Posted on 05/17/2014 6:28:49 AM PDT by RightGeek
Who can afford a brand new car? I just bought a 11 year 2003 Honda Accord LX for $7,900. When it was new it was $25,000!
My parents built a 5,000 sq/ft house for $43,000 in Minnesota that had a creek in the back and a big park with a pond a block away. No way I would pay for a new car when I would be thinking about buying a house with that kind of money.
I got my 1977 Olds Delta 88 all the way to 108,000 miles before the engine gave off a big bang and died.
I remember those things very well! Except for my Dodge Dart with the slant 6......I believe that thing is still going, somewhere on this earth........
Yep.
My second car was a Plymouth Valiant with that slant six. It made well over 100,000 miles. Got it from my grandparents.
My current car is a 96 mazda 626,315000 miles and runs like new.
What can't continue, won't. It'll hit the wall at some point.
Later
My old 78 Chevy K-5 was AWD. Quite a few owners of them put lock out kits on the front wheels.
Why the hell wouldn’t you want all the weight of your engine/drivetrain directly over your driving wheels for traction, instead of practically nothing?
The more weight you have on any given area the more and faster the wear. Why not distribute weight and stress out? Parts wear out faster because stress of steering, pulling, and weight is all now on the front. If you have deep pockets to pay a mechanic more power to you. People can say what they want to bad about the older vehicles. They were far more owner repairable. A $.50 sensor they charge you $50 plus for didn't leave your vehicle sitting at an intersection unable to start.
;>)
Parts wear out faster because stress of steering, pulling, and weight is all now on the front.
I don't think so. We used to work on VW Rabbits, Golfs, Jettas.
Every 100,000 miles, pads, outer CV joints, struts...clutch if needed, all at once. Good for another hundred.
Inner CVs seldom go bad.
If you want to talk about a bogus and problematic component...automatic freaking transmissions. More vehicles are in junkyards for that reason than anything else.
And talk about caveman technology, the old RWDs had a heavy steering box, a pitman arm, an idler arm, a center tie rod, inner tie rod ends, outer tie rod ends...all subject to wear, and even when up to spec, provided sloppy steering...and tire wear. Just too many components.
It took US manufacturers quite a while to get with the program on disc brakes, and even longer to figure out rack and pinion steering....which replaced everything in the preceding paragraph and at half the weight.
I have driven late model FWD Japanese econoboxes recently, compared to a Ford Ranger, they handle like Ferraris. The Ranger was all over the road, rear end bouncing off the road surface half the time and it was worse than worthless in the snow.
Even the stripped down hatchbacks have independent rear suspension, and handle like they are on rails. The Ranger always feels like it wants to swap ends, or go in the ditch.
Other than the occasional Volvo, RWD cars are quite rare here in the sticks. I'm sure if they were such a hot item, people would seek them out as "keepers".
I didn’t know they parked inventory vehicles on race tracks and airport runways.
All the government retirement and pension money are managed right into these stocks, in the government stock market.
Not too far from another Extortion-Care scam coming, forcing the purchase of these government pension paid vehicles.
OMG
See post 94.
No, they are bought by the dealers. If the dealers don’t buy, they are not sold. If they are not sold, they are not produced.
********************
The manufacturers ship the cars ,, the dealers get an “allocation” whether they want them or not .. the manufacturer marks them as “sold” ,, the dealers may “buy” the cars ,, but they have no choice in the matter.
We give them money so they can produce cars that aren’t needed... and pay for them to let the cars rust so they can keep prices artificially high?
Many people and agencies monitor the reality of the car business. There are very few secrets, except for bit players like Tesla. Point by point refutation:
http://jalopnik.com/that-zero-hedge-article-on-unsold-cars-is-bullshit-1578124255
...However, this guest article on unsold cars is so demonstrably false I had to take a break from my Sunday morning to dispute it...
Thanks so much for the link... it clears up a lot of questions...
It sounds like my dad and yours learned from the same guy. He used to turn the salesmen inside out during negotiations. One of his first jobs after college was as an account manager at a Ford dealership. He saw how it was done firsthand.
“Plymouth Valiant”
I tried to resurrect one of those from the dead around ‘87. I recall driving in dense San Jose traffic when the engine was completely silenced by an electrical failure and fluffy white clouds enveloped the car. I could hear the roar of traffic but couldn’t a) start the car or b) see anyting but white clouds out of any window. Quite ethereal, really.
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