Quote:
Originally Posted by Isaac Zachary
I've seen lots of people that don't have much of a clue of how a car works that have destroyed many engines. They never change the oil, never notice they had a coolant leak, never notice the dash lights and gauges, and they idle the heck out of the engine a lot of times in gear. A lot of these "church ladies" and such will go through cars every few years just because they have no idea of how to take care of one. At least an EV is a bit more idiot-proof as there is much less maintenance needed, except things that are more obvious like bad winshield wipers and tires
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My stepmother for instance doesn't seem to have much clue of how a car works, but she can ask me, my father and her eldest son about it, yet often I am the one she asks about cars. Early last year, once she went back to Florianópolis from a trip to Bagé where one of her brothers lives, she was mostly concerned about the battery discharging, so when she went to put the engine to work a little I explained to her the "housewife cycle" and how the oil pressure should also be taken as a matter of concern after a car was stored for a long time. But her cars tend to last long, and she only got her most recent one because her eldest son managed to persuade her to get a newer one. My father, who had a slightly larger car, kept my stepmother's previous car, which at least has automatic transmission. My knees are not something to write home about, and my father also has his fair share of damage to his legs due to motorcycle crashes before I was born, and now he seems to understand why I prefer automatics
When it comes to EVs, an engine not being so maintenance-intensive is not so much of an idiotproofing at all, because some folks may neglect other maintenance routine checks more often. My stepmother for instance, 10 years ago she was quite impressed by claims that EVs would decrease the need for servicing to the point of nearly bankrupting the service and spare parts departments of dealers which are in fact the major source of revenue. Then I had to explain why it was quite an unaccurate claim, because the engine is not the only complex component which would require servicing in order to keep a car working properly.