Finger rule on car longevity

[Sinbad]

Ps sitting on 240k and 10 years

Ticked over to 268000 on the way down the pass this afternoon

 

[PostmanPot]

At +- 10 years you can start looking at replacing most plastic and rubber engine/suspension parts/radiator

Cheaper than a new car

Just had my engine and gearbox mounts replaced, not too bad.

 

[Magnum]

Convert ECU engined car into carburator... Unimaginely light on fuel and goes like hell! A bit of work though.

 

[Sinbad]

Just had my engine and gearbox mounts replaced, not too bad.

Did it myself for under a grand

 

[boxerulez]

Convert ECU engined car into carburator... Unimaginely light on fuel and goes like hell! A bit of work though.

Carbs that are light on fuel (solex and other asian brands) are difficult to convert and does not go like hell.

Carbs that* go like hell (Weber/SU) are damn heavy on fuel.

 

[Colin62]

Convert ECU engined car into carburator... Unimaginely light on fuel and goes like hell! A bit of work though.

Fuel injection and ECUs have helped cars provide more power at lower fuel consumption that carb based cars ever could. You're just plain wrong I'm afraid.

 

[Jet-Fighter7700]

Fuel injection and ECUs have helped cars provide more power at lower fuel consumption that carb based cars ever could. You're just plain wrong I'm afraid.

my question is this; carb vehicles last forever; why do ECU cars fail? as their designed to do exactly that;

yes I agree exceptions, but the basic rule is if you want to make something last longer make it more simple;
when you make something more complex, you can add a lot more functionality to it; agreed, but that increases its risk of it failing more easily.
take early cellphones, nokia 3310's lasted a extremely long time, but today a samsung s4 falls apart after 2 years, after constant lockups and freezes
so this is true of cars as well, a nissan 1400 last forever while something like a ford bandtam falls apart after 1000000 very easily.

so how hard would it be for manufacturers to say screw this, we want people to replace their cars at 5 years or 100000KM,
so well sell a warrenty exactly to that length and program our ECU's to quit after that time.
its called planned obsolescence, its alive and well as much as people want to dispute this;

yes I do agree exceptions exist, also replacement ECU exist that you can program yourself; that make sure you dont get that;
but most cars these days built as complex as possible, and its done deliberately as a ploy to get people to keep buying new cars;
maybe a conspiracy, but if cars were reliable and lasted forever, we wont need garages that charge R2000 for a oil change

 

[boxerulez]

my question is this carb vehicles last forever were ECU cars fail as there designed to do exactly that;

yes I agree exceptions, but the basic rule is if you want to make something last longer make it more simple;
when you make something more complex, you can add a lot more functionality to it; agreed, but that increases its risk of it failing more easily.

so how hard would it be for manufacturers to say screw this, we want people to replace their cars at 5 years or 100000KM,
so well sell a warrenty exactly to that length and program our ECU's to quit after that time.

yes I do agree exceptions exist, also replacement ECU exist that you can program yourself; that make sure you dont get that;
but most cars these days built as complex as possible, and its done deliberately as a ploy to get people to keep buying new cars;

If you believe that jibber jabber just get diktator management and drive your programmed to fail car forever with a management system.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Fuel injection and ECUs have helped cars provide more power at lower fuel consumption that carb based cars ever could. You're just plain wrong I'm afraid.

And if it's sipping fuel like he says it's probably running way too lean and won't last very long.

Not to mention that if you change altitude suddenly the car can't adapt...at all.

 

[boxerulez]

Lean will be light on juice but running too hot.

Rich will be heavy on fuel... less bang for buck and ultimately carbon build up will cause valves to become sticky.

 

[Archer]

snip

You need some more tinfoil there son

edit: do you honestly believe manufacturers are programming death into the ECU?? Why then are there millions of cars worldwide that are quite happy?
edit2: these replacement ECUs, why don't those people also program in a death at some point - more sales for them too right?

 

[SauRoNZA]

my question is this carb vehicles last forever were ECU cars fail as there designed to do exactly that;

yes I agree exceptions, but the basic rule is if you want to make something last longer make it more simple;
when you make something more complex, you can add a lot more functionality to it; agreed, but that increases its risk of it failing more easily.

so how hard would it be for manufacturers to say screw this, we want people to replace their cars at 5 years or 100000KM,
so well sell a warrenty exactly to that length and program our ECU's to quit after that time.

yes I do agree exceptions exist, also replacement ECU exist that you can program yourself; that make sure you dont get that;
but most cars these days built as complex as possible, and its done deliberately as a ploy to get people to keep buying new cars;

Again, you are stuck in seeing your own ECU failure as the standard experience, it's not.

I've had 7 different fuel injected vehicles with high mileage and never had a failure.

Thinking about all my family and friends I've never known of anyone with an ECU failure.


You bought a DUD! A car that wasn't even running at purchase. It is absolutely no surprise that it didn't last. You get what you pay for.


Modern cars are in fact easier to work on than ever, you just need the correct tools. What would have taken hours to diagnose before is now a simple error code away.

 

[boxerulez]

Again, you are stuck in seeing your own ECU failure as the standard experience, it's not.

I've had 7 different fuel injected vehicles with high mileage and never had a failure.

Thinking about all my family and friends I've never known of anyone with an ECU failure.


You bought a DUD! A car that wasn't even running at purchase. It is absolutely no surprise that it didn't last. You get what you pay for.


Modern cars are in fact easier to work on than ever, you just need the correct tools. What would have taken hours to diagnose before is now a simple error code away.

Ahem,


Only down side on newer cars when it comes to the mechanics point of view is the space under the hood.

I keep banging my fingers open on tin like bare ridges left very sharp combined with limited space under the hood.

 

[Jet-Fighter7700]

Again, you are stuck in seeing your own ECU failure as the standard experience, it's not.

I've had 7 different fuel injected vehicles with high mileage and never had a failure.

Thinking about all my family and friends I've never known of anyone with an ECU failure.


You bought a DUD! A car that wasn't even running at purchase. It is absolutely no surprise that it didn't last. You get what you pay for.


Modern cars are in fact easier to work on than ever, you just need the correct tools. What would have taken hours to diagnose before is now a simple error code away.

100% agree with you;

no question your right I did buy a DUD, and thats how you live and learn;
but my further comment is that its easy nowadays to program this exact fault into a certain batch of cars; very secretly and in hiding;

yes maybe Im a nutter, totally agree there too , but seeing this crop up on many different things not just cars and it just seems connected
I mean french cars fall apart quite quickly, cellphones fall apart quite quickly, ect ect.....

 

[Archer]

but my further comment is that its easy nowadays to program this exact fault into a certain batch of cars; very secretly and in hiding;

yes maybe Im a nutter, totally agree there too , but seeing this crop up on many different things not just cars and it just seems connected
I mean french cars fall apart quite quickly, cellphones fall apart quite quickly, ect ect.....

/giggles

 

[SaiyanZ]

I have a 10 year old car which I've owned for 5 years and I haven't paid a car instalment for almost 4 years. Sticking with my old car has been a lot cheaper. Even if I have a R100k repair, it still works out cheaper. 2005 350z.

 

[boxerulez]

I have a 10 year old car which I've owned for 5 years and I haven't paid a car instalment for almost 4 years. Sticking with my old car has been a lot cheaper. Even if I have a R100k repair, it still works out cheaper. 2005 350z.

Have you done the clutch yet?

I hear that is an expensive pain in the ass...

 

[WaxLyrical]

I still see 19fokofeks Mercs on the road and virtually nothing else from the bygone era.

Modern cars are manufactured to last 5years max. Beyond motor plan anything becomes too costly to fix from your pocket.

Without the individual replacing his car every 5 years how are the manufacturers going to make money from a constant income steam. Imagine if you bought a car and never had to maintain it for 10 years.

 

[boxerulez]

I still see 19fokofeks Mercs on the road and virtually nothing else from the bygone era.

Modern cars are manufactured to last 5years max. Beyond motor plan anything becomes too costly to fix from your pocket.

Without the individual replacing his car every 5 years how are the manufacturers going to make money from a constant income steam. Imagine if you bought a car and never had to maintain it for 10 years.

Dont have to imagine man... just get a old Beetle.

 

[Archer]

Modern cars are manufactured to last 5years max.

Another tinfoil hat customer added to the list

But tell us more how it is cheaper to buy a new car at R60k per year, vs over keen preventative maintenance of R10k per annum. Heck, for R60k you can replace just about anything on a car and have lots of change left over