On Fri, 8 May 2009 18:39:11 -0700 (PDT), Molly Brown
wrote:

Clarence Snyder wrote:

€œMy 26 year old daughter changes her own snowtires and has done other
work on her old car.
Like many of her generation, she spent big money to buy a brand new
car - and all service is included for the first six years. Most
people
don't drive cars long enough after they are off warranty to make
owner
mainenance ascompelling as it was in years past. €œ

I dont know your daughter so I cannot say anything about her but as
far as people in general goes from what I heard on MSNBC most people
trade in their car before the warranty expires and buy a new car but
with the payments of the old car added on to the price of the new car
and they keep repeating this every few years. What eventually happens
is that they go further and further into debt as the years go by. This
doesnt seem like a smart thing to do.

Her first car was an old Colt 200 5 speed bought used and abused for
$1800. A hundred thoiusand Km later she got what she paid for it.
Her 1988 Neon was purchased used from her aunt (my sister) for $5k and
was slowly composting away. As assistant operations manager at the
insurance brokerage, with her car parked with the partners' Mercedes,
Porsche, Lexus, BMW, Cadillac and King Ranch 4X4 she thought she
should have something a bit better looking. With a $50K income she
figured she'd buy ONE brand new car, exactly as she wanted it. Black 5
speed Civic coupe - she wanted an SR, but there were no black SR 2008
coupes left in Canada so no sunroof and 4 wheel disk brakes.

She got $2k for the Neon after driving it for 5 years

None of her friends - boyfriends included, can drive the standard - so
she's a bit of a novelty in her circle.

For basic maintenance they actually take LESS tools.

I wasnt referring to basic maintenance. A lot of people I know used
to even rebuild their own engines. Now you need a whole encyclopedia
of tools to do the same thing.

They used to HAVE to rebuild engines.
With the exception of GM, very few engines actually require rebuilding
if properly maintained these days. The odd head gasket etc, but valve
jobs, ring jobs and bearing replacements are pretty rare today on a
vehicle that is still worth spending anything on.

€œAnd you can buy decent quality tools for a lot fewer hours of work
today (or at least last year) than 30 years ago.€�

If by decent quality you mean made in U.S.A. with a lifetime warranty
then I think youre wrong. It cost just as many hours of work as
before to purchase them. If youre referring to the junk made in China
as decent than you have a poor appreciation of quality.