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I have a friend who has been a Automotive Engineer for 20 years and we have this conversation all the time. If I were to distill all our conversations down to o

I have a friend who has been a Automotive Engineer for 20 years and we have this conversation all the time. If I were to distill all our conversations down to one take away it would be this: There was a paradigm shift sometime shortly after the Great Recession. Before then, vehicles operated and degraded in expected and manageable ways. I'm in the vintage camp at the moment. I just replaced the Chrysler ignition system that was in my old 80s Volvo for a Bosch one that came in a later model. That and replacing the timing belt took all of one weekend and $500 (I splurged on some new parts that I didn't technically need to). The next week I drove it cross country and had a blast, somehow having the time of my life despite not having the last 35 years of features that many people can't live without.

caycep 3y ago
Is there a sweet spot between parts commonality/compatibility and proper reliability engineering? I get the feeling that cars before the 90s had parts commonality but reliability was more of an afterthought.
- LarryDarrell 3y ago
  The 80s were a weird decade. GM didn't want to give up vacuum lines, Ford had electronic fuel injection and little else, and Chrysler had those K-Cars that broke a lot, but they were at least cheap to fix. Toyotas, Hondas and Volvos of that era lasted a long time, and it would have been simple to predict had you bothered to look. Simplicity + Robustness = Longevity. Because of that equation, the domestic long running vehicles are all pickup trucks. The last era where we had any semblance of simplicity and reliability was probably the 2000s right up to the recession. Those cars and trucks were just the perfected versions of their 90s version. (Except Chrysler, it's best to avoid all era of Chrysler and I say this as former K-Car and Ram owner.) Post recession we added turbos to everything. Then came CVTs and variable timing and a slew of new engines. And then came the slow and steady computerization and electric motor actuators for everything. The length of wiring harnesses exploded. Why does my car seat now weigh 300 pounds and have 1200 position settings and climate control, etc. etc. Simplicity + Robustness = Longevity is true for any era.
  - VectorLock 3y ago
    >Except Chrysler, it's best to avoid all era of Chrysler and I say this as former K-Car and Ram owner. Jeeps are hilariously bad. Like "far and away statistically the worst" reliability wise.
    - linksnapzz 3y ago
      It used to be that things not made out of steel on a Jeep would fail, but that was a minimum of parts, back in the '60s. Nowadays, though...
      - VectorLock 3y ago
        My 89 Cherokee was like this but since 2010 they're just all complete junk.
        LarryDarrell 3y ago
        Those late 80s and 90s Cherokees lasted a long time, I still see them around town. Most of the survivors have that great inline 6 that was a carryover from the AMC days.
        VectorLock 3y ago
        The motor was great, everything attached to it though not so much.
VectorLock 3y ago
Funny, I always considered about 2008-2012 to be about the sweet spot for vehicles. Enough electronics but not too much.

caycep 3y ago

Is there a sweet spot between parts commonality/compatibility and proper reliability engineering? I get the feeling that cars before the 90s had parts commonality but reliability was more of an afterthought.

LarryDarrell 3y ago
The 80s were a weird decade. GM didn't want to give up vacuum lines, Ford had electronic fuel injection and little else, and Chrysler had those K-Cars that broke a lot, but they were at least cheap to fix. Toyotas, Hondas and Volvos of that era lasted a long time, and it would have been simple to predict had you bothered to look. Simplicity + Robustness = Longevity. Because of that equation, the domestic long running vehicles are all pickup trucks. The last era where we had any semblance of simplicity and reliability was probably the 2000s right up to the recession. Those cars and trucks were just the perfected versions of their 90s version. (Except Chrysler, it's best to avoid all era of Chrysler and I say this as former K-Car and Ram owner.) Post recession we added turbos to everything. Then came CVTs and variable timing and a slew of new engines. And then came the slow and steady computerization and electric motor actuators for everything. The length of wiring harnesses exploded. Why does my car seat now weigh 300 pounds and have 1200 position settings and climate control, etc. etc. Simplicity + Robustness = Longevity is true for any era.
- VectorLock 3y ago
  >Except Chrysler, it's best to avoid all era of Chrysler and I say this as former K-Car and Ram owner. Jeeps are hilariously bad. Like "far and away statistically the worst" reliability wise.
  - linksnapzz 3y ago
    It used to be that things not made out of steel on a Jeep would fail, but that was a minimum of parts, back in the '60s. Nowadays, though...
    - VectorLock 3y ago
      My 89 Cherokee was like this but since 2010 they're just all complete junk.
      - LarryDarrell 3y ago
        Those late 80s and 90s Cherokees lasted a long time, I still see them around town. Most of the survivors have that great inline 6 that was a carryover from the AMC days.
        VectorLock 3y ago
        The motor was great, everything attached to it though not so much.

VectorLock 3y ago

Funny, I always considered about 2008-2012 to be about the sweet spot for vehicles. Enough electronics but not too much.