When you buy an expensive car loaded with software, you actually buy a licence to use that software, it's not yours and never will be. The guys who reverse engineer the software to be able to diagnose faults take thousands of hours to get to a useable product, so they either charge the first user half a million, and everyone else a tenner, or spread the cost based on how much of their hard work you are using, makes sense to me.
LR, Mercedes, Ford, et al are not going to give away the diagnostics that has cost them many millions, but if you sign up to be a dealership, and all the costs that it entails, then we will let you into the secrets and let you use our diagnostics, again I would be surprised if the dealer actually got to own the diagnostics.

You and I want to own the ability to fix our cars, so you have to buy the ability from someone who reverse engineered it - want to pay the first half million so that me and my mates can get it for a tenner each? Thought not, so we pay a couple of hundred quid for static software, and the garages who want to be able to fix the latest stuff have to pay the software guy to keep doing what he does best, so they pay a fee every year.

Could be worse, you might have a car still under warranty, but don't trust the franchised dealers and want to fix it yourself. The non-dealership garages aren't going to get many cars in that are under warranty, so their diagnostics software can afford to be 2-3 years behind the dealerships, so the diagnostics software for the likes of me just aren't available, even if I had deep pockets and SWMBO wouldn't notice a few grand going on "software". Tangiers Orange - gone, missing her
Replaced by Ewok what a mistake - now a happy Disco Sport owner

Be grateful that you don't have a harvester in outback Australia, breakdowns during harvest costing hundreds of thousands. A person has to be flown in if possible or drive vast distances. Farmers are fed up with the situation. Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

Acoustic insulation ARB TPMS 3xARB air compressors After cooler Air tank On-board OCD pressure air/water cleaning Additional 50L fuel Carpet in doors ABE 2x1kg Waeco 28L modified fridge Battery 4x26ah Solar 120w Victron MPPT 100/20 DC-DC 18amps 175amp jumper plug Awning 6x255/60R18

been there done that got the tee shirt - for 15 years

Lots of being called out in the middle of the night to pull out an E.Stop push button.
Fly to Paris at the drop of a hat to put a wire back on a switch - despite telling the customers "Engineer" what the fault was and what the fix was.
Drive from Buffalo to Chicargo, fly to New York, drive to Bethlehem (Pennsylvania), to turn a keyswitch from manual to automatic.
Nip to Cape Town to dislodge a piece of plastic from arrestor gear.


All very expensive for the customer, very profitable for the employer, right pain in the for the mug miles away from home and family. Great if you signed up for that at the beginning, but how many employers will tell you that you will hardly see your bed or family at the interview? Like I said, mugs game, for 15 years, what does that make me? Tangiers Orange - gone, missing her
Replaced by Ewok what a mistake - now a happy Disco Sport owner

https://www.wired.com/2015/04/dmca-ownership-john-deere/
https://www.wired.com/story/john-deere-farmers-right-to-repair/ At work
At home

"I can't always believe facts I read on the web" - Charles Dickens

winner by default of the tractor vs caravan race

Pardon my stupidity, but what's an Ewok?
Cheers
Moe

Nasty little car pretending to be a Range Rover.

In all seriousness Range Rover stands for comfort and luxury.
A low spec Evoke is neither comfortable nor a nice place to be. Tangiers Orange - gone, missing her
Replaced by Ewok what a mistake - now a happy Disco Sport owner

Discovery Sport

The words Pot, kettle and black spring to mind

To be fair I’ve yet to try the latest one, apparently it’s a lot better than when I had one. 21MY Defender 90 S 3.0 D200

Alway tick the option box for periscope! Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

Acoustic insulation ARB TPMS 3xARB air compressors After cooler Air tank On-board OCD pressure air/water cleaning Additional 50L fuel Carpet in doors ABE 2x1kg Waeco 28L modified fridge Battery 4x26ah Solar 120w Victron MPPT 100/20 DC-DC 18amps 175amp jumper plug Awning 6x255/60R18

j77 wrote:

Discovery Sport

The words Pot, kettle and black spring to mind

To be fair I’ve yet to try the latest one, apparently it’s a lot better than when I had one.

I was hoping to try the new DS when the velar went in for it’s service but I ended up with a Jag XF, that thing was low to the ground. 21MY Defender 90 S 3.0 D200

Lightwater wrote:

Alway tick the option box for periscope!

Always tick the box for D240, and HSE

We had a D180 with the well documented oil dilution problems, ours raised the oil level by 6mm every 10k miles.
Not a massive problem if you are prepared to do an oil change every 11k, and the oil filter is sooo much easier to get to than on the FL2. In general a very nice car, IMHO not as well thought out or as workman like as the FL2, but still leagues ahead of the Ewok.
We now have a D240 in 2018 trim, and the oil gets used very slowly as you would expect - so no oil dilution. When it comes to creaks etc. a 60 year old rocker is not really going to notice, unless the music system is broken, you have to remember I drove the FL2 with full mud terrain tyres most of the year and at 70mph they make a lot of noise


Ok OK I have had the dreaded balance shafts fail, but they were stuffed when I bought it and changed under warranty. Tangiers Orange - gone, missing her
Replaced by Ewok what a mistake - now a happy Disco Sport owner