> The only way I can think of is “don’t buy a car made within the last 25 years”
You don't need to go that far back. None of my cars have any kind of connectivity, the newest one is 2014. I'll never own a car with any kind of remote connectivity, the risk is far too large to ignore.
Yes. And I've structured a decent amount of my life around transportation independence.
My last car will probably be my current car from 2013, which I have replaced the engine in, and plan on replacing the transmission in when that goes, as well as other parts as needed. Rust is basically what is going to kill it and I can stave that off for a long time.
When that day comes, it won't really matter. I live near a quarter mile from a train station, 200 feet from a bike trail that connects to my city's bike network, and 50 feet from a bus stop. No need for a car really ever. Rentals exist for car needs every few months, but there are usually other options.
The key for me was to not be dependent on any singular mode of transportation and to have redundancy so that if any single option isn't working, I have at least one other option to go places.
I assume you joke here but large parts of the car enthusiast community are considering this strategy for near term. 2010s is widely argued to be era of "peak car" in terms of vehicles that are well built with minimal complex extras added for compliance with emissions and over the top safety regulation (less lane departure warning systems to turn off...).
My own group of car buddies, pretty much all we do is shop and trade 2010s vehicles now, rather than buy new.
Fair enough, though fwiw automobile makers seem to have taken note on the pushback to the touch screen controls, and 2025MY vehicles are actually starting to shift away from touch screens and back to physical controls again.
If one wants to buy a modern car, and one cares about preserving disconnected functionality, one just needs to research if there's a workable fallback mechanism.
Or, you know, deal with the 20mpg but a vehicle that will last until the heat death of the universe #2uzfeClub
FWIW while cars are essentially backdoored nowadays with all the cellular/OTA updates BS you can still disable it. I suspect this won't be an option in the near future, the way things are going.
I can't wait to see Hacker News comments in 2035 lamenting how they used to be able to "just use a bypass cable" to make their cars not phone home, by the time EVs and even general ICE vehicles have telemetry so deeply integrated with the vehicle it's impossible/illegal to be disabled.
It’s only a sophie’s choice if you’re really bad at math, if not you’ll take your chances with the kill switch thing that’s never been confirmed to hurt anyone over the thing that kills tens of thousands of Americans a year.
There is a UK company that puts engines with mechanical fuel pumps in newer cars. Particularly newer landrovers. £10k ugrade, and the last car you need ever buy.
So you exclusively buy pre-2000's shitboxes? Is there a reason for that, when you could literally just rip the modem out of a modern car instead?
If you're driving such old cars, I have to assume you're mechanically inclined. At which point, a simple bypass cable or literally just removing the telematics unit out of a modern vehicle should not be too much to ask for.
Bonus points for gaining moderate security with immobilizers that way, so any random guy can't just start your car with a set of wafer jigglers.
Don't buy modern cars. There is a real movement to keep driving cars from circa 2010. This was around peak car for me. You could still block off the egr valve, remove the cat and any dpf nonsense. No 'driving aids' to distract and infuriate me. No touch screens to distract and infuriate me. No software updates. Can still get over 50mpg. My car is going to keep being fixed as long as it is viable.
If I tested my emissions using UK MOT standards before and after removing the cat and egr, and showed both an improvement and a pass, would that still be problematic for you?
I am not sure everyone is speaking the same language here. A UK gallon is 25% bigger than a US gallon, so UK mpg is correspondingly higher. Also the testing is presumably different, so numbers measured in the UK are not comparable with US numbers even taking account gallon size differences.
I assume the questioner is asking about US mpg? The Prius was there for sure in US mpg (just, at 51mpg), not sure about others.
* The 2010 Toyota Prius had 51 mpg.
* Volkswagen Golf TDI Bluemotion (Diesel, around 62 mpg)
* Volkswagen Polo Bluemotion (also Diesel, closer to 71 mpg)
* Peugeot 3008 Hybrid4 (Diesel, around 68 mpg, some tests speak about 74 mpg when driven with some sense.)
> OK, I'll bite. Name 2 or more cars from 2010 that got better than 50mpg. I'll wait.........
Not 2010, which makes this so infuriating..
A 1986 Honda CRX HF was rated 51 MPG highway. That was an engine with stone-age technology, and it was possible.
Just imagine +40 years of incremental development with modern materials and modern engine control systems. What could a 2026 Honda CRX HF do in MPG if that development had been allowed to continue all these decades? Certainly above 60, probably above 80 MPG? Maybe above 100MPG.
Instead society is selling us 6000+lb monsters with worse mileage than back in the mid 80s.
Can you point me to the directive/regulation that states that? I am in the EU and I'm not aware of any such thing. I have two cars that are 2006-2008 models and I am not planning on replacing them.
There are EU-wide mandatory air quality standards that get stricter as time passes and that are being enforced through low emissions zones which practically make diesel cars illegal. This may not be the case in your country yet but it will arrive with time.
Regarding driving aids, some cities in my European country are looking to make them mandatory in the city centre.
Overall this is being done to keep poor people from driving.
My nearly 30-year-old Range Rover is fully ULEZ compliant nearly everywhere in Europe except Paris, because it can run on propane which only really emits water and warm carbon dioxide when it burns - no "smog", no NOx, no HC, no CO, none of that.
Annoyingly in post-Brexit Britain I need to wait two years until is *is* 30 years old to drive in ULEZ zones. It was fine until Brexit kicked in - yet another Conservative disasterpiece.
The only way I can think of is “don’t buy a car made within the last 25 years”