Context:
I don’t want the car reporting to insurance hard breaks and such. But frankly I just find these things creepy and I just want a base model car.
Buy one made before, I dunno, 2005?
I’d recommend a 2009 Honda Civic. Mine has held up really well and is nice and dumb
I only saw a few people saying this, but buy a used car from anywtime-2012 max.
Make sure that car is in good shape, has been up to date on oil changes and was well taken care of. And if you wants some newer car features, adding in a newer stereo could do the trick.
But get used to learning how to fix your car because less cars will be made that meet your requirements. Meaning that if you don’t to sacrifice privacy for a new car when yours breaks down, be ready to fix it.
Don’t get a tesla for one, apart from that try not to get any that has internet or other services if you can.
There’s no way you’re “covering up” an antenna. Frequently the antenna is the body of the car itself.
Look up the fuse box layout of the car model you’re interested in to check if the communication system is on a separate fuse that you can pull without disabling anything else useful.
Just wrap the whole car in foil.
Car circuits have too much stuff to do that. It would turn off mant essential things. Instead find antenna connectors and short them with a 50ohm resistor.
The effort needed to neuter surveillance equipment in modern cars without compromising functionality is comparable to the effort of sprucing up an older car. Possibly biased from driving and maintaining a decades-old car. Is there a particular reason you prefer a modern car?
I’m used to driving old shitboxes but a few years ago we rented a completely new car. It was almost driving itself, making sure I stayed in my lane, it had automatic beam selection, a big screen for playing music and navigation, tiny little plastic thingies that pops out when you open the door making it harder to dent adjacent cars. It was a fucking spaceship. I’m not going to lie, I would love to have all of those fancy features.
Here’s my advice: Don’t buy a car. Ride a bike or take public transit. Walk whenever possible.
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Travel luxuries? Cars are the luxury. Living a hour from where you work is a “luxury”.
Saying someone needs a car to make up for their poor lifestyle choices doesn’t mean they need a car, it means they need better choices.
“You being born in a rural area and not able to move to a higher cost of living city with public transit is a poor life choice on your part”
Literal clown take🤡
There is 0% chance of anything good coming of this comment thread. Let’s all go do something else.
So living in a rural area is a poor lifestyle choice?
Where do you think your food comes from?
You anticar zealots are out of touch with reality.
Farmers don’t have hourlong commutes. I’m complaining about people that work in town but live outside of it.
Sure thing bud.
“If people aren’t exactly like me, they’re bad people”
You’re a bigot and a xenophobe
Not what I said, but okay.
Ok you’re a liar too then. Neat
Ah right, not wanting to live in a metropolis and wanting to live in the mountains with fewer people, cleaner air, and cleaner water, and also working a trade that requires hauling tools and equipment to job sites are poor lifestyle choices, got it.
Modern cars are amazing and you are missing out a lot by not having one. Public transport makes me want to kill myself. I would go as far as saying that you don’t even grow into a full person unless you have a car.
Is this sarcasm? Or is the last sentence really something someone could think?
I feel like a bigger indicator of being a “full person” is getting over fear/disgust of public transit. I know plenty of people who are more well-adjusted than I am who don’t own a car.
That’s like saying we shouldn’t prefer nature and tranquility over street noise. I agree that we should be able to handle the situation but when given the choice, we should make a choice that makes us happy.
I have. The car makes me feel good. Life is just an experience. Have fun. :)
we all know american car-centric infrastructure is fuckin evil.
look, you probably know this already, but cars are still the only practical option for most americans; they don’t really have a choice. suburbia is subsidized, and so it simply makes financial sense to live in the suburbs, especially if they can’t afford to live closer to where they work and shop.
it’s great that you care about transportation infrastructure. engage in discussions to inform, of course, but do recognize that it’s policy, not people, at fault.
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Always remember that once you sign the dotted line, there’s no changing your mind later. That’s the advice I received in the Navy from my Chief. This is where doing your homework really pays off.
When buying a car, try to plan ahead ten to twenty years. Most people don’t buy a new car every couple of years, so you’ll need a car that suits your needs for a long time.
Are you planning on getting married and having kids one day? Maybe a minivan. Do you do a lot of trade work? Maybe a pickup truck. Are you just trying to get from point A to point B? Maybe just a regular four-seat car. Planning ahead will save you headaches in the future.
Get something that’s easy to repair yourself, the spare parts are cheap, and are easily obtainable. Some brands are extremely difficult to fix yourself and that’s by design.
As for car internet privacy, I don’t know what to tell you.
You know, you can always sell your car and get something that fits your needs better? Don’t buy something more expensive or big just because you might need it in five or ten years .
Maintaining privacy in a (new) car might be difficult. Maybe by emitting white noise with an external bluetooth speaker so that possible microphones can’t pick up voices easily?
The problem with privacy in a new car is that there is nothing much one can do about it. Even if it were possible by altering the cars’ software (think of something like the equivalent of a browser extension for your car), this might pose a problem in case of an accident (the insurance will try to refuse compensation, because the cars’ software has been altered and thus, the car is deemed to be not road safe).
One thing to aviod this problem would be to buy an older, used car. With that, there wouldn’t be any issues regarding privacy, but mainaining the car might be more expensive, as older cars often have worse emission standards, which can result in higher taxes, depending on where you are located. Also, older cars might have a worse fuel effiency than new cars, depending on the size, weight and engine power of the car. An old economic compact car might have the same fuel efficiency as the latest doomsday street tank.
My personal advice: a used compact car, not older than five years (the older the car, the more repairs might come up, also there is a chance that a car this age already has a USB port for connecting a thumb drive or phone equipped with music), but with rear doors. Having two additional doors is an underrated feature that not only comes in handy when you pick up some friends, but they also serve as additional loading hatches that are accessible from both sides of the car.
Find where the cellular antenna is, and cover it with a rudimentary faraday cage.
Don’t forget that even if you can disable its network connection (which is still an important step to avoid remote control shenanigans), the data collection may still continue, and if that’s the case the make’s diagnostic software will forward it to the cloud the next time your car is at service. I’m afraid that can’t be avoided.
There are individual car repair shops. Well if you trust them to not sell the data, a trust that can be betrayed at any time.
but how will they do diagnostics without the car maker’s diagnostic tool?
No privacy in new cars. So just forget about privacy and enjoy the car. They are so much fun and amazing to drive.
Advice is difficult, depends on price and preference. When I was buying a car, I spent every weekend test driving different cars. I think that’s a good way.
The problem is that if you actually have a fun spirited drive suddenly your insurance doubles because your car is selling your “hard acceleration and cornering” data to insurance companies.
This is exactly the reason why I want privacy in the first place. The surveillance tech kills all the joy and freedom of driving.
financially aim for minimal depreciation. typically thats buying a 3 year old car and selling it when its 6 or 7. try to find total cost of ownership data to minimize repair costs.
practically find one that suits your needs.
Interesting. I’ve been buying mine at 3 years and keeping them until they become uneconomic to repair. My current car is 11 and it’s still in great shape.
What is the logic behind selling at 7? Are you considering increasing efficiency of new models and average maintenance burden?
the logic is depreciation. if you sold your car at 7 it is worth a lot more than at 11. imagine buying a 1 year old cellphone and selling it at 2 years old. compare that to buying a brand new cellphone and keeping it 6 years. the depreciation is related to the markets expectations of the items functionality vs it needing expensive repairs. a 3-7 year old car generally is reliable and considered functional. obviously different brands and models differ on these curves. a 7 year old honda is very different from a maserati.
Makes sense from a financial point of view. I tend to do extensive research before a big purchase and wouldn’t want to be changing cars too often.
From an energy and pollution point of view it makes sense to buy quality and maintain the vehicle over a long time period.
It’s tricky at the moment because we are transitioning to electric powertrains and these vehicles are not comparable to internal combustion.
Is there a way to disable the cellular antenna? Vehicle have to be prepared for dead spots. Maybe yours is always in a dead spot.
I’m sorry to say this, but I don’t think you can really maintain privacy.
Sure, maybe you can disable some antennas to stop your location from being broadcast, but there are cameras in ever major road, so you cant get far without being spotted by a camera. Cars can also store data locally, then if you take your to the dealership, they will access the data. So you’d have to find an individual car mechanic that doesn’t read this data, and at anytime, they can betray your trust. Not to mention, your phone is kinda already tracking you, so you’d have to turn that off as well, even dumbphones still have cellular triangulation and has even worse security. And whenever you need to use your phone, the carrier will know where you are.
So I think in the modern world with all these cameras, you kinda have to accept that you ain’t gonna get much privacy.
Or the alterative is to not have a phone on you when you travel, take public transport, cover your face, etc.
If you want privacy, you’ll have to sacrifice convienience.
