From: jgd@dixie.com (John De Armond)
Subject: Car life (was Re: Oil Priming System
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 92 07:13:36 GMT
Organization: Dixie Communications Public Access.  The Mouth of the South.

vbreault@rinhp750.gmr.com (Val Breault) writes:

>Let's take a moment to consider what you're attempting to do....  If I 
>understand correctly (not always a given), you want to extend the life
>of your bearings beyond the 150,000 - 300,000 miles that normal routine
>service will provide you.  Ask yourself "why?".  Suppose you did, somehow,
>personally, actually put over 150,000 miles on a car and kept in near new 
>condition.  First off, you'd be a RARE BIRD, indeed.  That kind of 
>determination and patience is not seen very often.  It's rare enough
>that some would call it an obsession.  You'd be suffering through countless
>repair sessions as various items wore out, rusted through or failed 
>through metal fatigue.  You'd have replaced the upholestry and carpets
>at least once and possibly even a trip or two through the paint booth.
>A rigourous preventive maintenance schedule can extend the life of some
>items, but stress cracks at the spring mounts and a host of other failure
>modes are darned hard to prevent.

Sorry Val but I have to disagree.  Maybe Detroit junk made a decade ago
would fall apart from stress cracks and general deterioration (My 79 El Camino 
certainly has kinda fallen apart everywhere) but certainly not better built 
cars.  My daily driver is a 75 280Z with a touch over 300k  miles on it.
With the exception of the engine that I pulled at 260k in order to 
drop in a turbo motor, everything is original.  All axles, bearings,
mounts, bushings, everything is stock and for the most part, still in
good shape.  The rubber suspension parts are due for replacement but I
think I can swing that.  Even the clutch is original.  Brakes have been 
overhauled a couple of times.  I've not even popped the grease caps
on the front spindles in 200k miles.  

yep, it's been reupholstered and painted twice and it's had several
stereos.  But you know what I figured out a long time ago?  I figured
out that if I took that, oh, $150 a month or so I paid in car payments
and continued paying it into a saving account after the car was paid 
for, I could do a LOT to keep the car running and still be dollars
ahead.  Thousands of dollars ahead.  Paid cash for my wife's car using
the surplus from that account.  Even including the paint and 
upholstery bills, I've averaged less than $300 a year in repair costs.

Meanwhile my insurance is nothing, my ad valorem tax is nothing and
I have little to worry about regarding theft.  Except that now I'm
driving a budding classic.

>You may really like the car you currently own and plan to keep it on the
>road "forever", but most people (perhaps even you) get tired of their
>daily driver well before the first 100 grand.  

Tired?  Hell, I like my classics more and more every time I see what passes
for styling coming out of ALL the factories today.  And the one or two times
a year when I start wondering what an appliance car would be like to own,
I look at my wife's 91 Camry and contemplate what all that plastic,
beer-can-thin sheet metal and electronics would cost to fix and shudder.

My next "new car" will be either a restored 57 Chevy Belair convertable
or a restored 59 Caddy, whichever I find first.  I'll pay cash for it
out of my maintenance account and drive it for another half million 
miles.

Fanatic?  Don't think so.  Just interested in doing something more
than operating a 4 wheel transportation appliance.  And interested in
having a car that my 6'7" frame will fit comfortably in.  Wanna see
the 4" of head room I have when I sit in my 68 Fury?

John
-- 
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