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Ohio man says software update disabled car, leaving $1,600 bill and little options
(www.youtube.com)
this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2026
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Privacy
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Volkswagen should fix that shit for free. I can't tell you how pissed off I'd be if some random OTA update bricked my car.
It’s happened twice to me in my Mach-E. Bricked and had to be towed from my garage. Luckily under warranty so I didn’t pay anything. I’ve now since turned off all auto updates because it’s ridiculous that an OTA can render your car useless.
Any software update for anything always carries that risk, even with fail safes built in, its just the nature of software.
It sucks, but itll always be the case.
Edit: and even the software can fuck with the hardware. Tesla had an issue once where they were logging to much data and they were burning out the memory before the cars end of life.
They should have to cover the costs if a OTA update is pushed even if the normal warranty is up. Not saying as fact, but it should be. They are the ones that push the updates and the owners of the cars are just doing what makes sense if they see an update is ready to install.
Don't buy the first few years of a newly released car. Rules to live by. The Mach-E had all kinds of power train failures including fusing the high voltage battery junction box contacts open and or closed which disables the vehicle.
Dont buy a car past 2013
I can't refute this.
I usually delay updating until they have more of a chance to fix any bugs.