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The rise of the disposable car

bloomberg.com

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Re: The rise of the disposable car

#261

Post by therealcamino »

bityard wrote: post #196
nimbius wrote: post #75

The rich have been flogging this idea since cash for clunkers. That, because they run through cars like shit through a goose, you will too. Speaking as a master diesel mechanic, this is a deleterious line of thinking for anyone with less than a few million dollars. Every car has 20 years of parts, and most Japanese cars have closer into 50 years of parts. Any engine built after 2010 will likely last half a million mi…

I live in the rust belt, where the average life expectancy of a car is about 10 years. 12-15 if you _really_ baby it. Except for one car that was totaled (got rear-ended by a texter), all of the cars I no longer own succumbed to a rotted out frame. Engines were fine, bodies were fine, interiors were fine. But a frame. Can't really replace a frame. You can _sometimes_ repair it. You can buy some time by paying for an…

What passenger vehicles made in the last 25 years have body on frame construction? Serious question. I thought that went away a long time ago.

Re: The rise of the disposable car

#262

Post by porkbeer »

floxy wrote: post #17
beretguy wrote: post #5

Tangential but related: There are full parking lots with brand new cars that go under press or get disassembled for parts because dealership don’t want sell them at a cheaper prices. https://www.costulessdirect.com/blog/where-brand-new-unsold-... From article: > the unsold cars that are older than two years old, will have no alternative but to be either crushed, dismantled and/or their parts recycled. Want to see for…

FWIW, Snopes says that story is false. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/unsold-cars/

Snopes itself, ironically, is quite unreliable.

Re: The rise of the disposable car

#263

Post by fargle »

yterdy wrote: post #256
toast0 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least in my area, the problem is labor costs. If you can do things yourself, it's great. If you need a mechanic to do it, you're looking at a big expense, because mechanic labor is expensive and there's a lot more covers and harder to get to parts these days. 'Maintenance free' transmissions are very common in newer cars, and they do tend to need less maintenance, but when they do, there's often not a great way to…

It would be nice if I could "work with" a mechanic. Pay 1/4 the labor cost and she guides me (I also rent tools and shop time from her so it's more like 1/2).

if anyone was even willing to do this for paid service, it'd be more like at least 150% of the labor costs.

https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fexternal-prev...

if you can find a good mechanic friend, and pay with beer and pizza, you'd be much more likely to be successful.

Re: The rise of the disposable car

#264

Post by bityard »

_yb2s wrote: post #206
bityard wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no such thing as owning an "older car" here in the midwest rust belt states. The frames corrode to orange dust on _every_ car when they get to be between 10-12 years old. You _do_ see cars older than that on the road, but that's only because we don't have mandatory inspections in my state. The only exceptions here are the "toys" that people buy for summer use only. (Sports cars, vintage cars, etc.) Once in a…

As someone that loves old cars that sounds terrible. Are you sure every car? Some of the higher end European cars have a hot dipped galvanized frame. Volvo advertised pretty heavily that the 1980s 740s were galvanized… I’m pretty sure I’ve seen some that ended up out here on the west coast from the midwest and you can’t undo a suspension bolt, but the chassis was fine. You could always buy a used car out of state and…

I haven't seen a hot-dipped galvanized frame here myself, but I would certainly be an interested buyer if any are still be made.

The only cars with aluminum frames are luxury/sports cars, and the Honda Insight from like 20 years ago. Some newer cars have aluminum bodies (F-150?) but not aluminum frames which makes no sense to me. Steel car bodies last a _very_ long time these days, compared to the frames.

Re: The rise of the disposable car

#265

Post by AnarchismIsCool »

babypuncher wrote: post #191
AnarchismIsCool wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish there was an actual community of people building open source cars. It exists for fucking airplanes but there's __nothing__ on the vehicle market. Pool some money, crash test a couple, get some shop in asia to make frames. Make it fairly modular, something like an EV version of the 1995 ford ranger, something where people can throw whatever they want on the back and turn it into anything. Super bare minimum, no…

Kit cars have been around for decades, though I have no idea if any are available under an open source license.

There are, but they're mostly enthusiast/stylized designs instead of anything meant to be practical

Re: The rise of the disposable car

#266

Post by cratermoon »

SoftTalker wrote: post #74
cratermoon wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any collision that sets of the airbags in a modern car is almost guaranteed to be a write-off.

Yep, they are surprisingly complex and expensive sensor-controlled devices, and a modern car might have a dozen of them. Just their replacement alone will be thousands of dollars, on top of the actual collision repair work.

Plus each airbag has a small explosive charge, which requires special and expensive handling.

Re: The rise of the disposable car

#267

Post by floxy »

porkbeer wrote: post #262
floxy wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, Snopes says that story is false. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/unsold-cars/

Snopes itself, ironically, is quite unreliable.

Sure. But is there another source that says that brand new unsold cars are routinely scrapped?
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