"Tony Polson" wrote in message
...
"Recliner" wrote:

I agree that cars do have a much shorter design life, but it's
certainly
more than five years and 60k miles.


It might be longer now, but it certainly wasn't in the 1960s. Ford
used
5 years and 60,000 miles as their yardstick; the Austin/Morris Mini
was
designed for 5 years but only 45,000 miles. I got that information
from
a lifelong friend who worked for British Leyland/Austin Rover and is
currently at Ford, and whose father worked at Ford in the 1950s and
60s
and helped design the Cortina Mk1 and Mk2.

Well, I had my 1966 1200cc Cortina from 1974 to 1978, and then sold it
on to someone who managed to write it off in a winter crash a couple of
years later. It wasn't a cherished, cosseted car, either.

I parked it by the roadside, and regularly applied fibre-glass patches
to the wings (as well as getting the McPherson strut towers welded). I
remember having the big-ends fail on the M6, and finding a refurbished
engine for all of £60. I then had to do a 190 mile motorway journey,
running it in at 35mph. But none of those seemed like reasons to scrap
the car. Other than replacing the engine or clutch, I could do most
other things myself.

It had servo brakes, but everything else was manual: no power steering,
no factory-fitted heated rear window or wing mirrors. By contrast, in
my current car, absolutely everything that can be power operated, is,
and almost anything that could be automated, also is.

The only problem I had was when the parking brake computer got dirty
data on its bus line through a low battery condition, and had to be
rebooted, and its firmware upgraded. The technician did everything with
his laptop, never having to use a screwdriver or spanner, or to open the
bonnet or any panels. I've never had a car before where the parking
brake was entirely computer-controlled, with no mechanical link from a
lever or pedal.

I wouldn't have a chance to fix anything that goes wrong with this car,
and neither would even an AA or RAC man without the appropriate
diagnostic software. So, however well built this car is, it'll probably
have a shorter economic life.