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posted by CoolHand on Tuesday June 05 2018, @03:22PM   Printer-friendly
from the sticking-it-to-the-consumer dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow8317

Car makers like Jaguar Land Rover and Peugeot have been accused of using special software to raise spare parts prices.

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2018/06/04/car-makers-used-software-to-raise-spare-parts-prices/

Ever had the nagging suspicion that your car's manufacturer was charging outrageous prices for parts simply because it could? Software might be to blame. Reuters has obtained documents from a lawsuit indicating that Jaguar Land Rover, Peugeot, Renault and other automakers have been using Accenture software (Partneo) that recommended price increases for spare parts based on "perceived value." If a brand badge or other component looked expensive, Partneo would suggest raising the price up to a level that drivers would still be willing to pay. It would even distinguish parts based on whether or not there was "pricing supervision" over certain parts (say, from insurance companies or focused publications) to avoid sparking an outcry.


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  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday June 06 2018, @03:06AM (5 children)

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Wednesday June 06 2018, @03:06AM (#689136) Homepage Journal

    Absolutely. It was made so by government monopoly. Namely patents. You can't make an aftermarket product that someone has a patent on and will not license out for a workable price. Personally, I could do without patents entirely and with severely limited copyright.

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  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday June 06 2018, @03:25AM (3 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Wednesday June 06 2018, @03:25AM (#689143)

    I'd like to keep the patents, but enforce a strong "right to repair" law. Patents expire, and that's a good thing. Copyright is shaping up to be the zombie apocalypse.

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    • (Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday June 06 2018, @06:05AM (2 children)

      by sjames (2882) on Wednesday June 06 2018, @06:05AM (#689205) Journal

      Patent's don't expire nearly soon enough to help with auto parts. By the time a patent is dead, so are most of the cars that used that part.

      • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday June 06 2018, @05:04PM (1 child)

        by JoeMerchant (3937) on Wednesday June 06 2018, @05:04PM (#689391)

        We own four cars: the newest is a 2002, two 1999s and a 1991.

        If people would fix the things they have instead of sending them to the landfill and buying new, not only would they save money, they'd also be saving the environment. Which is worse? A 1977 pickup truck that gets 10mpg for 41 years, maintained as needed, or a series of 6 new trucks constructed ~ every 7 years getting progressively marginally better gas mileage all the way up to 24mpg in the latest incarnation? If people were maintaining their old vehicles, they'd even be able to do things like bolt-on EFI to bring the gas mileage up from 10mpg to maybe 16, and when the transmission finally wears out (maybe twice in 41 years) they can replace with a new more efficient unit and be up around 20mpg on the old frame, but, no... the economy works better if we crush the old ones and keep the new ones rolling off the line - feeding the sales, marketing and distribution channels in favor of repair and maintenance mechanics.

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        • (Score: 2) by sjames on Thursday June 07 2018, @01:57AM

          by sjames (2882) on Thursday June 07 2018, @01:57AM (#689678) Journal

          Personally, I agree. I tend to maintain things rather than replace as well when I can. But the patents and iron fisted control of parts makes that hard for cars, and impossible for many other things. One reason there aren't so many 20 year old cars on the road is that overpriced parts and special diagnostic tools make 10 or 15 year old cars a pain to maintain.

  • (Score: 2) by sjames on Wednesday June 06 2018, @06:03AM

    by sjames (2882) on Wednesday June 06 2018, @06:03AM (#689204) Journal

    Government monopoly certainly doesn't help, but it goes a lot deeper than that. Consider consumer electronics where the only difference between the high end device and the low end is the firmware they load, or a cut jumper. That is, they build all high-end models, then take an extra step to make it a low end model (and so the low end model is actually slightly MORE expensive to manufacture).

    Then you see things like stores throwing people out for writing down a list of prices.

    Some of it is because if ill conceived patent and copyright law, and some is because of the lack of consumer protection. You may be old enough to remember when retailers handled warranty returns for their customers as a matter of course. Now they expect the consumer to deal with the manufacturer and leave them out of it.