" wrote:

-snip a bunch that I totally agree with-
I don't see much in the way of "fancy features" under
the hood.
-snip some more-

In fact some things have gone the other way. For example,
I have a 1980 Mercedes classic car. It uses a grapefruit
size vacuum actuator in the engine compartment with a
long cable for the cruise control. With today's
cars being computer controlled, that whole unit is no
longer needed because the computer is already controlling
the fuel.

Don't forget those huge honking quad 4-BBls- along with an air supply
system that involved cutting a hole in the hood to make room for it.






You don't need to change the plugs every 12000 miles any more - or
adjust the carb and clean the choke, or rebuild the carb every 2
years. No more timing adjustments. No more points to burn, or even
distributar caps and rotors to crack.
A tuneup today is virtually a thing of the past.

Agree. A friend has a BMW with 140K miles on it and
the original plugs. They should be changed by now, but
so far no detectable impact on gas
mileage or indications of any cylinder misfires. Also,
today if even one of those spark plugs doesn't fire, the
computer will set a code and turn on the check engine
light.

I changed the plugs on my 95 Taurus at 120K -- did the 2000 Impala at
100k because I had the time and was curious. Neither set looked
like it needed changing-- and I noticed nothing different in operation
or economy.




Also, gone are the days of throwing a car away at under 100,000 miles
because the engine is totally worn out. Accurate engine controls
prevent overfueling from washing the oil off the cyls and wearing the
rings out - and valve jobs are also virtually unheard of because, in
large part, there is less engine deposits like carbon and lead
building up, and the chances of running too lean under load causing a
valve to burn are also greatly reduced.

How about rusting out? Remember the good old days when
many cars went to the scrapper because the bodies were all
rusted out? Today corrosion has been drastically reduced.

Corrosion that shows, anyway. My 11 yr old Impala [new York
winters- rarely garaged- 135K miles] has a perfect body -- but the
undercarriage has some rot. I'm concerned about the radiator
bracket- and my mechanic is eyeing some rot in the rear 1/2. A
bracket for the e-brake cable just disintegrated last month.

The 2 things that we used to check to see if odometers had been turned
back - wear on the pedals and worn out seats- are perfect. Not a
stitch is broken on the leather drivers side bucket. [even the
heater still works fine]

It fits my ass perfectly, too-- I'm going to miss this one when it
dies-
[and to the OP I haven't replaced a fuel pump since my 1966 Dart- I've
driven a Taurus, a Dodge Reliant and an Impala and a VW well over 120K
each since then]

Jim