I wonder if part of the reason why car sales are at 30 year lows is because they last longer.

[jsamuel]

(besides the fact that we are also in an economic slump) I mean, if your car broke every 5 years like they used to, you would need a new one every 5 years. However, in order to beat the competition, car makers had to improve their quality and they began making much better cars.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. Maybe our mfg. is off the charts.

:think:

[BOSSHOG]

2. I could buy a new truck every year

but I keep em for at least ten years, when they are just getting broke in. I hope Cherolet is still around because I want to get a 2011 Colorado.

I proudly call Fayetteville my home town. FHS and UA graduate.

[jsamuel]

4. cool :)

:hi:

[sinkingfeeling]

3. What are you smoking? I'm currently driving an 18 year old and a 10 year old. Would kill to have a

'57 Chevy.

[jsamuel]

5. well, for those of us who don't know how to keep them running, if you know what I mean

Some of us have 5 cars in the driveway from 30-50 years ago that we are always working on. Most don't

[sinkingfeeling]

13. Uh, I don't work on cars. But, I know that since the late 70's they have been making them almost

impossible for people to diagnose and fix. Also, parts cost as a percent of purchase price has gone through the roof. My sister was asked to pay over $500 for a side mirror for her 2006 Lexus. I got her one on Ebay for much less.

[BOSSHOG]

7. My first vehicle was a 51 Chevy Pickup

I proudly drove around Fayetteville in the 60's and 70's. Lordy I wish I still had it.

[Codeine]

6. That could be a good point.

My UAW union-made, California-built car has well over a quarter million miles on it and shows no signs of stopping.

[TahitiNut]

8. The cost to repair, even major repairs, is an even smaller fraction of a new car's price.

:shrug:

[sixmile]

9. I am car shopping right now

You get little value for the money. That's the problem.

[Warpy]

12. You can improve value greatly if you do your homework

and get a good used car.

[sixmile]

17. Have two

Need a new one. I drive A LOT.

[Warpy]

22. Good luck

I know before the gas prices finally fell that the pickings were pretty slim unless you wanted a gargantuan gas hog.

[Occam Bandage]

10. An interesting reversal.

"Detroit's problem is that their cars are just too damn good."

[BlooInBloo]

33. OP gets an A+ for humor value.

[Warpy]

11. No, not really

Fixing a car is always cheaper than replacing it, even if it's a junker with planned obsolescence built into it. Even changing out the engine isn't problematic if there are well stocked junkyards nearby. BTDT.

People didn't buy new cars every 3 years because the old one broke, they bought them because the old one had parking lot damage and was a little out of style and they could afford it.

Now they just can't afford to take on that kind of debt. People aren't sure their jobs will be there in three months, let alone five years. Don't forget that a new car means the insurance will jump along with the monthly payments. People aren't going into new debt now because they're not totally nuts.

This isn't just in the US. Sales have bottomed out worldwide because the financial crash is worldwide.

[jsamuel]

14. thanks, your argument is persuasive

[lumberjack_jeff]

15. Good point. Cars haven't been bought due to "need" for a long time.

There is a nearly infinite supply of reparable cars in the US... look at Cuba.

[SoCalDem]

31. and modern life has turned cars into driveway/parking lot ornaments

It's considered bad form these days to :go for a drive".. Families USED to do that..

Now people pile into their car ..one-per-car usually, and drive with checked hostility (usually) to a place they hate to go every day,but MUST go, and then park that $30K piece of polymer & aluminum in a narrow parking spot that guarantees door-dings & bumper scratches..then they pile back into the 175 degree wheeled-container at the end of the workday and do the whole drive again.. then the car sits all night, waiting to do it all again,..and again and again..

Cars are no longer a way to escape from life.. they are not "fun".. they are just another thing to pay for, maintain, insure and worry about..

[predfan]

16. Three words....." long term payments".......two more........"paved roads"

[asteroid2003QQ47]

18. The view (from under the car) in Arkansas as opposed to Maine is vastly...

different I'll wager. Highway snow and ice removal chemicals send thousands
of rusted but superficially great looking vehicles to the crusher every year.

[jsamuel]

19. indeed, that is something not often a problem in Arkansas

[Warpy]

23. I knew people with home arc welders

who kept welding bits of sheet metal into the floor and onto structural members every year.

Then there was the guy who supported the back seat with lumber, painted it black, and managed to get it through an inspection.

Usually by the time the structure is damaged, the skin is rotted halfway up the side of the car, a dead giveaway.

Those New England cars going to the crusher look as rotted as they are.

[asteroid2003QQ47]

28. Not nearly as true now as it was 10 or 15 yrs. ago. Your statement suggests that...

it's been at least that long since you've perused vehicles waiting to be crushed.
Perfect looking pickups with broken corroded frames, ditto for cars.
Combined with rusted fuel lines and tanks, brakes and brake lines, vehicles that appear to be nearly perfect can easily be found in junkyards awaiting the crusher.
It would seem you need to get out more, Warpy.
----------------------------------------------

Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.
- John Maynard Keynes

[Warpy]

32. I left New England 20 years ago

and I get out just fine.

Perhaps you need to hold off insulting people a little more.

[asteroid2003QQ47]

35. More than a little hypersensitive Warpy? Contradicting me with...

"Usually by the time the structure is damaged, the skin is rotted halfway up the side of the car, a dead giveaway.

Those New England cars going to the crusher look as rotted as they are." would seem far more of an insult than anything I posted. Especially if one considers that New Mexico motor vehicle inspection is apparently is limited to omissions is it not and though accurate in 1990, your info is 20 years old?

Regardless, I took no umbrage and wish you the best.

[flamin lib]

20. I have a little expertise here. Made my living as a general line

mechanic for nine years and have a Associate Degree in automotive repair from the late 60's. Couldn't fix a car now if my life depended on it--no computer degree . . .

Cars are much better than they used to be. Styling is also very stable; in the 50's there was a major body re-vamp every three years and now it's hard to tell if a car is 2 or 5 years old if it's cosmetically kept up. Anybody of my vintage can spot a '54 from a '55 or a '56 chevy and the hallmark of style was the '57. Somebody here tell me they can do the same with a Mustang today with the same specificity at the NASCAR standard of 50/50 (fifty yards at fifty miles an hour).

In the 60's a car needed a tune up every 18,000 miles for $30. Now most cars will die before needing "plugs, points and condenser". When they do need routine maintenance at 50k miles it's $300 or if it's an actual repair it's $500-1000 BUT those repairs are few. Back when a car with 50K miles was on it's last legs. Now it needs new plugs (Platinum coated with built in resistors and anti noise) at $8 apiece.

In the '60s you could improve the performance and fuel mileage of any car by doing a valve job at 25,000 miles because the cylinder heads matured over time and valve seats moved around. Now we have engines half the size with four valves per cylinder and mixed metal engine blocks but nothing needs to be done for 200,000 miles.

Consider that the average car has almost as many parts as a modern fighter plane and works every day with no maintenance and benign neglect at best from it's owner.

Cars are a lot like computers; ya' get a lot more for for the $$ now than you did back then.

[MindPilot]

21. As a Ford tech from '73 to '90, everything you said and more

Cars are MUCH better than they were back then. Warranties are longer--the standard used to be 12 months or 12,000 miles--now some are 10 years 0r 100,000.

They are safer, more crash-worthy, exponentially more reliable, and compared to just a couple decades ago damn near maintenance-free.

[guitar man]

24. you may have something there

I have a '95 Lincoln Mark VIII. I bought it used about 6 years ago with 100k miles on it. It now has 210k miles and it still runs fantastic. I bet we get 300k miles and several more years out of it the way it's going. :thumbsup:

[lefthandedlefty]

25. Could be plus 6 to 7 years to pay for one

My newest car is 8 years old and has over 100,000 mile and my oldest truck is 30 years old and has over 2.4 million miles,I also have 5 more cars and trucks in between those ages and miles.Oh and I forgot just to piss most of you off every last one of them was built by Ford Motor Company.3 gas powered 3 diesel powered 3 built in Louisville KY the other 3 somewhere in the U.S.

[virginia mountainman]

26. I have a daily driven 1991 Ford Explorer

With well over 300,000 on it, still running strong, and still mostly trouble free.


Many of the vehicles I drive at work, have well over 300,000 miles, with some OVER 600,000 MILES ON the ORIGINAL DRIVE LINES..... Ford's V10 truck engines seems to indestructible!!!!!

These vehicles, range from work vans (all with gas engines) mini vans, and Ford Explorers and Expeditions.

They are definitely built better than the old days.

[Hannah Bell]

27. they didn't start being better made last year, so the answer would be - no.

they were better-made 5 years ago too.

[ContinentalOp]

29. The real problem is that we can't afford to buy them.

Sure, cars are "better" now. Because of that we revamped how we calculate our inflation statistics, with the reasoning that new cars should be more expensive since they are so much better. The overall effect is that inflation is far worse than most people realize and our wages are far lower in relation to inflation than the official statistics show.

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/P72746.asp
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/JubaksJournal/fake-inflation-numbers-masked-crisis.aspx

[Quantess]

30. Yay!!1! That's so optimistic!

[Marr]

34. Ha! Modern cars...

You won't see any 2009 Hyndais on the road in 2059, I guarantee you that.