Word I've read is "auction" buy the dealers ... no markups ... whatever the market will bear

 

You miss my whole point. Not worth typing anymore.

 

I understand your point .... sometimes ppl can't see the whole picture through the trees ... Your right about parts. For example,
if a part of your radio broke, they cant exactly put in a new vacuum tube so they replace the a "board". Now they probably just trash the whole radio because who fixes radios anymore?

The more complex things becomes, its much harder to fix. They aint mechanics anymore but computer technicians and will tell you, that can be FAR more complex than you can imagine. Pretty soon they won't fix parts but just junk the car

KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) does work.

 

Exactly thank you no one in their right mind will spend $4000 fixing a car w/a resale value of $3000 so they trash the car. Maybe they can't afford a new one but they will take that $4000 & buy a used one thus leading to less & less older cars on the road. I can't think of much I can replace on my Mini for $100 (the cost of my Ford rebuilt carburetor).

Ok I thought of 1 thing. I can buy a new cupholder for $60

 

Your exactly right ... just take a look at parking lots with lots of cars ... how many early 1990s do you see? very few here.

Dont know how old you are but if you can think back to just the early 70s, how many early 60s would you see ... MANY.

 

The roadster certainly didn't start with the Miata, but it did revive it in a big way... I'm actually not sure what Japan has given the world in terms of bringing to mkt a unique type of vehicle... Maybe the econ box, but several European makers were doing so previously...

And while already corrected earlier, the SUV arose in the US, and prior to that, the still popular minivan (Chrysler, I believe) began here. The pick-up truck also is still very much uniquely American made, but that's been changing over time... The large vans (think Econoline) are American as well... Dying breeds today, for obvious reasons... but born here.

To the original topic... while the methods (surveys) might not be ideal, and possibly flawed, so long as they are consistenlty so, or universally applied to the various makes/models, I find the output to be meaninful, and of value.

 

Our cars wouldn't, no couldn't get the power they do without computer control. The computer doesn't make the car more failure prone, it's the complexity that is added for features we all now take for granted.

You want a simple car with EFI? Get an old car, and go to www.megasquirt.info, and roll your own EFI. Tune it yourself, even. But give up the ABS, the traction control, the dynamic stabillity control, the elelctronic locks and windows, seat belt sensors, speed sensitive windshield washers and on and on and on.... Then you'll get a pretty bullitproof car.

If you look at defect rates per 100 cars, it's been going down (though not as fast as initially), with better systems being countered with increased complexity.

May not like it, but that's the way it is.

Matt