Is the whole car ownership game taking on a different character? It seems that
(a) the buying public has to be continually fed trendy new models so that the big makers can keep their production lines running cost-effectively;
(b) at the other end, regulation and the effect of (a) mean that cars 8 or more years old are almost worthless. For some models this is not much longer than the original warranty. As the perceived life of a car shrinks, will typical owners see it as less worthwhile spending to maintain cars? Soon we shall have to copy the Japanese and export old vehicles just to move them on.
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All a question of economics. We are financially better of than at any time in history, and the average person has a standard of living that would have been considered luxurious even 25 years ago. With more money to spend we do not keep consumer goods till they are no longer usable, we change them in order to keep up with the latest technology.
This applies to TV's, Hi-Fi's, computers and anything else you may care to think of. Manufacturers merely produce new models to satisfy demand, production is consumer led.
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Tom is right. Where would all those jobs go if everybody hung on to their old model of anything? Growlette buys a new cellphone this week (does every year), for absolutely no other reason than well babes, Rose has the new Nokia and mine is looking old (forget the logic here, there isn't!) We've got at least 4 unwanted but usable "old" phones languishing in the bottom drawer.
Now you have the problem of what do you do with the (not very and still working) old phones, cars, w.h.y? You can dump them on third world markets (like here where there must be more 5 year old Korean SUV's running around than anywhere I've ever been) or....what? Take 'em apart for parts? Not really, 'cos everyone's got a new one and it don't need any parts.
This is why manufacturers are running out of ways to make cars look different so they all look the same. Mercedes 320 in my next street looks just like the Toyota Corolla next to it only bigger.
It's all a bit mind-numbing really, so I think I'll go and get another coldie from the fridge. Actually I think it's time we changed that as well, it's nearly 3 years old....
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I find it ironical that at a time when we're constantly being urged to recycle everything and consider the environment, perfectly serviceable cars are being dumped because their value is less than the cost of repairing them. Don't hear the government doing much about this ?
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I think it was GM in the 1930s Depression that came up with the idea of changing your car every three years and encouraged consumers to do so with attractive finance deals.
Incidentally microchips from all kinds of products can be reused, sometimes in quite different products. I read somewhere that in recent years NASA has been the world's biggest buyer of used microchips in an effort to keep their 1980s equipment going. But maybe we'd better not go there.
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Alfred P. Sloan and Jack Welch and heirs, in that case you have a lot to answer for. Certainly I noticed a goodly number of dumped and vandalized cars last month in E. Anglia and I wonder how the authorities deal with this. It is a surprise to me, for living in an LDC as I do absolutely everything is reused in some form or another (unless you count the McDo styrofoams which are hurled in your face out of the school bus as you ride your motorcycle).
Yes the goalposts are definitely moving faster. My Kenwood surround system I bought 13 months ago won't play CD's I burn on my PC. Well sir that's because it is an old model...
Makes you wonder how long before your car's ECU or something croaks in a metallic voice "we hope you have enjoyed your driving experience with ******. Please note your vehicle life has 30 days left before it expires. Please visit your dealer soon to purchase a replacement......"
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Old cars vans and trucks from the UK are already finding an export market,the cars and vans tend to be the Japanese brands and the trucks seem to be Mercedes Benz with the odd other thing dumped in with them.
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You can make a beer last 3 years? Awesome self control.
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Naw
Its Grolsch. they only let you drink it when its ready!
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Growler - maybe I should, but when I change cars I have absolutely no consideration of whether jobs are being affected - though that may be because I haven't yet owned a brand-new vehicle.
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Andrew I am not prescribing, merely ruminating tongue in cheek. Sometimes I think Britain has become so New Labour it has lost its sense of humour LOL. Nobody laughs any more. Or is it me?
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We laugh, but not in public. You have to pay a tax for laughing in public. Or it might be an emissions charge. Not allowed to call it tax any more......
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Laugh? With this weather. Try to show a little understanding Growler.Its cold, its miserable and its February. Meanwhile, Gordon brown plots quietly to remove more of our cash by indirect taxation. Tony Blur, on the other hand, is plotting to spend it all bombing Iraq. All you've got to worry about is if your San Miguel is at the correct temperature.
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Of course I should know better and be less thoughtless. Please accept my apologies. It must be the heat. I've been sitting out in the yard tonight with 16 Harleys lined up outside my house while the girls made pulutan for the boys (Bafta will know what that is). Despite the sun having gone down it's still 26 C. It's not that easy, you know dealing with this. Actually my San Miguel is not at the correct temperature, that is making me irritable and that is why I am considering changing my fridge (back to point of thread). G wants one with that thing where you get ice in your glass, know what I mean?
Her Lynx aircon isn't cooling at all well either. Must have that checked. perhaps we should change the car, it's already 11 months old and there's probably a new version out.
LOL......
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The Lynx is a funny car; it looks like the illegitimate offspring of a Focus saloon and a Rover 45. Pretty it ain't.
I've never seen one in real life; I imagine it's based on the Mazda 323 platform though.
www.ford.com.ph/lynx/default.asp?sectag=vehicle&ca...7 if anyone else is curious.
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