dont know bob. i think its a small percentage that buy oem parts. most are always getting aftermarket from places like napa and on line and i dont personaly know anyone who had to park a modern car out o warantee because they couldnt get a part to fix it. as to throw away. if anything cars from the 60s-80s were the throw aways. used to see lots of them junked with perfectly goog or at least salvagable bodys because the motor was shot or both the motor and tranny were shot. rarely did you see a car in the dump with more than a 100k on it. go to a salvage yard today and unless it was wrecked you rarely see a car with less than a 100k. if a motor is shot at under a 100k people are furious! just look at the big fad of transplanting modern motors, mostly chev ls motors, guys dont think twice about going to a salvage yard and pulling an ls out of a wrecked car with a 150k on it, pressure wash it change the oil and drop it in and go. i wouldnt have wasted 10 minutes of my time dropping a 327 i picked up wit even 90k on it in my vehicle unless i did a total tear down a rebuild.
think of it like this, drive the highways today and you will see tons of 10 year old or older cars still going. 10 year old cars still going were rare at least around here in the 70s and 80s. which brings me to another BIG factor in throw away cars, RUST. cars in the 60s and especially the 70s and 80s rusted like hell. i bought a new chev k10 in 79 that had to have a front fender replaced at 10 months because it had a rust HOLE in it! wasnt just chevs either, bodys rotted off fords and even toyotas in many cases in less than 5 years up here in salt country. frames rotted so badly that they werent salvagable. today you only see rust problems in vehicles older than 10 years. most undercoating and rust proofing businesses have gone under and there used to be one in about every town. really the only thing that makes keeping a vehicle for many is the fear of technology.
contrary to what some tell you newer cars are not harder to fix and you dont need 10s of thousands of dollars in diagnostic equiptment. a service manual a code checker and a multi meter is all you need and you can buy it all for 400 bucks. with those diagnosing your problem is easier than the 60s-80s mechanics throwing parts at it fixes, code checker will tell you that its one of 3-5 problems a service manual to tell you where those parts are and a multi meter to narrow it down to the right sensor. 10 minutes and a trip to napa. they only wished it was that easy in the 60s and no points distributors, plugs that last today a 100k instead of 5k. oil change if your anal at 5k instead of every 3k. transmissions that will go 200k without service. i always talk about the old 06 silverado i sold my buddy at a 100k, he drove it another 125k than turned it into a plow truck because the body was shot; it now has 265k on it and the heads have never been off it and the transmission hasnt even ever had the filter changed. thats 40k just plowing!! and its a 1/2 ton truck!! show me a 60s-80s truck thats held up like that and ill eat crow!! nope
if anything weve emerged from the era of throw aways and are driving the most reliable longest lasting cars and trucks ever made. eaisest to work on too if you get over your fear, im about a computer idiot. dont even carry a cell phone but i sure can plug a code checker into a diagnostic port and look up a code in a service manual. something everyone should learn even if you bring your vehicle to a mechanic because another thing thats much esier to do today is mechanics ripping off customers relacing parts that dont need it or worse yet just saying they replaced some expensive part when iy was 5 minutes and a 10 dollar sensor. nope today with some cars even 300k isnt out of the question before you throw it away, you would have thrown 3 away in the 70s in that time MAYBE 2 if you were a master mechanic and could rebuild motors and transmissions on your own vehicle and were fortunate not to live anywhere near salt. try to tell me a 76 K chev, W dodge, F ford or even a toyota was a better truck than a 2025 in ANY WAY and ill tell you to set that crack pipe down and thats what that you tube genius in that article should do!! i think if they made a computer game about diagnosing car problems today every mechanic in the country would go under. maybe not. theyd still have to get off the couch and get their hands dirty! something most of us were forced to do back then or walk!
Topic: Disposable Cars - Uncle Tony Is Right! (Read 32 times)