I managed to get 193,000 miles out of a 1993 Ford Tempo. Previous American cars (a Buick Skylark and a Ford Mustang) had all been quality-deficient. Have only had one American car since, though, a 2002 Saturn that also made it very close to 200,000. The current car, an '08 VW (made in Mexico), is at 216,000.
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Cars getting older... slowing down adoption of new dashboard technology
- Thread starter davideduardo
- Start date
One thing to keep in mind with these longer lasting vehicles is your service costs will go up. They only last long is you do every recommended service, which at the dealer can be expensive. But as most know dealerships make more money on service than the actual sale of the vehicle.
Service at the dealer is no longer required to maintain your new car warranty but you do need to keep good records.
I was once a firm believer in returning to the dealership for service, thinking a longer-term relationship benefiting both myself and the dealership could be established, but my trip there a few months ago to get a simple oil change and "complimentary multi-point inspection" became a frustrating exercise to say the least, and it's caused me to want to go elsewhere for service in the future.
As I was in the waiting area, a guy game in, told me he wanted to buy my car back and handed me a business card with an offer marked on it. The offer was in line with KBB, but the car was only a few years old and still under warranty; I had no interest in trading it. About an hour after I'd arrived, the tech came in, called my name and I expected him to tell my the car was ready. Instead, he told me they found several things I needed to do. They said I needed new wipers and quoted $64, but I'd just replaced them myself a few months previous. They said I needed a 4 wheel alignment for $179, but I'd recently replaced 2 tires and was told the alignment was fine. Also, this same dealership had just done a full alignment within the past year (the earlier one was covered by warranty, this one they were suggesting would be charged to me at full price). They also said I needed to change the cabin and engine air filters for $79 each. I declined and on my way home I bought replacement filters at an auto parts store for $20 for both and changed them myself in about 10 minutes. I understand they need to turn a profit and have a good amount of overhead, but wow!
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On an annual basis, I don't think so.
Cumulatively over the life of the car, sure, but so long as the useful life of the car is increasing commensurately, there's no problem.
you might get the engines to run forever with the advances in machining and materials, but manufacturers are not supporting the cars once they are out of production for more than 10 years (and sometimes less!) leaving you chasing parts in the aftermarket and they are normally garbage.
Anyone have any ABS sensors for an 87 Alfa Milano lying around? I need 4 or I have to rip the ABS out of the car and try to reconstruct the brake system from scratch
I can also say in arwas where salt is used on the roads, the salt is eating cars away at an alarming rate... my 2005 F150 plow truck lasted 14 years until the frame rotted to the point of failure... and it got washed top and bottom after every use.
We see 6 year old cars and trucks needing brake lines due to corrosion..... I had a early 2000's Caddy that needed lines, some were braised lines, and they were OBSOLETE from GM..... we had to re-create all the brake lines from scratch.
Look at Dormans website (www.dormanproducts.com) and see how many of their products are for rot repair (full fuel and brake line kits) or supporting cars that lost factory parts availability.... again OEM does not want the carrying costs of inventory for cars past their projected life expectancy
Anyone have any ABS sensors for an 87 Alfa Milano lying around? I need 4 or I have to rip the ABS out of the car and try to reconstruct the brake system from scratch
I can also say in arwas where salt is used on the roads, the salt is eating cars away at an alarming rate... my 2005 F150 plow truck lasted 14 years until the frame rotted to the point of failure... and it got washed top and bottom after every use.
We see 6 year old cars and trucks needing brake lines due to corrosion..... I had a early 2000's Caddy that needed lines, some were braised lines, and they were OBSOLETE from GM..... we had to re-create all the brake lines from scratch.
Look at Dormans website (www.dormanproducts.com) and see how many of their products are for rot repair (full fuel and brake line kits) or supporting cars that lost factory parts availability.... again OEM does not want the carrying costs of inventory for cars past their projected life expectancy
And engines can be rebuilt relatively easily. A good example would be those little mail delivery vehicles that are now 20 to 30 years old and keep running. Or, at the other end of the spectrum, diesel engines in rail locomotives; they are rebuilt regularly but can last for decades.
Interestingly, I think those Post Office delivery vehicles are all aluminum. And, aren't the big brown UPS vehicles aluminum, also?
The USPS mail delivery vehicles (called LLVs or Long Life Vehicles) have aluminum bodies/boxes, and the earlier models at least, were on chassis based closely on that of an 80s model Chevy S-10 Blazer (with some mods to give a tighter turning radius, etc). Interestingly, one of the most notorious faults of those trucks (aside from lack of A/C, poor heating, crank windows and poor traction and general ride and handling, especially at higher speeds) is that the edges of the windshields can be leaky and so can the windshield washer system. Both can leak into the electrical system and fuse box, which has caused a significant number of breakdowns or fires and has become somewhat of a running joke among those who've operated them.
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When are those LLVs ever driven at higher speeds? Reminds me of a review of a Rolls-Royce that I saw in Motor Trend (I think) years back. The checklist included "0-60 acceleration time," and the comment was "Not something you ask about a Rolls."
I've seen them more than a few times on the highway where I'm at, I'm guessing to get to the part of the city or delivery area where their route is located, or to get mail from one part of the city to another? (I didn't stop them to ask).
Aluminum is used for getting weight off the vehicle to meet C.A.F.E. standards
Look at the front of any ford F150 from 2005 to current, Aluminum hood.... stone chips to the base metal don't rust, but the aluminum does corrode and you see it as white dust and blistering under the paint. I see it all the time.
Although aluminum can be repaired, it is a whole different skill set than working on steel panels, and aluminum panels will corrode.... for example when repairing them they have to be in a ferrous sterile area, no ferrous metals can touch the panel, hammers and dollys have plastic covers on them, and it the vehicle is not isolated from the guy in the next bay spraying the area with sparks from grinding a steel panel, the debris landing on the aluminum panel in your bay will show up 6 months later as a hole in the panel.
Cripes you have to be careful what screws you use when installing tool racks and suck in newer Ford pickups because your standard screw will cause galvanic corrosion in days and damage the panel.
A steel frame can be straightened, and except for HSS and UHSS they can be heated to help the repair process.
Want to fix a damaged Aluminum frame? I can tell you Audi says measure how much of the frame is damaged, give us this diagram back, and we will send you that complete section and you have to cut out the damaged section and weld in the new section using some real state of the art procedures. I didn't do aluminum work at my shop, and when I was an appraiser guys my age when asked if they were going to tool up for aluminum repairs (Ford told their dealers be prepared to spend 75K for the basic equipment) they said no way they were investing in new equipment to the tune of 150K plus because they would never recoup the cost at the rates Insurance companies paid.... Insurance companies feel aluminum is the same as steel and they could not be any more wrong.
Aluminum dust is explosive in certain concentrations, shops have to go back and put explosion proof switches and other fun things in the building electrical systems.
Oh when you sweep up and night, make sure the metal chips from the Magnesium core support from that Volvo over there don't mix in with the aluminum and steel sweepings.... there is a concern that when the three ingredients of Thermite are mixed together and dumped in the trash that there might be a shop to work in in the morning.
Look at the front of any ford F150 from 2005 to current, Aluminum hood.... stone chips to the base metal don't rust, but the aluminum does corrode and you see it as white dust and blistering under the paint. I see it all the time.
Although aluminum can be repaired, it is a whole different skill set than working on steel panels, and aluminum panels will corrode.... for example when repairing them they have to be in a ferrous sterile area, no ferrous metals can touch the panel, hammers and dollys have plastic covers on them, and it the vehicle is not isolated from the guy in the next bay spraying the area with sparks from grinding a steel panel, the debris landing on the aluminum panel in your bay will show up 6 months later as a hole in the panel.
Cripes you have to be careful what screws you use when installing tool racks and suck in newer Ford pickups because your standard screw will cause galvanic corrosion in days and damage the panel.
A steel frame can be straightened, and except for HSS and UHSS they can be heated to help the repair process.
Want to fix a damaged Aluminum frame? I can tell you Audi says measure how much of the frame is damaged, give us this diagram back, and we will send you that complete section and you have to cut out the damaged section and weld in the new section using some real state of the art procedures. I didn't do aluminum work at my shop, and when I was an appraiser guys my age when asked if they were going to tool up for aluminum repairs (Ford told their dealers be prepared to spend 75K for the basic equipment) they said no way they were investing in new equipment to the tune of 150K plus because they would never recoup the cost at the rates Insurance companies paid.... Insurance companies feel aluminum is the same as steel and they could not be any more wrong.
Aluminum dust is explosive in certain concentrations, shops have to go back and put explosion proof switches and other fun things in the building electrical systems.
Oh when you sweep up and night, make sure the metal chips from the Magnesium core support from that Volvo over there don't mix in with the aluminum and steel sweepings.... there is a concern that when the three ingredients of Thermite are mixed together and dumped in the trash that there might be a shop to work in in the morning.
Cars today have much longer lifetimes, no doubt. Especially compared to the “planned replacement” theory that existed in Detroit back in the 50’s and 60’s. They did this by making the vehicles look more modern approximately every two years. It became a certain way to increase sales. While this continues on a somewhat lesser level today, back then some believed vehicles were built to last only a few years to promote new sales. Not sure I believe that, but wouldn’t be surprised by it.
When I was growing up in the 1960s cars with 60,000 miles were reaching the “maintenance headache” stage, and at 75-80,000 miles were falling apart and ready for the scrap heap, or a $50 vehicle for a teenager with some mechanical skills. Vehicles that made it to 100,000 miles were a rarity, thus “turning over all zeroes” was a really big deal. Nowadays cars are now higher quality and much more durable, and 100k is just the beginning of middle age.
In the '80s, I was always looking for cars with 40,000 miles or less when buying used. My current car was bought used with 102,000 on it in 2015 and I'm still driving it.
Joint Stereo (a.k.a. Mid/Side) will actually give you better quality, not worse. The encoder will only use it on frames which cannot be adequately encoded in L/R discrete channel mode. With modern music that has very little stereo separation, it's not uncommon for 100% of the frames to be encoded as L/R at 320 kbps.
Mid/Side stereo got a bad reputation because the ISO standard Fraunhofer encoder doesn't do a very good job with it. But with LAME, it's almost totally transparent, especially at 320 kbps. And with AAC (M4A), mid/side stereo is mandatory. Plus of course analog forms of mid/side stereo have been in use by vinyl records, FM Stereo, and AM Stereo for decades.
Note that this is not to be confused with Intensity Stereo or Parametric Stereo, which are special tricks to reproduce a not-totally-accurate stereo effect at very low bitrates (typically 96 kbps or less). LAME does not support these modes.
Except for California, Diesel #2 (which was sold nationally for public highway use until the end of 2006) is still available for off-road use. If you have a pre-2007 diesel engine vehicle and you know someone with access to Diesel #2...
(You can fill in the rest.)
Yes I know Honda has a USB port on the dashboard for that for the 2014-2015 Accords.
and if you get stopped and they stick your tank, and they pull out a sample of dyed fuel ( they color off road fuel to differentiate it from fuel that has had the road use and other taxes paid on it) then you are FUBAR'd in a huge way.
As a Pilot I can get 100ll fuel, I would not want to get caught putting it in my pre `1975 cars
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