Re: Today's pickups - no rust and better??

Posted by jdemaris on June 23, 2005 at 06:11:23 from (66.218.12.232):

In Reply to: Re: Today's pickups - no rust and better?? posted by buickanddeere on June 23, 2005 at 01:25:06:

I agree that often vehicles are bought for status - especially many SUVs that are used as suburban commuters. But, as far as looking back and always thinking the older stuff is better - at least with my experience, it's not true - with cars, trucks, or tractors. I've got just as many bad memories as good ones with such things. In the US, cars and trucks were at a high point of quality around 1964. Come 1973 and they were absolute crap - especially General Motors stuff. There were some awful shortcuts made to meet the new federal emission standards, and the sheet metal utilized a lot of recyled metal, and was of very poor quality. And, also, with the two so-called "fuel shortages", a rush was on to produce more fuel efficient vehicles. Disasters came forth such as Chrysler's "lean burn" engines,
General Motor's Oldsmobile 350 gas engine converted to diesel, the Cadillac 4-6-8 engine, etc. The Parkerization process General Motors used on its camshafts was terrible, the Chevy Vega with aluminum cylinder bores (like a Briggs & Stratton lawn mower), etc, etc. At the same time, the Japanese were building some great stuff. My father-in-law was an engineer for Ford at the time and told me about all the headaches they had trying to make something as good as Datsun or Toyota here in the US. They had production line quality control problems along with the engineering problems. Remember when all the US auto companies were rushing to model themselves with the Japanese produciton line mentality?
So, anyway, I don't think I'll ever be looking back and missing 2005 vehicles. I see it as a demise in good engineering. That, because, good engineering should include updates that offer some sort of real gain, and not just fluff. And, should also include repairability - which is disappearing. Individual OEM replacenment parts are taking a back seat to complete replacement "systems" or "modules." That because major auto companies are making less and less themselves - they go out and buy sub-assemblies. And, take a modern auto with problems. If they are not identified in the computer code, you've got a shop mechanic, more or less, p*ssing in the wind and charging $80-$100 an hour for it. This just happened with a car I bought for my daughter. 2002 Ford ZX something or other. 42,000 miles on it. Brought it home and the "check engine" light came on. As of this year in New York, any car made after 1996 with the OBDII system, cannot pass inspection with the light on - or with any error codes in memory. So, the code stated a bad rear oxygen sensor. The dealer replaced it, 20 miles later, it came on again. Dealer replaced it again, it failed again. They then replaced the converter, 20 miles later, light came on again. The dealer, (a Subaru dealer), then took the car to Ford. Ford dealer spent two hours on it at $100 per hour, and then stopped. Since the computer did not tell them, accurately, what was wrong with the car - they said all they could do is begin replacing non-returnable parts along with the $100 per hour rate. In other words, a fairly new car, was - from an economical viewpoint, unrepairable. It went to auction and I got my money back. My son just had the same experience with his 2001 Nissan Sentra - he gave up and traded it in, and the dealer also sent it to auction.
I believe as time goes on, you will see much more of this with newer vehicles.
One more note on nostalgia. Take the Ford Model T. If I see one more "historical" TV show that gives Henry Ford credit for the existence of the American automobile, and promotes the Model T as high tech in its time, I think I'll puke. Yes, he was a good businessman and perfected the automotive production line. And, the Model T was an afforable cheap car. But, by standards of its time, it was a crappy little car or truck and was way out of date by the mid 1920s.

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