hood@homxa.UUCP (Ron) (03/19/85)
During the past four years I have put just under 90,000 miles on my 81 **** and have been amazed at the low maintenance cost. Other than the regular maintenance items (oil/filters/plugs/belts/etc) and the low cost items (wiper blades/bulbs/etc) my only costs have been for tires ($195 at 59,000) and brakes ($65 at 88,000). I'll admit that 70% of these miles have been on the interstates, but I still think its pretty good. As an idealistic young engineer I'd like to think that I can get this type of performance out of any car if I give it regular maintenance and don't abuse it, however, I don't perceive this to be the case. It seems that many cars start giving out before 50k and are all used up if they make it to 100k. Is this true? When I look under the hood of a car I don't see a whole lot of "hi-tech". The basic technologies and manufacturing techniques have been around for a long time and should have all the bugs worked out. Carburetors, alternators, radiators, transmissions, engines have been around long enough and made in large enough production runs that we should be able to expect high reliability/performance/quality at a low cost. Even the new gee-wiz items like turbos are not new technology. Unfortunately I don't see this happening. Is the old story about planned obsolescence true, or are all of the high paid automotive engineers inept? Ron p.s. As an afterthought I've blocked out the make of my car. I'm not interested in comments about a particular manufacturer, but about the industry as a whole. I will say that it was under $10k new, has approx 2200 ccs and a 5 speed.