Hypothetical question

"PartyPooper2012" (PartyPooper2012)
05/08/2020 at 05:34 • Filed to: None

Do you think in 20-30 years you will be wrenching on Mclarrens and Lambos you picked up cheap on craigslist?

I have a sneaky suspicion those aren’t really cars (as we know them). They are more of Windows 95 with 4 wheels and a combustion engine.

Format the hard drive, stick some plastic bits into Hydrogen Peroxide to get the yellowing out and back to work it goes?

Am I an old man who yells at cloud?

DISCUSSION (17)

duurtlang > PartyPooper2012
05/08/2020 at 05:57

We aren’t wrenching on 1990-2000 Ferraris and Lambos either, are we?

But I do see your point. I expect car culture to shrink and become much m ore niche than it is today. I personally don’t care for modern cars at all, they either have no character at all or it is fake. Engine noise from the speakers , artificial heavy steering, sound engineered pops from the exhaust. That the wrenching potential is de creasing dramatically due to ca rs getting much more complex is not helping either.

I do wonder what will happen during our transition away from gasoline/diesel. I am very curious about this. Not very hopeful as a car enthusiasts who likes light weight analog cars, but very curious none the less.

pip bip - choose Corrour > PartyPooper2012
05/08/2020 at 06:17

unlikely as they’ll never be that cheap

PartyPooper2012 > pip bip - choose Corrour
05/08/2020 at 06:32

I kind of disagree there.

I had a flat tire one day. I popped into what appeared to be a garage... just to see if they could help me patch up the tire. In the garage were a bunch of lambos. I jokingly said, keep the car with the flat and gimme one of them lambos.

To my surprise, guy said - yeah. pick one and go. They all have frame damage.

I think they have fiberglass or some other non metal frame so once damaged, it’s done done.

Under_Score > PartyPooper2012
05/08/2020 at 06:48

We like to think that cars last longer, but some vehicles with permanent flaws (ex. Newer Ford Focus) will probably be gone by 2040. As for luxury/exotic cars, it’ll all depend on what people want. I’d expect Tesla’s to shoot through the roof in value ($250,000 Model S with 5,000 miles) because so many people aspire to own those today . It’s what’s going on now with the 80’s and 90’s sporty cars Boomers dismissed as crap.

PartyPooper2012 > Under_Score
05/08/2020 at 07:11

Do you think boomers dismissed them as crap because they were too expensive?

Boomers never said no to Corvettes, Chevelles and Mustangs.

I honestly don’t know. Maybe they were crap compared to other cars of the time

interstate366, now In The Industry > PartyPooper2012
05/08/2020 at 07:41

I think there will be a shift to where you’ll have to either learn to work with the computers in order to work on a particular car, or figure out how to bypass them. Obviously now you already somewhat need to do that when tuning, but in the future it’ll be more of a necessity for general work.

My bird IS the word > PartyPooper2012
05/08/2020 at 07:58

No, those will still be out of range. However, I think many modern “supercars” will massively depreciate due to oversaturation. They are not going to be cheap to work on.

CalzoneGolem > PartyPooper2012
05/08/2020 at 08:00

I hope to wrenching on the cars I own right now in 20-30 years but that probably won’t happen with Forest. Maybe Rat-L -T rap will be on the road by then?

jimz > PartyPooper2012
05/08/2020 at 08:08

no because repair parts are likely to be almost impossible to find. When you have something like a Focus where millions were made for years, the aftermarket offers repair parts because people need to keep those cars running. Supercars are expensive throwaways.

PartyPooper2012 > My bird IS the word
05/08/2020 at 08:10

They might never be cheap to work on, but like you said, they will depreciate enough to be within reach. Samcrac on Y ou T ube picked up a fancy Maserati for less than 10K with some door damage. Some other damage but nothing crazy.

Sure. It’s done at a salvage auction etc, but the point is, he will fix it up and probably sell it under 20K. That’s within reach. Do I want a M aserati? No. I don’t so supply and demand say that if there are people like me, that car will continue to drop in price.

PartyPooper2012 > jimz
05/08/2020 at 08:13

Back in 70s and 80s there were expensive supercars and they survived. As hard as it is to find parts, they are found.

I think mechanical parts will be made either by manufacturers or by after market chinese factories. However, I think because they are getting more and more complex, shade tree mechanics won’t know how to ALT CTRL DEL these.

My bird IS the word > PartyPooper2012
05/08/2020 at 08:20

The car might be within reach, but the maintenance is not when any part that fails is upwards of 1000$

Under_Score > PartyPooper2012
05/08/2020 at 08:40

I was meaning that when they were new/slightly used, Boomers didn’t gravitate towards them, resulting in depressed values. Now, Gen X’ers and millennials are driving up the prices of those 80’s and 90’s cars because they want them.

I know there are some exceptions, but I don’t know of many people born beyond 1990 that are interested in restoring 60’s Chevy’s. There are a lot of younger people, however, that modify mid-1990’s to now BMW’s, Infiniti’s, Subaru’s, you name it.

SilentButNotReallyDeadly...killed by G/O Media > PartyPooper2012
05/08/2020 at 08:43

Disposable. Razors. Are. Disposable.

jimz > PartyPooper2012
05/08/2020 at 08:51

Back in 70s and 80s there were expensive supercars and they su rvived.

the vast majority of those have hardly been driven. even today most of their travel is just from auction to auction and to one rich guy’s climate controlled garage to another’s.

jimz > Under_Score
05/08/2020 at 09:28

to be fair there wasn’t much worth preserving from that era until the late ‘80s, and us Gen Xers are busy hyperinflating the values of Supras, Integras, etc. the same way Boomers did muscle cars.

that’s why I think the “Radwood” thing is kind of silly. I grew up around those piece of shit cars, and I don’t really feel any nostalgia towards most of them. That is, outside of anything like a GM F-body or Fox Ford which is still easy to mod and get stupid power out of.

jimz > Under_Score
05/08/2020 at 09:31

I dunno, I’m kind of in that gen X cohort “in the middle.” we clung to ‘60s and ‘70s muscle cars too because we grew up with malaise-era crap. people a bit younger than me were there for the resurgance of performance cars starting in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.

you have no idea how fucking fast the Mustang GT felt to us when it got bumped to 225 hp after years of being in nothing other than smog-choked barges or wheezy 4-banger K-cars.