watching many youtube mechanic channels, i get the sense that they seem to think that 2000 era cars were better than today's car. The common missive is that they now have really cheap parts, and the cars are over controlled by computer systems making them brittle and expensive to repair.

>cars are over controlled by computer systems making them brittle and expensive to repair

I've heard this many times while at auto body shops. It seems that it's not the electronic parts cost that is expensive but you have to dissemble much of the car to replace the parts.

and impossible to replace with the same part from a scrapped car due to the module being paired to the specific car and the reuirement for the dealer to install it. All car parts should become open source 10 years after the last one was produced to prevent them just getting scrapped.

2000 era cars were the sweet spot of good enough power and efficiency vs complexity.

Current cars get more power and fuel efficiency, but its at the cost of complexity like high pressure direct injection, stop/start, variable length intakes, cam phasers, etc.

Its nothing to do with computer control making them brittle, more that there's just so many extra components to fail that just didn't exist on older cars and the techs need training on how they operate and troubleshoot.

Regulations. Also probably how cars and refrigerators need energy to work ?

The downside is that cars especially have not gotten cheaper. (This is starting to change, sadly by necessity rather than choice, ~ton personal vehicles will soon be the thing of the past even in rich countries.)

> soon personal vehicles will soon be the thing of the past even in rich countries.

https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/global-car-sa...

That's not what I said, and I don't know what your argument is ?

I have some anecdotal evidence to the contrary on refrigerators. I want a fridge to do one thing. Keep food cold. No ice maker, no water, no godforsaken app, or camera on the inside. Make a robust, reliable cooling system that's built to last. That's the only thing I want to pay for.