BINGO, planned obsolescence. It is planned into everything from the paint to the carpeting. It looks good for the short term but it is dirt cheap on the front in (manufacturing side) but like most cheap things, it isn't made to last. When you think about it, and keep your eyes open, on the roads you'll either see mostly cars that are 10 years old or less or 20 years or more. There is a magic window where the cheapos are too expensive to repair and the decent cars people want to keep for a long time. How many 1990s model Ford Taurus do you see on the road now even though they were the best selling cars for a while?
I wonder about the carbon footprint thing. If we kept our old vehicles and made the updates; EFI, etc., how much lower would the total footprint be if we weren’t constantly grinding and remanufacturing?
That’s a great point; I’m their worst customer because I’ve never bought a new car, and drive old ones into the ground. On the one hand, it may look good that a 17 year old car is still on the road; on the other, it is so obviously decrepit nobody would mistake it for an endorsement of any particular make: it looks like it was stolen from a junkyard right before entering the compactor...Also, it has part form several different brands on it.
: )