Car life.

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Fri 4 Jan 2002 22:18
Car life. - Tomo
Judging from many posts, If you only do long enough journeys often enough the car will last for ever.

But that is not practical politics for those of us whose needs (apart from joyous if illegal blasts) are occasional shopping trips or taking SWMBO to medical appointments and things - and who pay for our own petrol.

There must be some mileage at which a car which has done short runs is a better bet than one which has done 200,000 on motorways. 5 miles? 500 miles? 5,000 miles? 50,000 miles?.....

Or when it comes to disposing, should one indulge in "positive clocking"?
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Sat 5 Jan 2002 10:02
Re: Car life. - Moosh
Perhaps in the future cars will have a 'black box' to record all the activities of the car e.g. how many cold starts, hours on the engine etc. etc.

The mileage not would not be as revelent then.
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Sat 5 Jan 2002 10:28
Re: Car life. - Alwyn
Yes, I still have a problem with buying high mileage cars, having been brought up in the times when a car which had done 40,000 miles was high mileage.

A friend bought a Volvo estate recently with 105,000 on the clock and I could not understand why. This was a similar mileage to his then current car.

It's OK for those " in the know" to buy with high miles but just try selling it after a couple of years.

BTW my current brummer has 117,000 up and runs like a watch. Volvo 740. It had 40,000 when I bought it from a fleet auction.
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Sat 5 Jan 2002 22:31
Re: Car life. - Honest John
In answer to Moosh, the Mercedes Assyst service indicator does work a bit like this.

HJ
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Sun 6 Jan 2002 12:33
Re: Car life. - peter
In the future, car life will not be limited by mechanicals, or even by rust and corrosion, see previous posts about out of date airbags at about 12-14 yrs
.
When (not if) this becomes an MoT item people will be throwing away perfectly usable but 'unsafe' vehicles since the costs of replacement will easily exceed the value of the vehicle. Insurers will probably get in on the act to.

I suppose the answer is to start collecting existing pre 72 classics now, at least they are repairable. My version of Bangereconomics has an element of if there are enough parked outside, one will start!

Must go, got get the welding kit out....
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