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Comment by wefarrell | Hacker News Reader

Given the complexity of an ICE (engine, transmission, exhaust system, cooling system, etc...) I think this would work against ICEs more than EVs.

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ICE is complex, but the parts are smaller, cheaper, and have a very mature repair ecosystem.

This. In cheaper vehicles you can replace the entire drivetrain engine included for a couple grand.

Or rather, many people replace a dozen cheaper parts over a period of time.

I would much prefer my chances at getting ev bearings than gearbox bearings for an ice.

The simplicity of Evs can’t be denied on serviceability. The only argument comes down to ignorance.

Bearings are pretty much industrial jellybeans. The biggest difference between the two is that an ICE would have many more of them.

I know, I have a pallet of spare parts including a disassembled gearbox, heads, valve trains and model specific parts because if I break any of it on my car there’s no going down the the parts store. If I drop second gear it’s nearby fatal for my car.

An ev would be better than this and in comparison to a modern ice, much much better.

As for being jellybeans, sure roller bearings you can spend an hour searching a part catalog and find something similar. But those aren’t the ones I keep spares or would swap over from my spare parts box.

Even engine bearings are becoming hard to find now on a once reasonably popular motor

I've got a spare parts engine sitting in my garage for a classic vehicle. But 35 years from now, I don't expect it'll be any easier to find a motor controller for a 35 year old EV.

Clearly you’ve never owned an audi (or any other german car for that matter)

I have a 90s BMW. They require a steady diet of many parts that cost many hundreds of dollars.

As compared to an EV which rarely needs parts that each cost thousands of dollars.

The ICE car costs more total, but spread over a large number of smaller payments.

Maybe with 90s models you can get away with this assuming you have access to cheap labor somehow but for post 2000 bmws/audis you can add a zero or two to your calculations (especially anything gearbox related)

Is it because they're ICE, or because the supply chain for them isn't well-developed outside Europe?

I lived in europe when i owned audis and it was very well developed just not very cheap

Unless you buy weird bad cars, your odds of an actual engine failure is very low. Transmission trouble is a bit more common but stick to most well regarded models and you'll also be fine. My family basically only buys high miles cars for the last 30 years. Ive never had an engine failure. Transmission problems only on one Chevy truck, known for that issue.

We now have atleast 6 cars between my family, none under 200k miles, 2 of which have 300k+ miles. Haven't done a major repair in a decade maybe. I'd say the most difficult thing I've done is replaced a radiator and an alternator.

You can't go by how often a Dodge Durango blows up to talk about how troublesome ICE cars are. Anyone that wants trouble free ownership just buys a Toyota or Honda and calls it a day. Everyone else, that's on purpose and shouldn't really be used against the actual ICE concept.

complex, but stupid easy to fix most of the times.

and there's a lot of experience built around them over the decades.

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