Which of those shortened maintenance intervals?
Average age of vehicles is up&up
- Thread starter The Artillerist
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The only thing that will potentially tweak those numbers down the road are recent EVs when battery quits. I have no idea at what point they become unusable and don’t think anyone else does yet either.
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There haven’t been any good cars made after 1970. The K car was interesting and a worthy try, but not really that great.
I wouldn’t go that far… my mother hasn’t had to shove a toothbrush into a carburetor to get a car started because it was cold outside in a very VERY long time.
And I haven’t accidentally flooded a car in an equally long period of time
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Well, cars are definitely safer these days — at the very least.
I know that this is worn out video that most everyone has already seen: a 15 year old “plastic”, drab rental car vs 1959 Chevy “they don’t make ‘em like they used to”. For sure a 1959 car has more style, but that’s it
Average age of my vehicles goes up every day.....
8 and 10 year financing is not taking place because cars last longer. (They do). It's happening because cars cost so much, and today fewer and fewer people can afford them. Also, because down payments are in fact getting smaller as this country becomes more cash poor.
So today for most people to be able to "afford" a new car, they have to go to much longer term loans. These people for the most part are putting less down on cars that cost upward and beyond $60K.
Try spreading that out over what used to be a normal 3 or 4 year car loan, and your going to wind up with payments so large, very few individuals would have enough income to be able to make those kind of payments. Especially after you factor in all the other major expenses in their lives like mortgages, insurance, (which is going up like a rocket), food, clothing, etc.).
Average age is probably up because of the inflated prices of late model used cars, and dealers charging over sticker for new cars. Smart people who don't need a car are probably walking out when a dealer tries to sell them a new car over sticker. The same would apply to the used car market as well, with people hiking prices because new car prices are high. I feel bad for people who have their back against the wall who really need a car for whatever the reason might be.
Believe it or not, we are living in the golden age of ICE vehicles. Every day cars that will blow the doors off most of those muscle cars from the 1960s. Now that we have that they are changing by fiat (not the car company) to electrified vehicles.
Most high end EV's will go zero to 60 in 5 seconds or less. Even the Chevrolet Bolt will go zero to sixty in under 7 seconds,
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Tesla Model 3 0-60 MPH Time The 60 mph time for the Model 3 Long Range in our test was 4.1 seconds while the Model 3 Performance reached 60 mph in just 3.5 seconds
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I looked up and the base price for:
- Accord is $28k
- RAV4 is 28k
- KIA Carnival is $33k
- And so on
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I believe the cars built in the late 90s to around 2010 (depending on make and model) are capable of lasting 20 years no problem, but I don't believe a good majority of stuff that is made now is going to. My sister in law's new 2022 Kia Sorento with the 2.0 tgdi and dual clutch transmission is not likely to last 20 years in my opinion, at least not with average maintenance (her maintenance is definitely not above average).
Enough people coming to the same conclusion as me would temporarily increase the average lifespan as people try to keep their old vehicles going longer, knowing that it's replacement will cost twice as much and not last as long.
It's hard for me to be optimistic as I worked for several years as a service advisor and saw lots of vehicles get scrapped because the repairs were going to be several thousand dollars (back when repairs were a lot cheaper).
Go try to buy one for that. Most dealerships have nothing that is base price equipped. They make money on "options". Pickups are the worst offenders. Everything is maxed out, and priced to the Moon, with every luxury package included.
Large dealerships always used to have several contractor pickups available. Now you have to order them.
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I just google Honda accord prices and clicked on the vey first sponsored link that lead to a local dealer. all of the accords, 2023 and 2024 are $1,500 off MSRP… Here are the screenshots of the first 2 cars, but all 50 something had this much of discount of MSRP…
The only thing on average that is coming in under $30K are compacts, and sub compacts. The overall industry average price of a new vehicle is $48,451.00
clark.com
Report: The Average Price of a New Vehicle
New vehicle prices are slowly falling, but they remain high. Here is the average price of a new vehicle right now and how you can save.
clark.com
I saw that video. Keith is not the norm for shops that can do this type of repair. Maybe as time goes on, more shops will start doing repairs like this but it's probably a steep learning curve for a lot of people.
I can still get parts for my older vehicles but a lot of the parts that I have bought in the last few years have not been very good especially electronic parts. I have been through countless ICM's, coils, and coolant temp sensors on this car in the 17 years that I have owned it.
Drive my 09 G5 75 miles a day to and from work. It will roll 300k km next week (187k miles).
Runs fine, and everything basically works. Rust is getting a bit bad, but shouldn’t be what finishes the car. Trans is starting to shift rough, TC tensioner rattles, electronics on it have issues…
Realistically, with my finances, I can’t even think about another car for 2(?) years, but who knows how long this one will go; I’m really not sure it will make it that far. If it dies sooner that that I may just end up out of work!!
Runs fine, and everything basically works. Rust is getting a bit bad, but shouldn’t be what finishes the car. Trans is starting to shift rough, TC tensioner rattles, electronics on it have issues…
Realistically, with my finances, I can’t even think about another car for 2(?) years, but who knows how long this one will go; I’m really not sure it will make it that far. If it dies sooner that that I may just end up out of work!!
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