Any GTAM'ers own an electric vehicle?

[Brian P]

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I was all set to write a diatribe about how they just don't make 'em like they used to, but then I Googled "registered vehicle average age". Turns out vehicle average age on the road has increased steadily since the '70s, from around 7 years then to a record of over 12 years in the US and 10 years in Canada now.

Counterintuitive, but maybe it's just a sign that a 12-year-old car doesn't look so old to my aging eyes as it did when I was 15.

Still, with all the various sealed unit components, LED headlights included, it's definitely got to be worse for a shade tree mechanic. I look around in my last few vehicles, and screens have come to dominate critical components like HVAC, audio and even the dash cluster. Time will tell how long they last and how easily replacement parts can be sourced for stuff like that, and I suspect that number will drop as all the '90s/'00s Civics and Corollas finally breathe their last...

In the 1970s and 1980s, cars went to the junkyard with fenders flapping in the breeze and holes in the rocker panels, and often with wafts of blue smoke coming from the exhaust. That sometimes still happens, not as often (corrosion protection and paint technology has advanced enormously). Now, an awful lot of cars go to the junkyard still looking pretty good, but in need of (for example) a control module that costs $1000 if you can find one that still works but which isn't available from the original manufacturer. And it probably needs that module because of a bad internal solder joint, or a blown capacitor on the circuit board.

For some really popular cars with known electronic issues, there are places that specialise in fixing electronic components.

 

[FullMotoJacket]

Original Tesla Founder Is Sad That Musk Made a 'Truck That Looks Like a Dumpster'

Shots fired from the real co-founder.

gizmodo.com

 

[nobbie48]

In the 1970s and 1980s, cars went to the junkyard with fenders flapping in the breeze and holes in the rocker panels, and often with wafts of blue smoke coming from the exhaust. That sometimes still happens, not as often (corrosion protection and paint technology has advanced enormously). Now, an awful lot of cars go to the junkyard still looking pretty good, but in need of (for example) a control module that costs $1000 if you can find one that still works but which isn't available from the original manufacturer. And it probably needs that module because of a bad internal solder joint, or a blown capacitor on the circuit board.

For some really popular cars with known electronic issues, there are places that specialise in fixing electronic components.

Scrapping a car over a head gasket seems ridiculous but when it's several thousand because the vehicle has to be dismantled to get at the gasket it hurts.

Even new modules have issues and there was no guarantee on Goldwing Reg / Recs from Honda. At $400 a pop, alternator conversions were attractive. Being sealed in epoxy there isn't an easy fix. I was told some outboard motor reg / recs were being repaired by some wizard but never got a name.

LED taillights $400 to $1200.

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