Quote:
Originally Posted by rotorwrench
Cars of the modern era are not made from quality structural and trim materials and they have complicated electronics that don't necessarily have long service lives.
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Having been a mechanic (or 'auto service technician', to be fancy) for about 40 years, I have come to a different opinion. Reliability and longevity have greatly improved over the years. In the '50's you had bragging rights if your engine went 100,000 miles without being opened up. Usually a valve job was needed by 50-60,000 miles and by 100,000 it was a leaky, smoking mess. Now 300,000 miles is relatively common, and still no smoke, and few or no oil leaks. Back then, seats were torn and the stuffing coming out in just a few years. Seat covers were big business. Now how often do you see a late model car with seat covers on it? Now, seats look almost new after 100,000 plus miles. In the Rust Belt, rocker panels and floorboards were dissolved in 2-3 years! That's rare now.
Automatic trans shops used to be everywhere. Now even Aamco has to do general repair to survive. A lot of this improvement is due to those complicated electronic controls on transmissions, plus closer tolerances, better fluids and better materials. When I've had the heads off a late model engine (usually a Dodge one ton with recessed valve seats), even after 100,000 plus miles you could still see factory honing marks at the top of the cylinders. A major factor here is electronic fuel injection which prevents flooding and cylinder washdown on cold starts.
Brake shops are hurting, too. Brakes last far longer now. When was the last time your newer car needed a muffler and tailpipe? The switch to stainless steel exhaust parts forced a lot of muffler shops to also diversify. What happened to the corner gas station that used to stock belts, hoses, tune up parts, brake shoes, shocks, mufflers, etc.? When did you last have to replace a front or rear axle bearing? And the list goes on.
True, the often extremely high cost of repairs may doom a car to an early trip to the junkyard but that's always been the case. Back when $100 would buy a fairly decent used car, a rebuilt engine was maybe also $100, and so doomed the car to the junkyard, too. Or a kid bought the car cheap and did his own ring and valve job (or clutch or whatever). Here is where there's a big difference. Diagnosis and repair of the complicated electronics is no longer a backyard job. And shop labor rates have gone from $4-5 an hour to $100 or more.