America too dependent on new cars?

I've never had a problem finding parts for used cars. Before we bought the Prius my wife drove the VW and I had a string of $300 to $1000 cars:

1961 Buick Skylark (Built only 3 years, not popular collector car)
1987 VW Jetta
1990 Ford Ranger
1991 Ford Thunderbird
1993 Dodge Caravan

I did all the service myself and had no problem finding parts from major chains (NAPA, Auto Zone, etc)

The problem in not getting parts, it is that Americans are way too attached to our cars. We feel that they define our image and status to the world. So if the slightest thing goes wrong it is used as an excuse to buy a new car. I know lots of people that think if you have to replace brakes or shocks / struts, the car is "falling apart" and needs to be replaced. One of my coworkers trades cars when the tires need replacement!

Americans are also heavily indebted with no emergency funds to cover repairs. Most would rather buy or lease a car every 3-5 years and have a warranty then set aside a couple of grand in case something breaks.

 

A vibrant auto industry is one of the cornerstones of a healthy economy. It is no coincidence the G8 are made up of auto-producing countries and non auto-producing countries are not included.

 

our economy is simply NOT LIKE OTHER COUNTRIES so a comparison to another country is really a waste of time.

for most of my life, i chose to go from one used junker to another. i fixed them myself and did anywhere from a very good to a piss poor job of doing so. previous to my first Pri, i had actually taken my car to a repair shop one time. that was 1982 was given a $2400 repair estimate... i walked out... went to a junkyard, bought a part for $60... and drilled it here and there, put it on, did not replace several other bushings, etc that were supposed to be replaced.

then drove the car another 20,000 miles and sold it for $200...original purchase price was $400.

also, we have a much greater need for new cars... we cannot recycle used cars because there simply is not a demand for them...

tell me... what other country has the high percentage of 16 year old drivers besides the US... i think you will find we are pretty much unique in this statistic.

so how many people do you feel would be comfortable with their daughter driving a 15 year old vehicle that was not in pretty good condition??? and how much would it cost to get that car in pretty good condition??

 

My son has a 1984 Corolla, I have absolute faith in that car to start and keep going.
I just put a new fuel pump in it, yes I bought a new fuel pump for a 20+ year old car. It took me 14 minutes to fit it, including washing my hands afterwards.
I bought the car from a friend, I have known the history of the car for the last 8 years, it has been a great car and 3 young people learnt to drive in it in that time, my son will be the 4th. He is 16 years old and has had his learners permit since 3 days after his 16th birthday in mid November. As you can imagine it isn't the prettiest car having scored the wounds of those learner drivers, but it has proven so reliable the young lady who reluctantly sold it to me (my best mate's daughter) called it "The Tank" because it is unstoppable!! She said "my friends have nicer looking cars but none of them have a more reliable car." If people would swallow their ego they might find driving an older car is fine.

 

Pat, you are in a completely different situation... so its easy to have older cars in good shape... we have a lot of them too, but we wreck 20 times more cars than you do, we have 10 times the demand for cars than you do, and in several areas of the country, a 20 year car would have been rusted down to the vinyl by now, so its pretty much required that we pump several million new cars on the road every year... we dont do mass transit...

 

people are so interested in maintaining their visible status- why else did the 3-year lease become so popular? a new car every 3 years, payments forever. nobody thinks about the payments, they just see you + brand new shiny thing and think you're doing pretty damned well for yourself. now everyone knows their neighbors are just as screwed as they are so there's less point to showing off.

there are lots of mechanics out there buying cheap cars for $200-300 and keeping them going. they use the money they didn't spend on the car to buy tools you think i'm kidding, but i'm not. we have gotten by on ubercheap 87-91 camrys for ages, usually zeroed out operating costs when we sold em, usually sold em because DH wanted another car that needed some work or we needed a couple bucks.

planned obsolescence is a factor, too- i have a friend who started thinking about a new car simply because hers was 4 years old. (omg! gonna fall right apart!) meanwhile, i know several people who buy new cars every few years, seems just as they finish their payments on the hyperextended 6.5-or-some-other-ridiculous-number year loan term, something major has gone wrong and the car as 120k miles on it, and rather than spend 3 more car payments on fixing it, they'd much rather spend another 150 car payments on another car...

 

Well, the people trading in those 4 year old and 120 k mile cars because they're falling apart probably didn't buy a Toyota to begin with. So maybe their cars *are* falling apart.

I think it's been a vicious circle. I think the auto makers started building in obsolescence because people were trading in cars every three years and so they didn't feel the need to make a car that could last a decade or several hundred thousand miles. And now their reputation is that of a car company that can't build a car that lasts more than a few years or over 100 k miles (if that). Plus many break-downs, shop repairs and poor performance. (And personally, I don't want to drive a truck or an SUV, so not much left to choose from for me.)

I always kept my cars and when they reached their terrible teens put the money in to fix them. 10 years is my average, although I usually don't put much mileage on mine. My 2005 Prius isn't quite at 35,000 yet.

But I'll be making an exception. I'll be selling my 2005 (that is now paid off) and using the money to buy a 2009. That may be my retirement car. It will have to last 10 years or more. I'm doing this because I cannot stand the newly designed interior of the 2010 Prius. It's a deal breaker for me. So in order to own a Prius, I'll need to get a 2009. Yes, I could just keep my 2005, but it has HOV stickers so if I sell it now, I can cash in on those. They're good for two more years.