Modern cars

[nickso]

The Meriva head gasket went due to a small plastic fitting breaking on the water pump, the owner was at fault in continuing to drive home, but the small plastic part failing is the actual fault

Why with all this modern technology we don't have better warning (or auto shutdown systems) for overheating or low oil pressure i'll never understand. Unless they want to sell more parts

Plastic water pumps First thing that gets binned on any of my purchases.

 

[Peter.N.]

Only PSA seem to make decent diesels - or did, I have had a string of high mileage XMs, two of which have done nearly 300,000 miles. It not only the engines that last either, vary rarely have I had to change ball joints, bushes or track rod ends they seem to last almost indefinitely as do the manual gearboxes.

The only reasonably modern exception I have found are the first series of common rail Hdi engines which also seem to be lasting 300,000 miles or more. I have an '01' 406 estate that has done nearly 200,000 miles and it doesn't look as though the engine has ever been touched and it drives beautifully, doesn't have the quality of the XM though.

Peter

 

[Avocet]

I think we sometimes tend to look at older cars with rose-tinted spectacles. Modern cars are more complex, certainly, but also better in so many ways. Of course, it depends how far back we're talking when we say "older". My first cars were cars that were built in the late 1960s and early 1970s. None of them lasted 10 years before they needed extensive welding. Nowadays, it's hard to find much rust on anything less than 10 years old (by and large). Even '80s cars weren't as good as current ones for rustproofing.

Also, in fairness to the manufacturers, cars are absolutely DIRT cheap now compared to 30 years ago. Compared to average incomes, the cost of cars is now at an all-time low - that's why there are so many of them! Added to that, a lot of the tricky complexity has been foisted upon them by regulation - especially in the area of emission control.

It surprised me, but I saw some figures (admittedly from the SMMT) which showed that the average age of a car at scrappage had gone UP over the last 20 years or so - suggesting that actually, modern cars do live longer. Certainly, that's backed up by the increase in warranty cover. These days, it's quite hard to find a car that won't be under warranty for at least 2 years or 60,000 miles. Imagine trying to honour a warranty like that on (say) a Marina or a Maestro?! 1 year or 12,000 miles in those days!

 

[Peter.N.]

I would agree entirely, from the '50s - '80s scrap yards were full of cars that had probably done no more than 60 or 70k not only rotten but worn out. Then the engine output and power to weight ratio started improving rapidly allowing higher gearing and making the engines and other mechanicals far less stressed and more reliable.

I believe as a result the best cars were made in the '90s- modern enough to be nice to drive but old enough to be fairly simply repairable. Now the increase in power and extension of oil change periods seem to be making modern cars especially diesels very expensive to own.

I have done over half a million miles in turbo diesels and never had a turbo fail, now it seems quite common place.

Peter