Why are some things so difficult - to take apart?

[Bob Culver]

If carbon dioxide production is taken seriously cars will have to be used far less and replaced far less often. A lot of clutter like a.c will have to go in the interests of efficency. It just might trigger a return to simple serviceable cars. Unlikley in my lifetime

[Mike Costigan]

 it was necessary to remove the entire dashboard and instrument panel assembly A pillar to A pillar- everything you see when you sit in the front seat- (a two man job btw) to remove and replace said control unit... pid='40137' dateline='1579604291']

Nothing new there: I think it was John Ward who regaled us with the tale of a friend who wanted to buy a Sunbeam Alpine back in the 1960s. As it happened, said friend went on a factory tour before ordering his car, and he happened to notice that the heater was the first item to be installed into the bodyshell. So when he came to order his car hid did not tick the box for the (optional) heater; when the car arrived (complete with heater) he refused to take delivery, pointing out that he did not want to pay the extra charge. The car was sent to the workshops to have the heater removed ... only for the workshop foreman to appear, swearing and cursing, saying there was no way he was going to take that bl***y heater out, it would take all day. So the car was duly invoiced out, less heater charge, complete with factory-installed heater!

[Tony Griffiths]

 it was necessary to remove the entire dashboard and instrument panel assembly A pillar to A pillar- everything you see when you sit in the front seat- (a two man job btw) to remove and replace said control unit... pid='40137' dateline='1579604291']

Nothing new there: I think it was John Ward who regaled us with the tale of a friend who wanted to buy a Sunbeam Alpine back in the 1960s. As it happened, said friend went on a factory tour before ordering his car, and he happened to notice that the heater was the first item to be installed into the bodyshell. So when he came to order his car hid did not tick the box for the (optional) heater; when the car arrived (complete with heater) he refused to take delivery, pointing out that he did not want to pay the extra charge. The car was sent to the workshops to have the heater removed ... only for the workshop foreman to appear, swearing and cursing, saying there was no way he was going to take that bl***y heater out, it would take all day. So the car was duly invoiced out, less heater charge, complete with factory-installed heater!

I can confirm this story - it really did happen. Clever chap!
On a slightly different tack - the price of "options": I recall one of the first BMWs to have an external temperature gauge offered - and this was a long time ago. The price for something now fitted almost as standard to every new car? Just £75. When I bought my last new car there were about six options that I considered. However, each came with one or more compulsory extra options - something along the lines of, 'If you want the larger Satnav screen you'll have to have the electric sunroof'. The result was, that instead of an extra £700, the bill was going to be £2500. Needless to say, I didn't bother with any of them.
What do they call a fully-loaded Skoda?    ...................... An Audi.

[Nick Salmon]

Couple of years ago I went on a tour of a major UK van maker's production line. We were told that to put the wiring loom in took one person 45 minutes. We were also told that if someone further down the line drilled a hole in the wrong place and hit the loom it would take two people two days to remove it!

[Steve Jones]

What do they call a fully-loaded Skoda?    ...................... An Audi.

I better not let my fully loaded Skoda (computer, air con, electric seats, heated seats, cruise, full leather, alloys etc. etc.) see that, Tony. It would be insulted!! I think I've told the story of my previous Octavia before. I had the keys stolen and it had a full new lock set fitted. £300 at the Skoda Dealer. The service chap told me that if had been a Golf, a VW Dealer would have charged £500 and if an A3, the Audi Dealer £800. Same lock set, same part numbers, same time allowance for fitting just a different sticker on the boxes. 

Steve

[Ian McGowan]

Most engineering creations that are difficult to disassemble are made so to discourage those owners of limited competence. not, of course Mr Jones, whose competence I am frequently in awe of!!

[Bruce Nicholls]

Most engineering creations that are difficult to disassemble are made so to discourage those owners of limited competence. not, of course Mr Jones, whose competence I am frequently in awe of!!

E.G my 10 year old Merc A Class where I have just had to drill out 10 pop rivets to get inside the door to replace the failed electronic door locking unit.

[Stuart Giles]

 it was necessary to remove the entire dashboard and instrument panel assembly A pillar to A pillar- everything you see when you sit in the front seat- (a two man job btw) to remove and replace said control unit... pid='40137' dateline='1579604291']

Nothing new there: I think it was John Ward who regaled us with the tale of a friend who wanted to buy a Sunbeam Alpine back in the 1960s. As it happened, said friend went on a factory tour before ordering his car, and he happened to notice that the heater was the first item to be installed into the bodyshell. So when he came to order his car hid did not tick the box for the (optional) heater; when the car arrived (complete with heater) he refused to take delivery, pointing out that he did not want to pay the extra charge. The car was sent to the workshops to have the heater removed ... only for the workshop foreman to appear, swearing and cursing, saying there was no way he was going to take that bl***y heater out, it would take all day. So the car was duly invoiced out, less heater charge, complete with factory-installed heater!

Ah yes, the options game.... Having had a satisfactory test drive, inspected the rear of the car to make sure there was plenty of room for rusty/oily bits and negotiated a cash price, I attempted to order my last daily driver from the dealer's. The dealer said, oh, and the optional metallic paint is £250. I said that's OK, I don't really want metallic paint it's a nightmare to match in the colour on any scratches or scrapes. This triggered a great spiel from the salesman saying how the car would have some massive reduction in resale value if it were painted in any of the solid colours on offer. I replied, 'not a problem for me, the next owner of my cars is usually the scrapman, he doesn't care about the colour as he cranes another car onto the pile of dead cars on his lorry'. Then the salesman said, well if you want a solid colour, it'll have to be a special order, it will take X weeks extra to arrive. I said that's OK, I'll just keep my current daily driver while I wait and pay you the balance when it arrives. At which point the salesman said, 'look, if I throw in the metallic paint will you order the car now'

[andrew34ruby]

Stuart, I hope you said no.

[Reckless Rat]

Some things are easier than others, but FIRST it helps if you read the instructions...

A pal of mine over here bought a very tidy low mileage Range Rover Vogue 4.6 litre EFi Auto from the UK. After a while the battery gave up the ghost, so my erstwhile amateur DIYer removed the battery and put it on charge. When he put it back on the car it refused to start because he didn't use the RTFI file before taking the battery off (The RTFI file = read the f***ing instructions) which state "Under no circumstances remove the battery leads without first referring to this manual"

It resulted in him having to call a wrecker to take him and his Range Rover all the way to Avignon (90 mins from his house each way) so the Land Rover concessionnaire could connect his beast up to a Land Rover Testbook (no ordinary laptop would do) in order to reboot the onboard computer so that he could restart the car.

A very expensive lesson, made worse by the fact that when he eventually got back home he reversed the car into a tree, smashing the rear tailgate glass. That cost him another 1000€...

Moral of the story? Don't try to be clever - R.T.F.I.