at least 40 years old. They have been in the house since I bought it 35 years ago. But the price of the CFL light bulbs are around 10-times the price of the old style, I rarely get much more use than the older bulbs unless I leave them on all the time. They aren't energy saving when I have to leave them on to get proper life out of them.

I have worked in an engineering department designing electronic equipment for the government. We had to go through rigorous testing in extreme environments, used mil-spec parts, yet our contract was based upon the lowest bid. That's just competition, but the quality was the same as anyone else could do in the contract.


. . . and as far as cars, very few people can afford new anymore. That was in the news just recently. To get around that, they have creative financing, meaning the price remains the same and consumers are on the hook to pay for it, somehow.

Your theory falls apart in the real world. Just saying.


Steve

 

[KenS]

Apple power cord.

You're right about the cord, but then again my SE30 with the standard cord still works as well as the day I bought it. (I do prefer my quad-core MacPro despite the Apple cord. Of course there are enough dead eMacs and iMacs around with counterfeit Chiwan capacitors in them that can be cannibalized for their proprietary cords.)

 

[back2class]

THIS IS A FACT.
I have a close personal friend who is a very high level exec at a major power tool company and the DO ENGINEER falure into at least some power tools they produce. That is not to say they cut corners to save $$. They do that of course, but this is done deliberately to cause the product to fail after a certain time so the product will need to be replaced and the customer will hopefully buy another similar tool. It is one of the major biz model problems with hand tools..that they have a very long product life.

Just thought you may like to know the truth.

 

[SKAutomotive]

Even cars are throw-away now. People just drive the **** out of them and don't maintain them and once they are falling apart, trade them in.

Which in the end makes it hard on the people who cannot afford new cars, and don't try to fool themselves, to find a decent used car anymore.

 

[nyrapscalion]

It's a sad reality, but it is real. Cell phones are "engineered" to last 18 months. I have had pretty good luck with CFLs, of course I found the commercial grade GE bulbs.... My tube TV was made in 1996, still works. The DVD player disaster.... $400 for the top of the line Panasonic...died in a year. The Saturn OEM battery lasted 10 years before I needed to replace it, Nissan battery died in 2 years. There's a trend to this stuff.
It's like anything else, the more times you have to go and get another one, the more money someone makes. The more times you need to fill up the gas tank to the sockets that strip out....turns into cash. Regardless as consumers we lose.
I buy and keep old stuff.

 

[dsimatt]

It's a sad reality, but it is real. Cell phones are "engineered" to last 18 months. I buy and keep old stuff.

Most people will take that perfectly good $200+ smart phone and chuck it because the new latest and greatest is out and they need to have it, i keep mine till they aren't reliable then get new which usually is 3-4 years. Everyone wants top quality of what they buy, most won't actually pay for it and fewer will care for the item if they do, run it into the ground and throw it away.

 

[e-tek]

Good news is we can change our behavior, and hopefully that will encourage others. It has to start somewhere. We have to recognize that paying more for quality products made in countries that support the quality of life we want for ourselves and our children, is critical to protecting our own quality of life.

EXTREMELY well-said. If you don't mind, this is gonna go in my sig on every sight I visit!

 

[strnjss]

My problem lately has been telephones. The only ones available - even from the phone outlets - are the cheesey plastic ones who knows where. I've been scouring the thrift stores and estate sales for the 80's slimline phones by Western Electric. Back when we "rented" phones, ATT didn't want the phones to be breaking all the time, because they'd have to replace them. So, they had them made WELL. 30 years later, they still work.
I've only found one locally for $5. You can tell quickly if you find several on a shelf. Pick them up - the good ones have a metal subplate and are HEAVY.

I had to open up the handset of a modern corded phone, and it was hilarious, they actually had a weight inside of it to make it feel heavier!

 

[mmack66]

The auto industry is the biggest example of planned obsolescence. Cars by their very nature must be built to be extremely durable and long lasting, given the abuse they withstand. Given a full inventory of spare parts, you could keep any car ever built, running indefinitely. In order for the auto industry to remain solvent, they make newer cars with more and better features. Certain manufacturers also discontinue parts production for older models. I guess the cars aren't necessarily built to become obsolete, but the manufacturer certainly is planning on them becoming obsolete, so they can sell their new model next year.

I think automobiles are one of the things that rarely become obsolete. I'm driving a 1993 Toyota and most, if not all, of the parts to keep it running are still available. There are parts widely available for cars of all makes and years.

Just because new models are introduced doesn't mean the old ones are obsolete.

 

[Dieselbutterfly]

What really does greed mean??? You do realize that if you earn over $35,000 dollars a year that you are in the top 1% in the world? Does that make us all greedy? To 99 % of the people the answer is yes....

that makes no sense

 

[General Geoff]

I think automobiles are one of the things that rarely become obsolete. I'm driving a 1993 Toyota and most, if not all, of the parts to keep it running are still available. There are parts widely available for cars of all makes and years.

Just because new models are introduced doesn't mean the old ones are obsolete.

I'll agree with you for the most part, however my experiences have been tempered with attempting (and failing) to find parts for older vehicles where the OEM has discontinued critical wear components for them. I've ended up having to scavenge sites for NOS as Ford dealership parts counter folks tell me the part has been discontinued for nearly 10 years (part is for an early 90s Taurus).

On the other hand, every single component on my E30 BMW is still readily available from a BMW dealership parts counter. I do appreciate the availability of harder to find parts, even if I do have to pay a premium. Driving a 30 year old car has its own rewards.

 

[Dieselbutterfly]

THIS IS A FACT.
I have a close personal friend who is a very high level exec at a major power tool company and the DO ENGINEER falure into at least some power tools they produce. That is not to say they cut corners to save $$. They do that of course, but this is done deliberately to cause the product to fail after a certain time so the product will need to be replaced and the customer will hopefully buy another similar tool. It is one of the major biz model problems with hand tools..that they have a very long product life.

Just thought you may like to know the truth.

which company

 

[Displaced Hokie]

It's not planned obsolescence most of the time it's design life engineering. We can't over engineer something or it will cost too much for the consumer.

This man hit it on the head. I know it's fun to talk greed, corporate bad guys, conspiracy theories, etc but the truth is that products are DESIGNED for a certain amount use, amount of that use, and what the consumer will pay.

Many companies offer different product lines that take all of this into conseration. That problem is that consumers expect the ligh-use, budge line of products to last as well as the top-line heavy duty products.

It is simply too often expecting a Ford Ranger to haul as much as a F350.

 

[Displaced Hokie]

Another thing is parts availablility. Unfortunately, sometimes suppliers go out of business and that part can no longer be sourced. Sometimes you can find an alternative, but sometimes not. Then there is just the fact that you can have but so much storage space. If you have a widget for something 40 years old and you sell one per year, eventually it is not worth keeping that part. Or, if you start figuring in what it actually costs for you to keep that widget available, the cost becomes more than someone would pay - you get the "well they have it, but it costs $$$ so I'll just scrap the thing".

On the flip side is that parts sales are a real money maker - especially service parts. So, if something sells regularly even if it's a very old part, you'd want to keep it available just for the sales (and of course, customer satisfaction IS a consideration).

I've personally worked in my career to make "that little $0.10 piece" available to keep someone from buying a whole assembly if it is ticking off customers. Or, work with engineering to design a bolt-on part to replace a weldment that fails, etc. Good companies try to do this.

This whole thing is truely more complicated than many understand.

 

[pendragon1998]

I'm convinced my Samsung Infuse phone's software was planned to fail after a year or so. It started out running perfectly, now it crashes a dozen times a day. I don't run a bunch of strange apps, just a handful of standard stuff. I think they want the phone to progressively get crappier so you jump at the chance to upgrade every two years.

 

[Danglerb]

Somebody mentioned Apple power cords. I used to collect old computers, and for some reason, maybe cheap price, I started collecting Apple logo power cords, must have a box with at least 100 of them from various eras and machines.

If you look around quality can be found. I'm not sure we will often see AT&T of the old days quality, or even old days Maytag, but I think the key to seeing better quality goes far beyond personal selection. You need to be a fan boy for quality, and convince others to buy it and tell their friends how good it is etc.