this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2025
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It ain’t the junk in the garage, it’s the $80k and the spyware
Yup. Find me a car that respects my privacy and won't advertise to me and I'm in.
Edit to add: and no fuucking subscriptions to enable things the car can already do but disabled in software.
How clean is your garage? Do you have one? Just curious.
Currently parked in it!
Nice
I do not understand people who use their garage to store useless crap and leave their car outside. The car is more valuable than the crap.
Dump all that useless junk into a dumpster. Get a bike shed, put the mower in it too.
The garage is for cars, not bikes, mowers or trash nobody cares about.
Looking at you California.
Only if you spend way too much money on a depreciating asset that won't be that valuable for long. For that matter storing inside or outside makes zero difference to the value. The stuff in my garage is more valuable than my car (my car is 26 years old so this is a much lower bar than most people), is more sensitive to weather than my cars, and I enjoy it more than cars.
I don't get this obsession people have with depreciating assets like cars. They brag about how great they are, take good care of it, and then 3 years latter trade in that piece of junk...
Besides, the worst weather for cars is bright sun, and most cars are parked outside in a parking lot (at work) when it is sunny, and only put in the garage when it is dark.
I'm not in the US, but here where we have snow and all the fun that comes with it using garage can be actually harmful to your car (and your garage) unless you spend a ton of energy to melt and dry all the snow every night. If there's some snow or ice on somewhere it doesn't really do anything but bring it in a lukewarm garage and then you have water (and likely road salt) all over the thing. So your car corrodes faster and there's a ton of moisture in the garage for mold, rot and everything else prospering inside.
I'm driving old, cheap cars. Keeping them dry them every day during winter in the garage would easily cost me as much as the cars themselves in a year. So cars stay outside and garage stores my tools and other valuables in a good condition so that I can fix those old shitboxes.
my ford EV has no subscriptions (other than the usual sirius XM and nav subs that all cars have). There is data collection but you are able to opt out.
Also this is more of an issue with new cars in general, not a reason to choose a new ICE vehicle over a new EV.
If the car has an RF transmitter of any kind installed, it is a HARD no.
is an RF transmitter in your phone a hard no as well?
I reckon it soon shall be, the way such things are trending.
The point you're trying to make is, if I willingly carry around a battery powered security hole in my pocket all the time, why should I be concerned about another one installed in my vehicle?
Well, should I decide I wish to travel without being monitored, I can leave my phone behind and still travel rapidly.
My phone does not have access to my vehicle's CAN bus; my phone cannot disable the vehicle from afar should it detect I performed my own repairs or that I am not christian or that my skin is browner than the dictator will tolerate or whatever else the police will decide to murder me for.
I have replaced all that junk on my phone with a clean system I trust. cars not only don't have alternative software, but using it would be illegal too.
As opposed to what your comment implies, the drivetrain (EV or ICE) has nothing to do with cars spying on you. You should not blame the technology itself because shady car companies spying on your internet connected car. Most of them are well known ICE car brands that do the spying (GM, Volkswagen for instance)
Yes, most new ICE cars are Internet connected now, not just EVs.
Blame those greedy corporations, not the technology.
exactly, data collection is an issue with new cars in general. It's not a reason to buy a new ICE car instead of a new EV.
It is a reason to not buy a new car which means people who aren't buying new cars won't be buying EV's.
They won't be buying new cars in the near future, but their cars will be wearing out and spare parts for old cars always become hard to find. Either they will be spending a large part of their time maintaining the car, including making parts from scratch, or they will forced to buy a new car anyway.
Our 10 year-old Highlander still drives like new. It's our newest vehicle, and one of Toyota's last generation of vehicles without a cellular connection.
The average car is 12 years old. Car makers start to drop support (making/stocking parts) when the car is about 10 years old. Come back and talk to me about that car when is is 25 years old and tell me how it is. I have a 26 year old truck, the bed has holes, the frame is showing signs of rot - I'm trying to decide if it is worth trying to rebuild the transmission, my mechanic isn't intersted in part because they are not sure if they can find the parts - they will be more than $1000 in labor in before they know wihch bearing it has and thus can check if it can be had.
I haven't had any issues with getting parts for my 2008 Sienna, or parts for my 2007 Honda Metropolitan scooter. But the Sienna uses the 2GR-FE though, which only recently stopped production a few years ago, and the scooter is based on the still-currently produced Ruckus 🤔... Still.
No need - I have two 46 year-old vehicles: a 1980 Honda XR500 motorcycle from 08/79, and a 1980 Mercedes 240D from 12/79. The motorcycle is currently torn apart in the garage, undergoing a full restoration. Believe me dude, I know aaaaaaall about the frustrations of long-discontinued parts 😂😂
Man I feel that so hard with the Mercedes. Poor thing has cancer and I'm not sure if it's possible to save in its current condition. It's got almost half a million miles, but goddamn it drives so, so nice... I think it needs a clutch though. Luckily, since W123 cars are sought-after classics at this point, there are still options, but it's gonna be a hell of a process if I decide to attempt a restoration. My dad (with help from me and my siblings, friends, and neighbors) somehow managed to save a pretty rusty 1963 VW Beetle almost 20 years ago, was about a 5 year process. That car recently went to a collector... I'm mad about it, but only in the "goddammit I wanted to inherit it" kinda way 😅
The average car in the US is 12 years old. That average is higher in other countries. But regardless, that's not because cars are unfixable. It's because most people opt to buy a new or newer car when they feel like the vehicle they currently own is more expensive to fix than they'd like and a lot of that has nothing to do with the longevity of the vehicle and everything to do with how vehicle purchase can be financed vs how car repair can be financed.
It also has a lot to do with people who don't or won't fix things before they snowball, and or become astronomically expensive problems. Taking care of a vehicle is about doing regular maintenance (which most people don't do), and getting at the very least an annual inspection (which most people also don't do unless they're forced to).
I won't be buying a new car ever. I can say that with absolute certainty. I have rehabbed my current car in just about every way I can. Machined/honed block, new valves, new piston/lan rings, new head gasket, new water pump, new thermostat housing, new valve cover, new injectors, rebuilt transmission with new clutch, all new hoses, all new gaskets, new HP fuel pump. I will continue to do so because to me it's worth it. Doner cars are readily available, but I probably won't need one specifically because my car is considered and enthusiast car. I have walked into a dealer and ordered parts and my car is 15 years old. I also owned a 20 year old version of this car with the same ability to order parts directly from the dealer.
Most people aren't buying used unless they have no choice. They will continue to buy new cars regardless of the controversy surrounding them.
I think it's a bit disingenuous assume that older cars will not be available. Especially considering that the EV's that are new right now aren't going to survive 25 years without costly repairs of their own. I'd salvage an engine from an older car. I wouldn't salvage a battery pack from an older car.
You could always pick up a 9-year-old Bolt
Not worth the cost of admission. The amount of money it costs to refurb that battery pack is still too high.
A bunch of the earlier ones had their batteries replaced under warranty and are effectively only a couple years old. They're also dirt cheap and undervalued at the moment.
I would argue that even if you did get a used one with new batteries, you'd still face degradation down the line and additional problems that would or could be mitigated in older ice cars which are much more likely to have replacement parts available (even if those replacement parts don't come from the same type or brand of vehicle). For instance. I know for a fact that there's a trend of using Honda engines in older first Gen mini coopers. Buying a rebuilt engine has the potential to be pretty cheap.
As a matter of fact, ICE cars were connected to the internet way before the first EV was connected to the internet.
What does spyware have to do with EVs?
Well my next car will be an EV so I’m holding on to the older car i have for now until some good option actually comes that’s reasonably priced and not spyware
If we ever see a Slate truck, that will be your best bet.
Apparently people are living double lives and are afraid their secret identity will be uncovered by checks notes corporations who already know more about us because we have a smartphone in our pocket.
Privacy matters.
The government and corporations abused this information by stopping protestors getting to their destination.
Protestors can atleast use faraday bags or just leave their phones at home. Now they can't even get to important events.
Now this information is being used by ICE to arrest immigrants.
Considering how conservative views and Nazis are coming back in to fashion, this is very scary for anyone not white and male.
Privacy matters. If it didnt, bathrooms would not have doors.
Imagine Senate passes a law to put cameras in all toilet motion sensor. People still go, "If you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to worry about. Genital recognition technology is used to identify criminals! Do you want criminals to get away?!"
privacy matters, but data collection isn't limited to EVs. Pretty much all new cars collect data whether EV ICE or hybrid.
I have a used model 3 (I bought it before shit really started going downhill) and I've been contemplating disconnecting the wifi and cellular antennas. My car wouldn't be able to send any images/video anywhere, I wouldn't be tracked except for my location when I stop at supercharger stations, and I would never have to risk getting Grok installed in my car.
Would you mind posting your phone book and a copy of all your text messages here for us all to read? Can we see your photo album, all credit card transactions, amazon purchase history, GPS location data, credit score? We promise only to sell this info to other people, use it to sell you stuff, raise your insurance rates, tell us where to focus our funding for political campaigns. Don't worry, we'll only save it forever and you can be assured that we'll feed this into AI models 10 or 20 years from now, along with everyone else's data, establishing a massive cache of information from which incredible inferences will be possible. We may or may not use this information to enrich ourselves, increase wealth inequality, influence politics. You should surely not take steps to limit the data being collected about you. Just relax your body. Let it happen.
Did you know that before cellular phones were a thing, the phone company regularly sent out books with everyone's name, phone number, and sometimes even their address in them?
You could even find such a book in public in these little things called "Phone booths".
And people were concerned. My grandpa only had initials published not his full name because he knew some widows [when my mom was a baby] afraid of crime who only published their initials and wanted to make things harder for those criminals who targeted on widows.
You've missed the point. The phone numbers are not the valuable information. What's valuable is the list of each person's social contacts.
You've missed the point.
The point is the useful trivia I just told you.
I assume that the downvotes are from you and I notice that you haven't shared the information. I think that is a good and appropriate response. Nothing good can come you sharing this information here. Privacy is appropriate and valuable even for people who are doing nothing wrong and who aren't even particularly interesting.
You're being a dick. All I did was share some info you might have found interesting. Fuck off.
Atticus seemed to be saying that corporations already know everything about you because of your phone and that people are silly to try to protect their privacy, implying that these people are boring and really have nothing worth keeping private.
I was trying to illustrate that people should and actually do value their privacy, and that they should continue to take measures to protect it.
You come in with - bruh, have you ever heard of a phone book?
The info you shared was not interesting and only served to convey your lack of critical thinking ability.
To really drive in your point, why don't you post the names and phone numbers of the three people you contact most frequently. Don't worry, those numbers are already in the phone book. It's ok, you're just sharing publicly available information.
You can get electric for only a slightly higher cost than gas, just not the "premium" ones. As for Spyware, that's any modern car. It has nothing to do with being electric.
with the used EV tax credit there are good options at ~20k.
edit: why downvotes? the used EV market is bigger every year and if the price is under $25k you get a ~$4k credit.