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> Make sure to wait two years

Haha, this reminded me of a friend who did a summer engineering internship with a U.S. automaker. He came back and related one of the most important things he learned: "never, ever buy a first-run car." I remember hearing him tell about tolerances still being adjusted after all these cars had shipped, cringing to think of all the problems that could cause.

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Engine control computers are even more fun. A friend of mine works for Audi's/VW's supplier, and honestly my biggest surprise about the emission scandal was that the code actually worked.

(They had to write their own linter, because they need to ship slightly broken code written by code generators, and last I heard Windows XP is still part of the compilation chain…)

I'm guessing you refer to AutoSARL when you talk about the code generation. Its insane that its an industry standard.

Less insane then binding yourself for all eternity to one supplier?

Yep, your friend is absolutely correct: always buy a model during the mid or end cycle, when most of the bugs have been diagnosed, worked out, and the designs revised.

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