Exactly. Or even better yet, just get the things professionally rebuilt. Like that episode of Wheeler Dealers with the VW Corrado. The ABS module went out because of internal corrosion due to a cracked plastic housing above the circuit boards. A brand-new unit was hard enough to find, and was something like £800 from VW. But they took the module to a rebuilder who exchanged their unit for a rebuilt one with a lifetime warranty for only £150 or so. It was a huge price savings, not to mention that it came with both a longer warranty and was readily available.Originally Posted by sdg3205
The problem with everything here in these situations is this:
The car manufacturers can't be expected to supply parts forever for a vehicle they make. Even years after production has ended.
Reproduction or remanufactured parts can easily be used to keep the vehicle on the road, but an officially licensed service center may not be able to install a non-certified by the manufacturer part depending upon what their contractual obligations and/or policies are.
Then you have some customers who have this whole fear of used/remanufactured parts and will not accept them as replacement parts.
So then the blame falls back upon the manufacturer.
It gets worse too when you have a reporter who is trying to sensationalize the story. They find this old mechanic and tell him, "Go find us a brand-new in the box NOS replacement part." He either isn't allowed to, or doesn't even bother to explore the remanufactured OEM parts sellers who actually have usable replacement parts in stock. Mechanic as a result says that he cannot locate the part. News story editor twists this into fear mongering that it is now impossible to keep the vehicle on the road by conveniently omitting the possibility of aftermarket, and/or remanufactured parts.
Did Ford have brand-new modules sitting on the shelf? No. Did AutoZone have compatible aftermarket modules available on their shelves that would have worked? Yes! But if they'd have brought that up, it would have ruined the sensationalism of their story.
Same thing with Farrar's PT Cruiser. If Farrar had done the work himself, or taken the car to an independent shop, the diagnosis would have been the same of course, but the car would have been repaired much faster. Why? Because they would have instead just used a remanufactured part and he'd have been back on the road in a couple of days.
Even giving the benefit of the doubt to car manufactures, the average lifespan of an automobile used to be about 8 years. I say "used to be" because back in 2006 or so before the economy tanked, the buying public had allot more cash and would rotate vehicles out of their garages far more often. Manufacturers now are trying to cite improvements to engineering and technology and have moved the lifespan up to around 10 years. But in truth thanks to a mix of a poor economy and a severely depleted used car market, the average age of vehicles on the road is now up to 11.5 exceeding that 10-year estimate from the manufacturers.
And those are just the averages. According to a 2015 study there are over 14 million vehicles on the road right now that are over 25 years old, and another 44 million that are between 16 to 24 years old.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/...-too/30821191/
So you know that as time passes, these numbers are just going to shoot up higher and higher. But the key to keeping cars on the road will be DIY repairs and independent shops. Because dealers will eventually just stop refusing to service these cars. Doesn't mean that they're bad cars, nor that the manufacturers are not standing behind their product. It just means that you've got to put the work in to repairing and maintaining the cars yourself.
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