Ah, the Detroit approach

The average car in the US is 12 years old. That average is higher in other countries. But regardless, that's not because cars are unfixable. It's because most people opt to buy a new or newer car when they feel like the vehicle they currently own is more expensive to fix than they'd like and a lot of that has nothing to do with the longevity of the vehicle and everything to do with how vehicle purchase can be financed vs how car repair can be financed.

It also has a lot to do with people who don't or won't fix things before they snowball, and or become astronomically expensive problems. Taking care of a vehicle is about doing regular maintenance (which most people don't do), and getting at the very least an annual inspection (which most people also don't do unless they're forced to).

I won't be buying a new car ever. I can say that with absolute certainty. I have rehabbed my current car in just about every way I can. Machined/honed block, new valves, new piston/lan rings, new head gasket, new water pump, new thermostat housing, new valve cover, new injectors, rebuilt transmission with new clutch, all new hoses, all new gaskets, new HP fuel pump. I will continue to do so because to me it's worth it. Doner cars are readily available, but I probably won't need one specifically because my car is considered and enthusiast car. I have walked into a dealer and ordered parts and my car is 15 years old. I also owned a 20 year old version of this car with the same ability to order parts directly from the dealer.

Most people aren't buying used unless they have no choice. They will continue to buy new cars regardless of the controversy surrounding them.

I think it's a bit disingenuous assume that older cars will not be available. Especially considering that the EV's that are new right now aren't going to survive 25 years without costly repairs of their own. I'd salvage an engine from an older car. I wouldn't salvage a battery pack from an older car.

The average car is 12 years old. Car makers start to drop support (making/stocking parts) when the car is about 10 years old.

I haven't had any issues with getting parts for my 2008 Sienna, or parts for my 2007 Honda Metropolitan scooter. But the Sienna uses the 2GR-FE though, which only recently stopped production a few years ago, and the scooter is based on the still-currently produced Ruckus ... Still.

Come back and talk to me about that car when is is 25 years old and tell me how it is.

No need - I have two 46 year-old vehicles: a 1980 Honda XR500 motorcycle from 08/79, and a 1980 Mercedes 240D from 12/79. The motorcycle is currently torn apart in the garage, undergoing a full restoration. Believe me dude, I know aaaaaaall about the frustrations of long-discontinued parts

I have a 26 year old truck, the bed has holes, the frame is showing signs of rot - I’m trying to decide if it is worth trying to rebuild the transmission, my mechanic isn’t intersted in part because they are not sure if they can find the parts - they will be more than $1000 in labor in before they know wihch bearing it has and thus can check if it can be had.

Man I feel that so hard with the Mercedes. Poor thing has cancer and I'm not sure if it's possible to save in its current condition. It's got almost half a million miles, but goddamn it drives so, so nice... I think it needs a clutch though. Luckily, since W123 cars are sought-after classics at this point, there are still options, but it's gonna be a hell of a process if I decide to attempt a restoration. My dad (with help from me and my siblings, friends, and neighbors) somehow managed to save a pretty rusty 1963 VW Beetle almost 20 years ago, was about a 5 year process. That car recently went to a collector... I'm mad about it, but only in the "goddammit I wanted to inherit it" kinda way

Because they keep buying shit they don't need and hording it in the garage, while their car sits outside in the driveway exposed to the elements.

Hyperinflation and incoming recession aside, Americans have been using their garages for junk storage for many decades.

Atticus seemed to be saying that corporations already know everything about you because of your phone and that people are silly to try to protect their privacy, implying that these people are boring and really have nothing worth keeping private.

I was trying to illustrate that people should and actually do value their privacy, and that they should continue to take measures to protect it.

You come in with - bruh, have you ever heard of a phone book?

The info you shared was not interesting and only served to convey your lack of critical thinking ability.

Honestly, it's just so convenient to be able to get in the car and go (unless the destination's parking situation is really bad).

Americans value convenience quite a lot. We even trade our personal data for it.

A bunch of the earlier ones had their batteries replaced under warranty and are effectively only a couple years old. They're also dirt cheap and undervalued at the moment.

That's irrelevant because as far as I know you don't actually have to have the car in the garage to be able to charge it you can put the charger on the outside if you want.

Also I don't know how it is in America but my garage is literally too small for the car, I can just about get it in there but then I'm stuck because I can't open the door far enough to get out.

The design of US cities has reinforced this.

Nobody actually lives anywhere near the places they need to work and shop so driving is the only option. Because everything's so spread out public transport is terrible because it's not possible to provide a decent service.

You have as a much denser population in Europe than the US by land area, so everything's closer together and it's easier to build public transport infrastructure in that scenario, because every stop serves a greater number of people. Plus there isn't such a great distance between the suburban areas and the urban areas. Personally I can get from suburbia to urban the area with a 1-minute walk. I don't understand why Americans have to be 10 miles away from their cities.

I live in a mid-sized Canadian city, with a population of just under 400k with what is considered a pretty good bus-based transit system, with roughly 60 routes. Even way out in the boonies you can catch a bus. You can get from pretty nearly any point A to any point B on the bus.

And yet I and those who can afford to do so generally avoid the bus. Our streets are still filled with cars during rush hour (which, as someone who has 100% WFM for the last 15 years I’m happy to say I’m not contributing to). Reasons?

1. If your origin and destination aren’t on the same route, you’re going to need to transfer. Possibly multiple times. And wait for those transfers.
2. Buses are sometimes either late, or too full and don’t stop. Which means if you rely on taking the bus to get to work, you had better be up quite early to ensure you get to your destination on time.
3. Bus people. Creepy old guys hitting on young (or even old) girls and women. People who haven’t showered in a while sitting next to you. The people who think their bag is too important and needs a seat. We bought my wife a car the week after some racist tried to attack her.

You know what doesn’t have any of those problems? My car. I can crank my music up if I want to. I get to pick who is in my car. I don’t have to get up extra early to make sure I get to my destination on time because the bus might be late, full, or because I have to make multiple transfers (at each point of which the bus could be late or full…).

I’m glad we have the bus system we have for those people who need it. I know we have people in our city who don’t have the privilege of owning a vehicle of their own — and for some people whose needs are simple the bus can likely work just fine. I’m glad we have that system for the people who don’t otherwise have a choice — but for everyone who has that choice, the choice is typically being in their own private vehicle where they can sing loudly, eat and drink whatever they like, control who rides with them, and go wherever they want to — heck, I can even change my mind about my destination mid-drive and go wherever I want to without having to switch cars.

I’ll admit, having taken transit in bigger cities (Toronto, Montreal, Istanbul) being able to take a train (subway, LRT, surface rail, streetcars etc.) can be pretty great. I think bigger cities need this kind of transit — even with its many, many problems it can beat out taking a car to a downtown core. But even when I lived in some of these cities I still had a car. But the size of my current home city just isn’t big enough to accommodate that level of transit. The cost would just be too horrendous.

Can everyone do better? Sure. But I don’t think such improvements are going to significantly encourage more people to take transit over their own vehicles.

Ah that makes sense. Personally, I tend to avoid urban areas if possible. Too much air pollution, noise pollution, light pollution, people... Maybe it's a sensory thing. I could see how it's much easier to build a public transit system when everyone's so close together though

There's many smaller cities than yours in Europe with a tram network. Volchansk in Russia has a tram line with a population of 10k. Canada isn't know for having great public transport... In a city like Hong Kong you don't need a car, it's so convenient.

Many Americans have huge garages, some with room to park 2 or even 3 vehicles with plenty of space to walk around them. But even single garages are large enough to park cars.

Cars are much wider now than they used to be. Garages that were built more than 50 years ago likely are thinner.

Sure, though the UK has a much larger proportion of those old houses than the US.

If you're work commuting with an EV and charging at home. What's the hit to your electric bill?

Because that's one of a few bottlenecks. $10 every few days for some gas is a lot easier on people than a blanket X hundreds of dollars higher light bill.

Being poor is expensive.

I don't have a driver's license, so I don't have to worry about that!

You're right, being poor is expensive, but that doesn't really apply to charging a vehicle.

The term "being poor is expensive" is generally applied to situations where you don't have the money to pay for something upfront (a quality product, bulk purchases, preventative maintenance, preventative healthcare, down payment on a house) so you have to spend smaller amounts of money repeatedly and/or have a large unavoidable cost as a result (multiple cheap products that wear out, multiple small purchases with a higher per unit price, a blown engine, a root canal, rent), which can cost a lot more over time.

The electric bill is post-paid, not up front. Not being able to set aside the "$10 every few days" to pay the higher bill at the end of the month with money left over is just poor money management.

That being said, the higher purchase cost of electric vehicles preventing poor people from taking advantage of lower operating costs that would more than offset the higher purchase price after some number of years is an example of it being expensive to be poor.

My grandparents house built just after ww2 had, what was for a long time, a standard two car garage. Enough room for two land yachts from the 70s, lawn care implements and various other stuff and you could still open the car doors all the way and walk around. My parents' house built in the 70s was the same. It's more recent construction in built up areas where they are shrinking. They've been getting smaller as developers try to cram more liveable sqft on smaller amounts of land.

I would argue that even if you did get a used one with new batteries, you'd still face degradation down the line and additional problems that would or could be mitigated in older ice cars which are much more likely to have replacement parts available (even if those replacement parts don't come from the same type or brand of vehicle). For instance. I know for a fact that there's a trend of using Honda engines in older first Gen mini coopers. Buying a rebuilt engine has the potential to be pretty cheap.