Boycott bad quality

Years ago we drove cars that would go half a million miles and it was easy
routine maintenance. 4 wheels, an engine, and a tranny. Anything could be
fixed by popping the hood and tapping the carb, distributor or anything else
with a screwdriver. Today the cars are made with a million parts and any one
of these parts could render a car undriveable if they failed. I always beef
about the quality of today's cars and reminisce about the cars of
yesteryear. Of course I always get a lesson in business economics from
friends saying that auto makers do it on purpose for profit. Cars in the
50's and 60's would run for 20 years easily. Today's cars - forget it. If we
ban together and boycott buying cars that don't run for 20 years, then maybe
we will see the reliability of the 50's and 60's again. Crazy? Probably.
It's nice to dream.

 

Why don't you be like some of us who spend $5000 restoring a used car and
drive it for another 1/4 million miles....instead of buying a new one and
bitching about how bad it is for the next year...Hell, my family hasn't
bought a new car since....1976! Where were you?

-rob

1974 Duster slant 6 (116,000 original miles on the OD)
1976 Feather Duster Hyperpak /6 (200,000+ on the OD but the last owner lost
his record book...)

 

People want clean air so we have to load the engine down with emissions
controls.

People want great mileage so we have to load the engine with comptuers to
extract the last fraction from the fuel.

People want to just jump in the car and start driving without bothering with
seat belts so we have to put in air bags and crap to cover their asses

People want to survive the accident that results when they drive their
sport vehicle 100Mpg down a twisty road like they do in the commercials
so we have to put in crumple zones, collapsable steering columns, and
such.

People want stereo systems controlled from the steering wheel, and
with speakers all over the car, and interconnected with their DVD player.

People want heated seats, air conditioning, electric door locks, and other
crapola that makes the car easier to live in.

All of this violates the KISS pinciple (Keep it simple stupid) It has
little
to do with profit, people want all this stuff even in the cheapest cars.
You
put all the extra stuff in the car, you create many more opportunities for
shit to break down.

Ted

 

I'll take fuel injection and electronic timing over a carburator and
points any day.

 

But you don't drive much. My 1996 Plymouth Grand Voyager already has
141,000 miles...


Matt

 

Sorry, I don't buy this at all. I didn't own or drive any 50's cars,
but did drive several 60's cars. They needed tune-ups all the time,
points and rotors in particular. Plugs seldom lasted even 30,000 miles.
Front suspension parts seldom lasted 50,000 miles (ball joints, tie
rod ends, etc.). Exhaust systems seldom lasted 50,000 miles.

My 1996 Grand Voyager has 141,000 miles and has the original front
suspension parts and they are still nice and tight. Most 60s cars at
this mileage on original parts would have 2" of play at the steering
wheel. My exhaust system is still original. Spark plugs were replaced
at 100,000. And the 60s cars typically had rust-through of the body
within 6-7 years in my climate (northern PA), the worst being my
father's brand new 69 Ford Falcon that had HOLES in the fender when it
was only four years old! And it needed new ball joints at 25,000 miles
and about every 25,000 after that.

Sorry, but my experience doesn't support your assertion at all.


Matt

 

It's nice to see other points of views. Our experience must be different.
Different is ok. My 89 Horizon has only 140,000 km and is pretty much done.
All city driving (less than 8 km to work). My first car was a 63 Chrysler
Saratoga. Drove it until 87. It had little rust. It was subjected to similar
if not worse climate (Toronto). Lots of salt in the city streets in winter.
It broke down once - drive shaft snapped in half! Other than some
inconveniences (I could fix myself) I could always rely on getting in my car
and going. These cars just died of old age.

Having bitched and griped about old and new, sorry folks, I have bought a 98
Chrysler Cirrus LXI. Opinions anyone? Good and bad

Q: What is the main reason for failures of today's cars?

It would be interesting to read all your opinions and facts


In closing: (sorry for being off topic)

My postings are my experiences and opinions. I respect all other opinions
because they are yours. There have been a few harsh responses that don't
make me feel too good about posting to this group. Remember this NG is just
about some friendly chat about cars, but that's just my opinion


Phil

 

I won't... and I don't But I do like electronic ignition. No points.

But the bottom line is very very few of us want to keep a car 35 years.
Yes, you CAN drive a 30 year old car every day in 2003 and all the parts
are still available and cheap (I know because I do it). And you probably
won't be able to drive a 2003 car daily in 30 years because some part
will be irreplacable because they haven't made that particular EPROM in
20 years and you can't get the required software build anymore. But so
what? That won't affect many people, and those that it does affect will
find a way to work around it if they're motivated enough (probably by
putting a carburetor in place of the EFI)

 

73 Satellite 435,000 miles, '66 Polara 271,000 miles, '93 Vision
207,000 miles

 

I can't agree with any of that. My '73 has electronic ignition (but so
do my '66 and '69... now) and my plugs easily last 40k miles. The last
time I had the air cleaner off the carb for anything other than a filter
change was 2 years ago, and the original ball joints and tie-rod ends in
the 73 lasted over 200k miles. The "sealed" ball joints and tie rod ends
on my wife's 93 didn't make it that far. Oh, and the exhaust system on
the '73 was last replaced in 1984. I have the receipt (and dang, I wish
I could still get a custom dual exhaust setup for $150!) The exhaust
system in the '69 is ORIGINAL except for the mufflers.

 

I'm with ya on exhaust, but the fix is to have some good thick wall
pipes custom bent by a local shop, not buying factory or worse yet parts
store replacements. Front end stuff should be greased at every oil
change, which should still be around 3K miles for 60's stuff.
Unfortunately most people didn't follow that advice even back then. I'm
not sure to which ignition system you're referring but my dad's '73
Chevy pickup went without a tuneup for probably a good decade until the
points finally burned on me one morning... and with an electronic
ignition conversion at that time (at my suggestion) it hasn't needed any
attention since.

A good, oily type undercoating (not Ziebart, and not the stuff you buy
in a spray can either - I'm talking about stuff that's more like real
thick grease or paraffin) could have prevented that. Unfortunately,
it's not particularly common.

A good DIY substitute is a garden sprayer to dump your drain oil in.
Then before you let the car off the stands, spray the warm drain oil in
all the places that look likely to rust.

nate

 

My 1996 Chyrsler T&C LXi now has 166,000 miles on it and my 1993 Grand Cherokee
Laredo has 186,000 on it. Now that my wife has the Pacifica, I have the T&C and
my daughter gets the Jeep.......