1. Lease vehicle to some rich person for the first 3 years who will have few to no problems and return it to the dealership for the next new model once the lease ends.
2. Dump it on some middle-class person making an aspirational purchase as "certified pre-owned". The car starts to break down pretty much the day after it turns 3 since that's how it was designed. The owner will be forced to pay extreme repair bills if they go to the dealership or just live with things continuing to break as the car ages.
3. Once the car hits 6-8 years old it will get resold to the super shady "imports" used car dealership down the road from the original dealership who will then sell it to some poor person making an aspirational purchase on a 9 year loan with exorbitant interest. They will be forced by the high payments to either drive it into the ground or get it repossessed. If repossessed, repeat step 3.
>They can't be thinking about long term reliability.
That's been like that for a long time already even if you buy it, once it's out of warranty it's your problem not the manufactures's anymore, they are following the same path of consumer electronics, since they need to come with a new product every year and try to impress the public the only way is making them as flashy and sci-fi-esque as possible even if is unusable or it will last 2 years.
1. I think Tesla-style control-via-screen-only is akin to the 'Open Office' -- that is, a stupid trend that will be overcome, eventually, by the saner among us.
1A. Folk who are 'visual first' probably like Control-via-screen-only. I'm a 'tactile' and 'auditory' first guy. I have very good spacial muscle memory. I can close my eyes and dead-on any control in my trusty '95 LS-400.
1B. I would prefer even the common displays (e.g. speed) be given to me via morse code when I push a steering wheel button. At 50 WPM it would take as long as a glance, with no eyes-off-the-road. But I'm weird.
2. Yesterday I turned in after a 3.5 yr lease a VW eGolf. I asked them how well they were selling the vehicles that have come off lease. Guy said they just 'park them in the back' and he's never seen one of them sold. I don't know what they do with them, but I definitely concur that there seems to be a push toward leasing.
2A. The prices for the 2019 eGolfs with more features than the 2016 SEL version were about 10% less. And I thought the 2016 prices were pretty good. I don't understand.
What the hell are people thinking?
The range rovers, Porsche's, and Audis are going that way too.
How can this be remotely positive?
Its like these cars are made for leasing, ONLY. They can't be thinking about long term reliability.