Engineering Fail

And so as it is with many an old car I heard rattling from a rear speaker. So I go to replace the speaker when I discover the following:

Well first we have the obvious: The broken rubber around the cone that is the source of the rattle. But look closely and you'll note another problem. See it yet?
No?

There are no screws holding the speaker to the frame. Yes, BMW in their infinite wisdom thought it was a good idea to attach the speaker to the frame such that it cannot be removed without breaking the frame. Clearly no one in that department thought that was a good idea. Not. Or maybe someone in the accounting dept. thought that replacements for this part would be a nice money maker for BMW. No way no how someone didn't think that maybe a speaker would get blown and have to be replaced. Rather than go to the store and buy a replacement BMW thought that the buyer, being rich and adverse to doing things him or herself, would think nothing of shelling out what must be a few hundred bucks to pay for the part and labor (nearly $100/hour the last time I hit the dealership).

What makes this worse is that the space left by removing this thing is not to any standard for simply replacing everything. a 6X9 wont fit flush and a 5" won't fit either. Apparently some speaker companies out there provide a new frame for replacement speakers.

So this leaves me with a few options:

1) pay the dealer. Not.
2) Find a junker, hope the part is still there and not broken. Not fun.
3) Pay for a new frame and a new set of speakers. Not.
4) Leave the speaker out. What I'm doing now.
5) Use duct tape to "reconnect" the cone to the rubber. Probably what I'll do.

I can only hope that new BMW's don't have this design. My suggestion to auto manufacturers: Hire people who work on cars for a living to go over your designs. They are the ones who will be seeing your 10 year old "fault" later and that includes your own mechanics at the service area of your dealerships.

Cash for Debt

Glad to know I wasn't the only one who thought there was something odd about enticing people with cash to go into debt:

For starters, who says the smartest thing for people with working cars is to buy new ones? Indeed, because personal debt is supposed to be a problem, why not look at this as bribing consumers into taking out car loans they don't need? Even with the $4,500 subsidy, not all of these customers are going to be paying cash upfront for their new cars. So they'll be swapping serviceable-but-paid-for cars for nicer cars that are owned by the banks.