Are cars better or worse for not being built to last forever anymore?

[sportyaccordy]

People always complain about the lack of longevity in cars... how much of a concern is it for you? Do you keep your cars for more than 5+ years?

[2o6]

Longevity has gotten far better than cars of old. Too many people romanticized cars of old. They all suck.

[VTEC_Inside]

Given that a modern car will usually go 20yrs with proper upkeep, I don't see that as a big problem.

I bought my Accord as a 10yr old and drove it another 10yrs before unofficially retiring it. I'll probably drive the CSX into the ground as well. The RSX will likely hang around for a good long while too unless I find something fun to replace it with (thinking BRZ, but would rather spend the money on new windows for the house right now).

I only fear that when I feel like something new, all the options will suck.

[Laconian]

My Miata was 10 years old when I bought it and 15 when I parted with it. Ran like a top, wonderful.
Camry was 10, and I drove that for five years too.
G is 4, hopefully I have it until O'Bama takes our gas away and forces us to drive Demmycrat approved golf-karts that can be activated with my EBT card.

[SVT666]

Who complains about cars not lasting very long?   I have heard some old farts say,  "They don't build cars like they used to" and I have always replied with,  "Thank gawd".   Cars were shit.   Even the shittiest car on the market today is 10 times more reliable then the most reliable car 20 years ago.  Who wants to fuck around with carburators when it's cold out or the shitty interiors and seats,  the rust issues,  chokes that refused to disengage on their own and you knew the car was ready to drive because you could hear it approaching redline from inside the house.   Fuck old cars.

[GoCougs]

Principal to the point IMO: If cars lasted longer advancement in safety, efficiency and performance would likely be slower. Sure a 10-year-old Accord car can run just fine but it's gonna have some major detriments - down ~70 hp, have only 4sp AT, won't have stability control, etc.

[MrH]

Longevity has gotten far better than cars of old. Too many people romanticized cars of old. They all suck.

Who complains about cars not lasting very long?   I have heard some old farts say,  "They don't build cars like they used to" and I have always replied with,  "Thank gawd".   Cars were shit.   Even the shittiest car on the market today is 10 times more reliable then the most reliable car 20 years ago.  Who wants to fuck around with carburators when it's cold out or the shitty interiors and seats,  the rust issues,  chokes that refused to disengage on their own and you knew the car was ready to drive because you could hear it approaching redline from inside the house.   Fuck old cars.

I usually disagree with both of you, but a big plus fuckin 1 on that.  Both nailed it.

[Raza]

I usually disagree with both of you, but a big plus fuckin 1 on that.  Both nailed it.

Agreed....mostly.

There are a lot of instances where cars have decreased in quality and increased in complexity at the same time, which lends a very impermanent feel to them.  But, that's almost totally isolated to Mercedes (although, their new cars have gotten a lot better; if you compare my mom's S500 to her CLS, you'd think they were built by two totally different companies with totally different philosophies, they're so different).  

[Lebowski]

Agreed, they last longer than ever. Biggest reasons to upgrade now are technological advances, not that the car doesn't "last".

Average age of the US vehicle fleet is 10.8 years, an all time high I believe.

That said, yes I keep my cars > 5yrs and expect a car to be reliable over that time. C6 will probably be kept til it's nearly 8 y/o and 4Runner will probably be kept til it's 7-8 y/o as well.

[Laconian]

Cars were pretty good 20 years ago. I think of the early 90's as the golden age, post-EFI and VVT but prior to infotainment systems and weird digital communication buses being woven into errthang.

[MrH]

Agreed, they last longer than ever. Biggest reasons to upgrade now are technological advances, not that the car doesn't "last".

Average age of the US vehicle fleet is 10.8 years, an all time high I believe.

That said, yes I keep my cars > 5yrs and expect a car to be reliable over that time. C6 will probably be kept til it's nearly 8 y/o and 4Runner will probably be kept til it's 7-8 y/o as well.

What year is the C6?  New 911 coming soon?

[cawimmer430]

There's no denying that newer cars are better built, but older cars had something called STYLE.

There are few modern cars that interest me from a styling point of view. 95% of the stuff out there looks the same these days. 

[Lebowski]

What year is the C6?  New 911 coming soon?

06, ordered it Dec '05 and took delivery Feb '06 so it's approaching 7 years old.

I think I said in one of the the more recent what's your next car threads, my current plan is to order it's replacement at YE13. Will almost certainly be either a C7 or a 991.

[Onslaught]

Newer cars last longer and are built better for the most part. In some places they've turned to using plastic and shit like that where they used metal in the past. And 10 years down the road that stuff snaps. But it's normally things that don't keep the car from running.

[SVT666]

There's no denying that newer cars are better built, but older cars had something called STYLE.

There are few modern cars that interest me from a styling point of view. 95% of the stuff out there looks the same these days. 

95% of the cars from ANY era look the same.   I think cars are actually more differentiated today than at any time in history.

[850CSi]

06, ordered it Dec '05 and took delivery Feb '06 so it's approaching 7 years old.

I think I said in one of the the more recent what's your next car threads, my current plan is to order it's replacement at YE13. Will almost certainly be either a C7 or a 991.

If you give it another year, I'll take it off your hands...

[Onslaught]

95% of the cars from ANY era look the same.   I think cars are actually more differentiated today than at any time in history.

That's what I tell people all the damn time but they won't listen. All the cars in the 70's looked like shoe boxes.You just remember the cool cars from one decade to another and forget that most of the others all looked the same.
And I agree that we probably have more overall better looking cars now then in the past. Even Kia has good looking cars!

[Rupert]

I have a hard time separating good looks due to good looks of the car and good looks due to my nostalgia and resistance to change.

[cawimmer430]

95% of the cars from ANY era look the same.   I think cars are actually more differentiated today than at any time in history.

I can tell most cars from the old days apart. Much of the new stuff today seems bland and similarly-designed to me.


And at the end of the day, I personally think old cars are just so much cooler than the stuff on the road today. 

[Byteme]

People always complain about the lack of longevity in cars... how much of a concern is it for you? Do you keep your cars for more than 5+ years?

Cars today last much longer than the cars of yesteryear.

When was the last itme you saw a car under 10 years old with rust through?  It used to be common, now you seldom see it.

Engines routinely exceed 200,000 miles.  Back in the day it was front page news if a car had 100,000 on it. 

[Soup DeVille]

In 1991 I had an '84 Olds. The trunk lid was rusted through already and the rocker panels were bubbling. That was a 7 year old car. After that, I had a '75 Caddilac with open bodysores along the lower of both of its flanks, and the radiator mount rusted through within a couple of months.

When I sold the 2002 Civic (again) in 2011, it still basically looked brand new. Oh sure, the seats were worn down, the paint was a little hazy and there were the usual compliments of dings and scratches- but nothing that compromised rigidity. Its still running strong at 180,000 miles.

Even my '95 jeep, which I abused the hell out of stood up longer than any of the earlier cars I've had.

cars- and specifically the steel the sheetmetal is made out of and the coatings put on them are 100 times better than they used to be.

The real limiting factor in a car's life now more often than not is simple economics- it just starts being not worth it to keep it going, not that it becomes impossible to do so.

[Payman]

Dad's '66 Ford Galaxie went to the junkyard in 1970. His '69 AMC Rebel had rusted through fenders by '72, went to the scrap heap in '74. '73 Plymouth Fury lasted until '76, when he bought a new Plymouth Valiant. By 1980, the driver's door had fallen off and had about 20 lbs of Bondo keeping it together. My first car, a 1984 Dodge Shelby GLH, went to the scrapyard in '88 with just 81,000 kms on it.

Thank fuck they don't build 'em like they used to.

[Lebowski]

If you give it another year, I'll take it off your hands...

Nothing would make me happier than to sell it to someone here, when it's eventually time to go.

[El Barto]

Cars were pretty good 20 years ago. I think of the early 90's as the golden age, post-EFI and VVT but prior to infotainment systems and weird digital communication buses being woven into errthang.

Too bad a lot of cars from that era still had rust problems.  I would have kept my Maxima longer if it didn't have as many holes in it.

[Raza]

Cars today last much longer than the cars of yesteryear.

When was the last itme you saw a car under 10 years old with rust through?  It used to be common, now you seldom see it.

Engines routinely exceed 200,000 miles.  Back in the day it was front page news if a car had 100,000 on it. 

Actually, I see a lot of rust on early 2000s Benzes.  My old E class had some rust, my mom's S class (2002) has a lot of rust, and I see plenty of E classes with rust in the same areas (trunk, by the license plate). 

[Soup DeVille]

Actually, I see a lot of rust on early 2000s Benzes.  My old E class had some rust, my mom's S class (2002) has a lot of rust, and I see plenty of E classes with rust in the same areas (trunk, by the license plate). 

That's 10 years though- and I'm still willing to bet you're talking surface rust, not "poke your finger through the hole" rust.

[Raza]

That's 10 years though- and I'm still willing to bet you're talking surface rust, not "poke your finger through the hole" rust.

Bubbling up under the paint.  I haven't tried poking it.

[Soup DeVille]

Bubbling up under the paint.  I haven't tried poking it.

bubbles used to be considered 1-2 years from rust through. I'm willing to bet its closer to 3-4 now.

But, compare that to my Olds which was mottled and rusted through in several areas at 7 years old, or the first Caddy which was structurally and dangerously unsound at 15 years.

[Onslaught]

You still see some rust when you start cutting cars apart even today. But nothing like in the past.

[Lebowski]

Plastic cars FTW!