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Another reason to like older cars!


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Well that makes me glad the old cars are abundant,cheap to maintain,user friendly, have excellent part availability and are issue free,oh wait.....  I'd hate to have an old car as a daily unless I had the money to make it like a new car (Would probably come out to about the same amount as purchasing a decent car made in the last ten years). Now as for a weekend car/project car that's a different story,but I'd hate to have to rely on something daily that's fifty years old and is pretty original.

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Years ago when all the so called wacky people were saying this and that about why computers are in cars we just laughed at them. Now they are not looking so wacky now.  Just to add a little to this 15 years ago or so a GM dealer in Detroit was using onstar to shut off the cars that people missed too many payments on. Not a new thing just a different thing. 

 

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I have a 84 Chevy 4x4 that still has its computer in it...but its not hooked up to anything now runs much better than with it...early systems were a joke anyway rarely worked right with any miles on them.  Now the companies make horsepower with them instead of the engine making it all like they use to.  yep its my daily driver.

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yeah, pretty soon all a haxor will need to do will be stand next to your brand new "net-enabled" car and purchase a new entertainment system for his home using your car charge account (which you didn't know you had)...or just crash all airport computers...  :blink:

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Well that makes me glad the old cars are abundant,cheap to maintain,user friendly, have excellent part availability and are issue free,oh wait.....  I'd hate to have an old car as a daily unless I had the money to make it like a new car (Would probably come out to about the same amount as purchasing a decent car made in the last ten years). Now as for a weekend car/project car that's a different story,but I'd hate to have to rely on something daily that's fifty years old and is pretty original.

Older doesn't necessarily mean antique. 

My '92 Chevy has a comparitively simple computer that can't be hacked, and is very reliable. 

I know people that do drive cars from the 1950s-60s on a daily basis, at least in the nice weather. Some are original, save for some items, like belts, hoses, and the like. Some are restored to "driver" condition. Reliability is there, regardless of age, if proper maintenance and intelligent driving practices are followed. 

While money, in certain cases, might be similar, there are intangibles in either choice that can't be quantified.

I heard that they are buying back some of them. The figures go from "some" to "selected" to hundreds of thousands. This must be really bad. I'll keep my 17 year old 50,000 mile Durango, thank you.

 

There are about 1.4million UConnect vehicles that can be hacked, and Chrysler is already taking care of those, not sure what is going on with the Ram buyback, and the Jeep thing is utter BS to me.

The buyback has nothing to do with the U-Connect thing. And I agree with Joe. I've never heard of Jeeps having a propensity to blowing up, or Rams for that matter.

Sounds to me like the buyback is being forced by the government in yet another attempt to social-engineer transportation choices and contribute to the over-inflating of used car and truck prices.

Charlie Larkin

Edited by charlie8575
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Your lucky that older cars are abundant and cheap in the USA. Here in the UK there are such stringent laws about the condition of any road transport vehicles. Rust was the biggest problem a few years ago, that's why we've had MOT tests for so long and you have to have a new one each year, except where you have a brand new car and have 3 years without a test.

Chassis, body, brakes (pads, disks,pipes,fluid, master and slave cylinders) ,steering, tyres, windscreen, wipers, rear view mirrors just to name but a few. You can even go into an MOT(Ministry of Transport) Test Centre and if your car fails, you get a red ticket and you're not allowed to drive it away, you have to get a tow truck!

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I always assumed you could drive an MOT failure home or to a garage for repair in England Pat? Maybe this is something new.

 

We have the NCT (National Car Test) for years now here, much the same as the MOT, but you have to bring the jam jar to Official test centres, while you can get your MOT almost anywhere in the UK and at short notice, we have to book for weeks in advance.

 

 

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My daily driver is a 33 year old Thunderbird. Good on fuel, easy maintenance, Have not had any issues at all. I do keep an ignition module in the trunk "just-in-case"

She just gets a good douse of oil before winter.

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LOVE those Sq Birds!!!!  All based on the Ford Fox platform....the Model T of the Era........I owned 2 Fairmonts, a LTDII wagon and a Mercury wagon like the LTDII......all rugged simple cars. Electronics the only sore spot......it killed my LTDII when it went down and took EFI and IGN with it. But I had paid $900 for it and we used it for 5 years trouble free......she did her job!!! 

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Well that makes me glad the old cars are abundant,cheap to maintain,user friendly, have excellent part availability and are issue free,oh wait.....  I'd hate to have an old car as a daily unless I had the money to make it like a new car (Would probably come out to about the same amount as purchasing a decent car made in the last ten years). Now as for a weekend car/project car that's a different story,but I'd hate to have to rely on something daily that's fifty years old and is pretty original.

My 15 yr old Jeep and DTS are about as old of a car as I'd want as a daily driver, and they are nearing the end..getting too unreliable. (I should be driving my '11 STS more, but it's in California currently).  I couldn't imagine depending on something 25-50 yrs old, in the grind of daily traffic.  I've got to have reliability, cold A/C, and all the modern creature comforts as well as modern safety features, brakes and tires.  Old cars are neat as a weekend toy to go to car shows with, I wouldn't want one for the daily grind...

Edited by Rob Hall
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I like being able to fix (if not fix, at least diagnose) what's wrong with my vehicles.  As for older cars being unreliable, people drove them cross-country back in the day.  If they are maintained, they can still be used on a daily basis.  No software needed. 

I'm intending to get back to doing that with my Fairlane, at least in the summer.  In traffic, the non-power drum brakes work just fine.  After a quick stop, I'm more worried about the modern, ABS, four-wheel-disc car behind me that has a driver with a phone in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. 

No power steering...no problem.  Radial tires make it steer more easily, and you remember to turn the large-diameter steering wheel when the car is moving...no power needed.  You don't hear the tires howling and scrubbing on turns like some modern cars with poor steering geometry.

I might check the pick-a-part yards to see if I can scare up a set of accessory brackets and pulleys to hang an A/C compressor on the engine.  Then I can track down an under-dash unit (that's all that was available back then; no built-in units).  A dual master cylinder would be a good idea too, and there are units that will virtually bolt right in.  No power steering or brakes, but A/C.

Parts availability is still good.  Five or six years ago, I needed a new windshield and was able to get one.  The side glass is flat, and can be cut by any shop that can get a template (or work with one that is supplied to them).  A couple of years ago, I picked up a starter at Pep Boys.  The girl at the counter rang it up ($26), did a double take, then checked with the guy at the counter in back where I got the starter.  "I had to check that...I know what these usually sell for, I've never seen one that cheap".  Back home in the driveway, reach in from the top to detach the cable, crawl underneath to get the bolts (I don't remember even jacking it up)...old one out, new one in in about fifteen minutes.  Try that on some of the newer engines.  If I remember right, the Northstar Cadillac engine had the starter under the intake manifold.

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My daily driver is a 33 year old Thunderbird. Good on fuel, easy maintenance, Have not had any issues at all. I do keep an ignition module in the trunk "just-in-case"

She just gets a good douse of oil before winter.

LOVE those Sq Birds!!!!  All based on the Ford Fox platform....the Model T of the Era........I owned 2 Fairmonts, a LTDII wagon and a Mercury wagon like the LTDII......all rugged simple cars. Electronics the only sore spot......it killed my LTDII when it went down and took EFI and IGN with it. But I had paid $900 for it and we used it for 5 years trouble free......she did her job!!! 

   I had an 83 Lincoln Versilles do the same thing as your LTDII. The throttle body FI and crank trigger was junk. I removed all of it, even the computer. Installed a carb and old Duraspark and the car never gave me another problem.

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Your lucky that older cars are abundant and cheap in the USA. Here in the UK there are such stringent laws about the condition of any road transport vehicles. Rust was the biggest problem a few years ago, that's why we've had MOT tests for so long and you have to have a new one each year, except where you have a brand new car and have 3 years without a test.

Chassis, body, brakes (pads, disks,pipes,fluid, master and slave cylinders) ,steering, tyres, windscreen, wipers, rear view mirrors just to name but a few. You can even go into an MOT(Ministry of Transport) Test Centre and if your car fails, you get a red ticket and you're not allowed to drive it away, you have to get a tow truck!

Not so Pat, you can drive your car home after a test, even if it fails, you can then only take it back to the garage to get a re-test after the work has been carried out, the Ministry centre's are only for HGV's and PSV's as they now will not allow petrol powered vehicles onto site.

There are only allowed to check items that they can see without dismantling anything, if the master cylinders are hidden under the engine cover, they are not allowed to remove it, it will only fail on rust or corrosion if the affected area is within 12 inches on a load bearing structure, including seatbelt mountings.

MOT's are now being changed to four years for brand new vehicles, and will soon be changing to every two years for all other PLG vehicles under the European directive, goods vehicles and PSV will still need to be checked every years 

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