Fun truck for 2 weeks !!!!

I watch a lot of Barrett Jackson and Mecum auctions. Fun place to dream. These restomods they do these 60's corvettes and muscle cars is amazing. Under the hood looks pretty basic and clean. I'm not sure what updated technology they use but things look less complicated in them.

 

Probably not. First, nobody wants to work on their own cars anymore. Second, all that "B.S. tech" is what makes an engine powerful, efficient, and clean. It does add complexity, but it makes the whole thing better. Plus, when it really comes down to it, cars — even the crappy ones — are far and away more durable than old ones. You can expect most cars nowadays to get to 100k easily with just basic maintenance; fluid changes, filters, brakes, tires, (some not even) spark plugs, and the occasional drivebelt. That's been true for quite some time now.

Remember, "reliability" doesn't mean what you think it does. Most cars can be relied on to break down in specific ways at specific times.

 

I had a boat with that shit. Can't remember the year, but it was a Mercruiser I/O drive with a GM 250 cubic inch straight-six, almost identical to what you'd get in a Chevy pickup at the time.

Between that and a friend's 1965 C10, I'll stick with digital timing, thank you.

 

Guilty. In fact, never used a proper tool to set the point gap. If it looked good and ran, good enough. (Something else under there was going to fuck up in a few weeks again, anyway).

 

But electronic ignition is more complex!

and therefore, according to the people who don’t own fourth gen Tacomas here, will be more unreliable than points!

 

We have 100% hard evidence that new vehicles are too complex because when something breaks they just literally replace 2/3 of the truck because they don’t know how to service the components.

Everything now is an engine swap, transmission swap, interior gut. Good luck with that $15,000 repair bill when it’s off warranty.

And then when they do fix it they do a half ass job… because they don’t know how to service the components.

 

Perhaps you want to share that evidence? I ask because, besides for transmissions — complex enough where most places aren't willing to sink the time into fixing individual parts when they often can be replaced for cheaper — what you're talking about doesn't happen nearly as often as you say it does. Individual parts get diagnosed and serviced all the time.

 

The shift to line replaceable unit architecture is good for troubleshooting and maintenance labor costs, true.

but vehicles now are more reliable in almost every way than they were in the points, carbs, and hydramatic transmission era…despite being unfathomably more complex. Why is that? Because not all failure modes are equally likely. More, but less likely failure modes can yield a far more reliable car than one with fewer, more likely failure modes.

 

I had an FJ cruiser with the throwout bearing issue. They decided the best thing to do would be to replace the entire transmission, then they fucked up the transfer case so they replaced that too… Because Toyota was paying. Now imagine if I had to pay for that.

My mom had a GMC Yukon Denali that had the cylinder deactivation, it decided to stop working one day so they just replaced the entire engine. Then the transmission was hunting afterwards so instead of diagnosing it they replaced that too. And they messed everything up, because that’s just how it is.

My wife had the shark tail antenna go out on her Jeep grand Cherokee and they couldn’t figure out why so they wound up replacing the entire dashboard.

 

Okay, that sucks, but that's a bad example. All of those parts have been in cars for a long time.

The Jeep one is a good example.

I guess the FJ and Yukon examples are evidence of the other half of the problem: lack of competent service staff. Like you said, an inability or no desire to troubleshoot, so do more work than they have to, then screw something else up in the meantime.

I totally agree, simpler is better, I just don't want to go back to the 70s. Early to late 2000s Honda / Toyota is ideal for me. I'd argue that part of the benefit of the Tacoma, etc. from that time isn't just the reliability, but the fact that stuff is super easy to take apart, repair, and service when needed. So even moderate problems are easy to deal with.

I'd also agree, that we're way past the point of diminishing returns in terms of improvement vs. complexity. However, the market wants more power, better gas mileage, more features, etc. If people like OP were the majority, there wouldn't be threads like this, talking about how hard it is to find a simple car.

 

Everybody has anecdotes. That's not "100% evidence."

 

The default for dealership is to replace entire components these days.

Whether it’s complexity or laziness it’s a fact.

Wait until you get the bill for replacing active engine shutters.

 

I don't enjoy paying for things I do not want, and infotainment isn't something I want in a vehicle. This day and age that isn't an option.

 

I think there are other reasons "an entire system" might be replaced beside complexity or laziness.
Expediency is certainly a factor. It can be easier and quicker to replace an entire transmission than try to diagnose individual parts -- especially as you have noted there are probably a shortage of qualified technicians to perform that bit of diagnosis. On new model trucks replacing a transmission gets the customer out the door, while the dealer can ship the unit back to Toyota for a tear-down by engineering. Then if they find out that it was "just a malfunctioning solenoid", future repairs focus on that part rather than pulling the entire transmission. This type of repair behavior benefits the customer, the dealer, and Toyota corporate.

 

Respectfully, thats FAR from the truth....
Retired late mid 2023 at 52 so im not a dinosaur....
Wer'e all rebuilding transmissions under warranty, ford will not allow us to replace every transmission or engine that has an internal issue...
Engines & transmissions, you enter precise data of all parts needed to repair the fault & they determine if your repairing or replacing dependent on cost cap permitters....
More stuff is getting repaired now than in the past...
Theyre all about cutting cost, so were repairing more now than 10-20 years ago, hands down....
Yes, tolerances are so tight these days with the new modern engine, if it has a bad piston or a failed rod bearing & the head is ok, your replacing the bottom end shortblock, ford doesnt give you the luxury of a free for all, do what ever you want, throw an engine or trans at every failure....
engine module, or engine control module????

 

As is the former owner of a Ford transit connect and Fiesta, Ford just won’t fix things under warranty and tell you it’s fine.

 

I made a living, good living for being a monkey by fixing things, didnt get paid at all if I didnt fix things.....
strictly commission base, flat rate, piece work,
So your comment is flawed.....
just saying

Sounds like you didnt have a problem to me....

 

Power shift transmission was a documented flaw with the Fiesta and I had the car lemon law’d after the third time the DSG stalled out on me.

The TC had electrical issues with multiple fuses blowing. Dealers would replace the fuses and call it a day.

 

I come by here occasionally to find out if @BronzoTaco got a new ride, but man this is a hard read...