Quote:
Originally Posted by victorgte
You make some good points. Also rot due to age is a factor. A lot of cars from the 60’s have now had some serious restoration to mitigate the tin worm. The 75 and ZT whilst holding up well, have some poor examples which make them uneconomical to repair. I’ve just scrapped one that was terminal. There are always going to be poor ones but their numbers are slowly growing. I decided that my MG TF would be my final “older” car. From now on it’s modern bland or a very well restored classic.
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Our cars are moving into that period where those of the 60s were thinned out, with remaining becoming restored and classic. Those scrapped siblings of those classics we see now, would have been scrapped because of ignorance, or neglect that allowed rust or mechanical failures to be an issue.
Our cars, along with other 'modern cars' destined to become classic (from the late 90s on), no longer are scrapped because of rust (visible at least), or to a lesser extent of mechanical failure but from electronic failure. The cost of replacement sensors and lack of knowledge/ability to repair said components being the deciding factors - you cannot just swap out an ECU from one in a scrapyard.
The other 'thing' that wasnt around 25 years ago, removing most of the other hindrance that caused cars to fall into disrepair - the internet. With the internet and multitude of magazines available, that almost eliminates the issue of ignorance.
The internet however brings forward new reasons to scrap or get rid of cars. Status, fashion and being influenced by advertising and others. Laziness and an expected instant gratification (entitlement) means that 'someone else can do it', therefore cars have become disposable (as most everything else we have). When was the last time you had a television repaired? Replace and move on ..... cars are now the same - because that knowledge is neither available nor affordable to utilise.
I am quite happy to do the work myself, I always wanted to, but never had the opportunity, so now I can challenge myself and hopefully get that satisfaction of seeing something work that previously was dead. But that is my attitude whilst I am able.