Running older cars verses new

[Welly]

Over xmas I got chatting to various folk about motoring and something occurred to me that I hadn't really thought of.

There's a sort of 'sweet spot' in manufacturing between say 1998 and 2004-ish where cars were reliable enough to be used as daily's but also simple enough to self-maintain to a reasonable degree. After this time and certainly towards 2010 this is not the case so much.

In particular (and unless it's scaremongery) new cars 'infotainment' modules, touchscreens and driver interfaces may all fall subject to manufacturers restrictions or even discontinued support (much like ageing mobile phones and computer operating systems etc).

So what does it mean for a potential buyer today of something like a 2010 - 2012 car with over 100K miles and packed full of gadgets? would you be buying a potentially obsolete machine with dealer-only problems, or un-fixable problems? will there be a growth in specialists who can bypass or maintain these 'interfaces' between driver and mechanicals?

Will we be forced in future to go down the Leasing route as the only reliable form of motoring? but then what happens to older cars?

Or is this all just good progress and these new electronics are actually very robust?

Just throwing this up for opinions?

[Doggy]

I've pondered this one too, but remember there being similar concerns about new 'tech' as fitted to cars of the 80's & 90's only to find new work-arounds appear, (like swapping the engine ecu/BSI/ transponder for <£100 if any of them die).
My guess is necessity-fueled inventiveness will win in the end, but pioneers will inevitably wind up with an arse-full of arrows.

[Welly]

I guess you're right in that someone will find a way to interact with the electronics, it might even get easier as tech moves on? I suppose even if you dismantled a 2001 406's electronics there'll be a frightening amount of components and circuit boards but it all seems to work ok.

I can definitely see a potential for current car tech to 'require updating' or be 'no longer supported' in an effort to encourage purchasing the next newest model...just look at how everyone wets themselves at the latest i-Phone models and suddenly overnight your old phone is more or less scrap.

[grasmere59]

I keep thinking of upgrading to a "newer" car but my mate runs a garage and the repair bills for the simplest of things on "newer" cars scares the pants off me,he had a 1.6hdi 508 estate in last week with a duff injector and the bill with a new injector and coding was nearly £400,this is the second injector it has had and it's only done 46k miles from new.I simply could not afford the bills a "newer" car would demand.

[Doggy]

I hear what you're saying, but the 2nd hand set of injectors I put in my previous 406 cost me £200 IIRC and I'm sure others have done it for less, once the know-how gets around.

On the coupe forum about 5 years ago, one guy with a diesel coupe suffering the now well understood transient over-boost issue wound up paying about £800 for a DPF & fluid refill it didn't need, followed by an unnecessary £1500 turbo replacement only to find after about 2 years that he really needed a £5 vacuum reservoir.

The cumulative knowledge of resources like this forum is what makes maintaining our cars affordable. I reckon 407 owners won't be far behind (if at all), and in a year or two, (when they're cheap enough for misers like us), we'll learn 508's.

[Welly]

only to find after about 2 years that he really needed a £5 vacuum reservoir.

FFS

I still believe that most car problems are actually very simple at heart, take our* C4 for example; when these cars were new the climate control air-direction flap would fail so you couldn't direct the airflow anywhere. This was due to a plastic 'quadrant' and its square* drive shaft rounding off. The original fix was a circa £1,000.00 dash-out full monty but over a couple of years the 'dirty fix' was a £16.00 part off of ebay and 30 mins work for a numpty at home.

Certainly though the increasing emissions controls and touchscreen technology make the car more complex and likely to go wrong at some point.

Grasmere's injector story is worrying, I mean why replace only 2 injectors and at separate times? that IS a costly fix*.

Can HDi piezoelectric injectors be cleaned/refurbed in any way?

[steve_earwig]

They can be cleaned but I don't know if anyone can rebuild them to eliminate the rattling.

Grasmere's injector story is worrying, I mean why replace only 2 injectors and at separate times? that IS a costly fix*.

it's only done 46k miles from new

I'd hope that, at that mileage, an injector packing up would just be bad luck and just replace it in the belief that this would be an end to the problem. After the second one though, I'd start thinking about replacing all of them/cutting my losses and shifting it on/setting fire to it.

Cars are more and more being built to survive only as long as the warranty, just like any other domestic appliance. Not only this but manufacturers are filling them with more and more electronic baubles to entice owners to upgrade. I suspectz there will be enthusiasts about to keep some of these cars going, there will be workarounds for a lot of problems, some of which will be removing a lot of unnecessary garbage as it fails.

[Welly]

some of which will be removing a lot of unnecessary garbage as it fails.

Image source: http://da-lesautobody.com/

[Bailes1992]

I remember buying my Mondeo and pooping my pants over all the technology. However, 5 years after I bought it there's an unreal amount of information and walk-throughs about.

My current focus being primarily American, people are already hacking the chopping about with all the computers.

It's a rolling issue that sorts itself out as cars get older.

[steve_earwig]

some of which will be removing a lot of unnecessary garbage as it fails.

Image


Image source: http://da-lesautobody.com/

More like


Image sauce. T'interwebs

No, I mean all the masses of electronic nonsense.

[OllieNZ]

some of which will be removing a lot of unnecessary garbage as it fails.

Image


Image source: http://da-lesautobody.com/

More like


Image sauce. T'interwebs

No, I mean all the masses of electronic nonsense.

The way cars are going if you remove all the leccy junk you'll be left with nowt but 4 tyres.

I think the quality of the electronics has alot to do with it.

[Doggy]

The way cars are going if you remove all the leccy junk you'll be left with nowt but 4 flat tyres.

FTFY

[steve_earwig]

Brrrum rrrrrrum rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreh eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! rrrrrrrrruh, rrrrrrrrrrrrrh rrrrrrrrrrrrruuuuuuuum-rumrumrumrum scrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!-beeeeeep! antipolution system fault.

[Welly]

Is that the top of the range model with air con?

[steve_earwig]

Top of the range! No fake wood there

Btw I took that picture in 2015, I went there a few weeks back to see how it was doing but it's been stolen