Maybe someday our government will actually enforce the Magnuson Moss Warranty act and addenda that requires mfgs to post schematics and make repair parts available.
Wouldn't that be nice..
I'm old enough to remember how great Sears was because you could go in and find any part for any product on their microfiche and repair almost anything indefinitely. You could get factory new parts for decades..
And then things started to change. Factory new parts turned into factory warranty parts.. now you might have a car 7-8 years old with zero support on critical parts. I bought a 1999 Mustang Cobra new.. ordered it from the factory. Five years later most of the Cobra specific parts were permanently out of stock, and repairing this car in some areas and regards is the same as repairing a Model-T. Ford knows all the GT and even 6 banger owners will buy Cobra trim parts especially because they think it makes their car cool.. so why not produce them in enough numbers to serve their customers? I went on a quest to find out. Each car model is different, but after approximately 7-9 years Ford sells all their stock of parts from all their dealerships.. to an "old stock" dealer. This guy is centrally located and as long as the parts hold out the dealers can now order the parts through them. At 4-5 times the price. That's the only way this guy can make money.. so they say. Why not leave them at their respective dealerships and ship them where needed when ordered? It's a lot cheaper (for the dealership) to pack them all up once.. at the end of the 7-9 year period.. and ship them out to the old-stock dealer. Then, the customer pays for shipping on each individual part.. and the dealer doesn't need to pay for space for this inventory or be vested in it's worth. It's all about the dealer!
Anyway.. the ability to fix things is becoming a lost art. I learned to do it because I came from a family without much money and that's just what we did. We couldn't even consider paying someone to fix our car, or washing machine, toaster, etc.. And there used to be a fix it shop in town.. but we couldn't afford to go there either..
So the guy/gal in each family with the natural ability and desire became the families fix it guy.. which can keep a guy busy.
Now, despite two graduate degrees which no one in my family, or even on my block since my wife has no idea I have.. everyone in my neighbourhood thinks I'm a mechanic or a carpenter or a landscaper and one guy thinks I fix televisions. They actually knock on my door and think they're being nice by bringing me work. I stopped doing this for a while when I lived in Thailand.. but now my college age son is living with me so I'm teaching him stuff and we get to spend time together. They wonder how a 21 year old kid can drive a nice BMW.. easy, buy a broken one cheap from someone who can't afford BMW service prices and fix it yourself. Cheaper than a Honda that way. Seriously.
Boy have I digressed.. I could talk about this subject forever. In the car world, the guy who raced who had the power used to be the guy with the biggest collection of catalogues and knew where to get things. Now anyone can look up anything on their smart phone in 15-20 seconds. Televisions once out of warranty aren't repaired, they're replaced. Remodelling a kitchen used to cost a few grand, now you have to take out a second. And the city wisely (and infuriatingly) wants permits for even the smallest repair just to keep people from hurting themselves or sending blackwater into the fresh water supply..
If our country ever has the much talked about meltdown.. most people are going to starve. And walk. No wonder the number of preppers is growing exponentially..
Enough already.. sorry for the dribble..
