What percentage of 20 year old cars are on the road?
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From: mark hoffman on 29 Oct 2009 01:05 Hachiroku ハチロク wrote: > C. E. White wrote: >> A Toyota commercial they are running in my area claims that 80% of >> all Toyota sold in the last 20 years are still on the road. > > And I personally own about half of them... I have driven my 98 Toyota Avalon more this week, than my almost new 09 Kia. But the Kia is probably going on a road trip to SC in November. The Avalon, I just bought last Saturday... hopped in it, and proceeded to drive it 30 some odd miles from SE OK to SW AR where I live. Stereo, cruise, a/c all work, and its only got 163,000 miles on it. Its status will be a daily driver/errand runner to keep miles off the new Kia.
From: Jules on 29 Oct 2009 08:31 On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:37:57 -0600, Vic Smith wrote: > I'm a Chevy fan, but I buy used and know what I'm getting. > Spend very little per mile driven. > I'm sure the same can be done with Fords, but I don't know them. > But if I were to buy new, I might go for a Toyota or Honda. > Probably feel more secure about getting good engineering and a company > that stands behind their cars, and also because the Chevys are > foreign-built. I don't like sending money over the border. If you always buy used it's not sending money over the border, regardless of what you get - or at least that's how I look at it.
From: Jules on 29 Oct 2009 08:46 On Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:05:57 -0500, mark hoffman wrote: > The Avalon, I just bought last Saturday... hopped in it, and proceeded to > drive it 30 some odd miles from SE OK to SW AR where I live. Stereo, cruise, > a/c all work, and its only got 163,000 miles on it. That's about the mileage and age of my wife's (the one with the odd vibration issue, if you're picking this up on rec.autos.tech). Other than the vibration fault it's got a few other issues, but nothing major - although the timing belt's up for renewal and I may as well do the water pump while I'm at it. As it's still on the original alternator / battery / exhaust I wouldn't be surprised if they don't need replacing in the next few years. I'm (surprisingly) impressed with it. I don't normally have much time for vehicles newer than the 1970s - generally I've found newer stuff to be no more reliable (assuming the older stuff's well-maintained) and an expensive PITA to fix when it does break. Given the Winters and some of the bad roads up here in northern MN (and that the wife puts 100 miles a day on it) it's doing really well. cheers Jules
From: Steve on 29 Oct 2009 10:47 Jules wrote: > On Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:55:36 +0000, David wrote: > >> Here in the UK the Government is trying to get older cars off the road. >> If you buy a new car and scrap your present one of 10 years or older they >> give you £2000. I think in Europe is £3000 ( in Euros of course.) > > Same sort of deal here in the US. Shame as I'm sure it's not very > eco-friendly extracting materials, processing, building and shipping a new > car vs. just keeping a properly-maintained old one on the road,. Exactly, but when owners take care of their cars, the government doesn't get to spend like a drunken sailor and then claim "we're DOING something!!!" I read an article the other day about the backlog of vehicles waiting to be destroyed under "cash for clunkers." The recyclers are working double shifts to try and get all the parts that are allowed to be recycled removed from the cars (the government STUPIDLY is requiring the engines to be needlessly destroyed). That includes everything from transmissions, to power steering pumps, to suspension, manifolds, accessories, servos, wheels, window glass, instruments, electronics, you name it. Countless pieces that could be used to keep other cars running better and cleaner- but the whole vehicle has to be shredded within a certain time window, and most of those parts are not going to be removed in time and will also be destroyed. What a sad waste of time, resources, energy, and already-expended pollution from making those parts that won't get sucked back into smokestacks when the parts are destroyed. Quite the contrary, melting them down and re-using them at the lowest level will emit *still more*. Pathetic.
From: Steve on 29 Oct 2009 10:51
Tegger wrote: > "C. E. White" <cewhite3(a)removemindspring.com> wrote in news:4ae70c7c$1 > @kcnews01: > >> A Toyota commercial they are running in my area claims that 80% of all >> Toyota sold in the last 20 years are still on the road. This seemed to >> be a very low number to me. What do other think? >> > > > I guess it depends where you live. In my area (the Rust Belt of north- > eastern North America), Toyota's number seems impossibly high, unless that > missing 20% is all concentrated up here. > Well, there to a first approximation there are about as many Toyotas in the junkyards I prowl for parts here in Texas as there are any other brand. And this sure isn't the rust belt.... |