The VE series one for me is in that sweet spot of having enough mod cons to be comfortable and not so much that you need to pay thousands of dollars for a windscreen replacement because the autonomous braking cameras need to be recalibrated or replaced.
that video is not really about complex systems costing thousands, it is more about the manufacturer taking the piss out of the customer.
the part is not worth 9k in the exact same way the dpf replacement was not 14k for the hilux a few years back.
the lens can be cleaned but they are taking the customer for a ride.
the forward vision systems have been around for almost 10 years now in pretty much every major brand of vehicle and aftermarket windscreen replacements have been taking place at places like obriens with them calibrating the system after the replacement without issue.
there are manufacturers guidelines published to do the process which obriens will have.
what we are probably looking at with this case on the newer subarus is an attempt by the manufacturer to lock down the replacement to their service department much is the same way apple serializes parts of the iphone dribbling nonsense it is about "security" but in this case it is about "safety"
its crap like this that causes more people to fight for "
right to repair"
its a trickle down effect, many companies worldwide watch what people will accept and what they wont and the automotive industry is desperate to cash in on the whole idea of "authorized service only" which is the same garbage apple has managed for force on to millions of people and they not only accept it they "fanboi" over it lol.
phone or car does not matter, it is how the process is perceived and accepted that matters.
look at the idea of subscriptions, the software industry moved to being mainly a subscription model with many of the most popular programs shift from buy to own to a subscription model and it generated billions in revenue so what do we see next...
thats right subscriptions for features in vehicles like remote start, heated seats and now they are working on infotainment subscription services like navigation, dab+ and so on.
so what we have now is subaru owners worrying that if they dont get the windscreen replaced by the dealer they could be on the hook for 9k so where do you think they are going to go.
its the same fear tactic apple deployed with replacing the screen or home button bricking the phone, it made the news then people got scared and wouldnt get those parts replaced in the non authorized repair stores.
its that bad now that the
hall effect sensor in a macbook which is used to detect if the lid is closed is serialized and replacing it outside of apple causes it not to work and not only did they do that they made sure the one from the factory has a propensity to fail to keep the suckers coming back.
anyway that was a bit of a rant but i am just trying to point out that while complex systems do have more points that can fail it does not always mean they will fail or cost you your first born child to repair.