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Comment by 0xcafefood | Hacker News Reader

How do you buy a car that meets those criteria?

I've heard of a few very-low-tech models, which are manufactured for NGO's to use in extremely remote places. Dunno if any of 'em would be street legal in a "normal" country. Those might qualify, and their sales process might be so customized that he could get such a contract. Maybe.

Otherwise, I'd guess it'll be "whatever it costs" vehicles aimed at the uber-rich, and their personal security details.

It is basically impossible to get those road legal in Europe. I know, because those cars tend to be older MY Land Cruisers and such, with those big, old diesel engines. And there is a sub-culture that loves those. Still, the only way to get one of those is if the car is old enough to qualify as a classic. Similar to Land Rover Defenders and the US.

You don't.

In some places, this is not an option. I have a mechanical Euro-5 car without sim card nor infotainment system that I would not be able to use where I live by end 2024.

Welcome to the EU and its low-emissions zones that span over many of its big cities.

What? Besides Euro-5 emissions restricting access to cities in places, thoae cars are, will be, perfectly road legal in Europe...

What happens at the end of 2024 that your car won’t operate?

Emissions standards change, from the sound of it.

Retrofit, that's what I'm planning to do.

Haven't looked into it a great deal yet because there's still plenty of time where I live, but I believe it's possible to get old cars to an emission standard that's compliant. It's not cheap, since it involves replacing the entire engine, but I'd still rather spend money on that than a new car.

I have a 2016 Euro 6 car that has no tracking.

Fake news?

you buy a good used car from the first decade of the 2000s or earlier

Mid 90s, and you can qualify for a historical car registration in Germany (min. age 30 years). Problem is, with all those diesel limitqtions regarding city acces, and classical cars being excempt, there is a discussion going to either get rid of those classic car excemptions or to increase the minimum age to 40 years.

I'd imagine there will be a real problem with this in Germany - at least with Mercedes Benz, cars of the 80s and 90s will dramatically outlast those from the 2000s onwards!

Is that your solution 20 years from now, too?

20 years from now there will be companies making dumbcars just like there are starting to with phones right now

The problem is complying with legislation. This is worse than phones.

Plus from what I understand, the law Enforcement Community wants all Autos to have a Kill Switch. Where if they want to stop you, they can via wifi.

I think some already comes with that.

Many already come with that. (I am not aware of which models though. Toyota should have it in many.)

As a rule of thumb you could consider "cars which are planned as vehicles that could be lent for longer periods of time": it is foreseen that if the client stops paying for the subscription, the car is remotely disabled.

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