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America's new millionaire class: Plumbers and HVAC entrepreneurs

(www.wsj.com)
185 points hhs | 1 comments | 13 Oct 24 15:35 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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bradfa ◴[13 Oct 24 16:37 UTC] No.41829386[source]▶
Some local skilled trade companies have been recently bought out. From feedback I’ve heard from customers, quality has declined. Lots of car dealerships locally have consolidated lately and their service quality has declined while prices have shot up.

While private equity may be making some local business owners rich, they’re ruining the customer experience.

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infecto ◴[13 Oct 24 16:50 UTC] No.41829503[source]▶
Which opens up the door for the next generation.
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oarla ◴[13 Oct 24 17:18 UTC] No.41829726[source]▶
With respect to car servicing, I'm getting a deja vu feeling. Like smartphones have made it almost impossible to get a phone repaired by third party companies, car makers are making it very hard to get their cars serviced anywhere other than their dealerships where they can overcharge everything. With so much (unnecessary?) technology in the cars these days, it's easy for them to slap more conditions on the owners and lock in services for years.
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1. somerandomqaguy ◴[13 Oct 24 17:44 UTC] No.41829929{3}[source]▶
They might not have a choice but to do so.

UN Regulation 155 and ISO/SAE 21434 are going to require that intra-car communications require some sort of authentication system between computers. It's regulations attempting to get ahead of potential hacks for Vehicle to Everything (V2X) infrastructure.

Unfortunately this likely also means the ability to replace failed ECU's on a car will be only limited to car manufacturers willingness to explicitly authorize a part to be installed into a car, even genuinely OEM parts straight from the manufacturer. Don't know when it comes into force but it's on the way.