How many are left?

[mobius]

I think in general it's true though. There are exceptions to everything. Maybe also it's that the majority of people these days don't want to learn skills such as car maintenance. I cant tell you how many men and women I know from 20 years old to 60 years old that neither have the time skills or drive to maintain their vehicles. Alot of them insist on not even doing the basic stuff such as oil changes or air filter changes relying on quick stop service places. A lot of my friends don't even know how to change a flat relying on triple a or something. A lot of my friends make fun of the amount of cars I have and frequent changes I make but then again their philosophy is to stick with one economy jalopy and run it into the ground. I kinda believe most people these days outside of enthusiasts and gearheads don't appreciate cars like we do. It's a tool meant to be used and abused no matter any significance the car might have in value whether it's history or money wise. We live in a throwaway society right? Again outside of the car culture which in general is a minority to the overall population of vehicle owners I just don't see the enthusiasm anymore for vehicles. Maybe blame that on automakers for making boring a## cars these days (but that's the direction with the ever increasing list of federal regs with economy and safety features that have to be met) . I can't name one brand new vehicle I want right now or would be willing to buy from anyone but bmw or porsche. Nothing else within my grasp financially at this point is at all exciting. Another point I believe in too is that there's a Toyota mentality applied by non car enthusiasts to vehicles they buy no matter the brand. What I mean by this is that a car has to be ultra reliable in the total absence of any maintenance beyond oil changes and throwaway items plus last 300k miles or so. Sure this is fine for Toyotas Hondas and Nissans in most cases but not for any European vehicles. I used to have a list of stuff I'd look for when buying a used bmw. Other than the one enthusiast that previously owned my 05 325xi everyone else just gives me blank stares when I ask about cooling system maintenance. "wait you have to do that on BMWs?" "Yep any of them unless you want to replace or rebuild the engine" I've basically given up in my area looking for those dealer maintained or enthusiast maintained vehicles or ones that met that list because they are hard to find. It usually works in my favor however when it comes time for money talk.

[mobius]

Another point to is look at what manufacturers are doing with simple maintenance items on vehicles. Bmw has gone to the no oil dipstick route. Yea it's convenient and the system works but what caused this? People in general couldn't be bothered to complete such a simple task or remember to pay someone else to so make it simpler for people and use it as a marketing gimmick. Same idea with the lifetime differential and transmission fluids. People couldn't be bothered to change it themselves or pay a mechanic so hey let's call it lifetime. If people see one less maintenance item they might be willing to buy our car over the competitor. But this sucks when it comes time for an enthusiast to buy the car or do work. The effect of this is two things I think. One cars are going to be increasingly more reliant on dealers for the most basic items or two the running lifetimes of cars are going to become much shorter. Instead of cars having many owners it might be one or two or three if an enthusiast gets it and is willing to do major work.