Two days a week my job requires me to be on the road, interstate and a little city traffic, from early in the morning until about sundown. It amazes me how many people drive SUVs, one person in the vehicle, passing me like I’m standing still (doing 65), and they CAN’T be getting any more than 10-12 mpg. No car pools, jackrabbit starts from every light. Amazing. And yet gas continues to rise and people continue to drive like this. I can’t imagine where it is going, but it seems to have no end. Rocketman
would most of us still be alive in 60 years?
Realistically, I don’t think many cars will last close to 60 years/ 600K miles, unless technological progress comes to a halt and energy supplies remain the same.
Perhaps in the next six decades, people as we know us will be obsolete (read Wired magazine).
Today, you see some 60 year-old cars in garages or in good weather, but very, very few as daily drivers. Most 1950’s cars were unsafe and have rusted out or broken down by now. Sure, newer cars are more durable and safe but who in their right mind is going to try to find, say, a $1000+ headlight assembly or an electronic display system for a 2012 car in even a few years? And who will find a mechanic to rebuild the transmission or repair today’s electronics in 2072? Cars 60 years from now should be far more advanced, so even if you could keep a car that long, not many people will be (or should be) willing to make the sacrifice.
“Would most of us still be alive in 60 years?”
Only if I live to be 112 and if I am I hope the last 60 are better than the first 52 have been.
bscar “would most of us still be alive in 60 years?” Good Point ! Makes you want to ask;
Would ANY of us be alive in 60 years ? In reality, this whole discussion is about, “What do you leave for your grandchildren to drive ?” Now I ask, unless the average of the contributors here is 20, how many of us used our grand parent’s cars as daily drivers ?
I remember a 60 Minutes segment years ago (I think it was on that show) regarding a woman that purchased a new Rolls Royce when they were offereing lifetime warranty to the original owner. By the time of the airing, the woman and her Rolls were elderly, but Rolls Royce was still honoring their word. If I remember correctly, the segment went on to calculate the cost of a new Rolls Royce to a young purchaser to see if over their lifetime together it would be cost effective as compared to purchasing a non-Rolls every 5 or so years. Again, from what I remember, it was .
Well within in 60yrs we should have the" MacGruder extruder"(a fictional device I dreamed up-but actually something pretty close to it is working now-in my device you feed in the raw materials and parameters and Wallah out comes the replacement part) Pretty soon some companies will be selling the software and cassettes or whatever and you will make your goods at home. But seriously there are ways to circumvent corrosion for example and there used to be a thing called an interchange manual.As far as the ultimate life of a automobile look what the rolling stock in Cuba consists of.So it is doable,but really why would a person want to?-Kevin
If all goes as planned, my 12 year old daughter will still be driving my 79 Chevy pickup when she’s 40. It’s sitting beside the house , driven twice yearly, patiently waiting to be hers.
I have a 1949 ford which was given to me for my high school graduation in 1966. The reason the car was given to me is that 1949 is the year I was born. The car still runs fine and looks great. I still drive it regularly, and put around 6000 miles or so on it each year. Of course, the car has broken down several times over the years, but it is very simple to repair, and most parts remain readily available. The nice thing about the car is that just about any repair can be done right there beside the road with common hand tools. It’s had a few rust repairs and paint jobs over the years along with some interior work, but it continues to run down the highway and manages to keep up with traffic. I plan to have this car until I die, and see no reason to get another.
Steves49! Good for you! I used to have a 1962 Ford Galaxy, 3 speed manual xmission, with the shifter on the column. I really liked the shifter on the column. I wish manuals had those still. Why take up floor space with the shifter on the floor? You could easily put 3 people in the front seat in those days. Not safely mind you, but they’d fit. You didn’t even need seat belts then. But my dad & I installed them on the Galaxy, even for the middle person on the front seat. My dad thought maybe I’d get lucky or something and have a cutie wanting to sit next to me? lol
That Galaxy was a great car for putting around town and very reliable. It got reasonable gas mileage for a carburator. Gas was 30 cents so it wasn’t that big of a deal anyway. And it was easy to fix. The only thing I ever did was change the oil at 3K, and the points, condensor, spark plugs once a year (and set the dwell and timing). One day it started to whistle like a tea pot. When the engine got hot. Seriously loud whistle. I’d drive into a parking lot and everybody would look to figure out if a freight train had pulled into the lot! I popped the hood and started pressing on things near where the whistling was coming from. When I pressed on the valve cover, the whistling stopped. So I tightened the nuts holding the valve cover, problem fixed in two minutes!
My dad had a 1955 Chrysler. Sporty number. It had power everything. The cool thing about it was to change the transmission gear you didn’t shift lever, intead you pressed buttons. Very simple to operate.
The other thing I liked about the 55 Chrysler and other cars of that day was the little thingy that stuck out on the right side fenders that you could hear scraping you when you were too close to the curb. Now we just have to guess. A low tech cheap and reliable solution if there ever was one. I wish those curb things would come back.
I got to thinking about those curb-feeler thingys because a neighbor kid – he’s maybe 17 – he got to be interested in cars. Just this past year. I talk to him now and then about his progress as I walk by. He bought an old one that didn’t run and totally took it apart, then over the course of a year he fixed it up. He decided he’d only put stuff on it that he needed, to reduce weight and make it faster; if you look inside there are no seats except for the driver! He painted it totally black. It’s pretty cool. And he stuck one of those curb-feelers on it just for good measure! I think it’s great that there’s still some kids around who’ll take time to experiment with cars.
I can think of a couple of reasons why no more column shifters. It’s nearly impossible to get a short throw between shift points. The complicated linkage when the shifter is not on top of the trans is a problem. And I’m sure the telescoping steering and collapsible column along with air bag, ll complicate it. Shifting by wire may slowly bring the shift buttons somewhere near but never too close to the active area of the steering wheel. I see it creating up the dash as pioneered by Honda and others.
I’d like to think my '93 toyota pick-up would go 60 years. It’s 19 now with 150k. At this rate I won’t last long enough but maybe the next owner will care enough to keep up the fight. Toyota is not stocking all the parts already though, so that may become an issue soon. I see no reason a well built vehicle could not be kept alive for 60 or even 80-100 years. Parts availability aside, regular maintenance and a garage, and most solid vehicles should go for ever. Of course you gotta be some sort of a nut to put that much effort into a car, but we are out there.
The NY Times has an article today on this topic, on how people are keeping their cars longer. 200K is the new 100K. Maybe 60 years isn’t out of line as a goal for some car owners?
"HOW far can a modern car really go? Given the increasing age of vehicles on American roads, we may be on the verge of finding out.
As a stubborn recession made drivers wary of new purchases for several years, the average age of vehicles on the road in the United States stretched to a record 11.1 years in 2011, according to the research firm R. L. Polk, which tracks vehicle sales and registrations."
A stickshift 4 cylinder econobox can probably last 40 years if you can get the parts. Just saw an 80s Mazda GLC (Great Little Car) and was surprised how small it was and still in good shape with no rust.
I had a 1982 GLC that still ran well but rusted out from underneath me in about 1998. I definitely will not be alive in 60 years.
We live in a dry area, and most of today’s cars bite the duct for other reasons than rust. There’s even a guy who still drives a Dodge Omni from that era. This car was substandard in every way.
Dodge Omni–wow. Haven’t seen one of those in years. Was shocked today to see a K-car coupe driving near my house. Was it called a Turismo?
Remember too that trying to make a car last 60 years is working against the design intent of a car. Banking on weather stripping that could protect delecate electronics or could no longer stop rust are factors that make cars difficult to extend their life. Cars are more reliable, but replacing electronics that are 50 years old will be a heck of a lot more difficult then mechanical linkages. How many transistors are there in a car ? Even they are passé. Replacement parts for antiques will be more and more difficult as they age, the newer the car is. Everything is nearly disposable with systems replacement the norm instead of individual parts.
The Kcars were Lee Iacocca’s brain children and they saved Chrysler from going under. I believe they were called the Dodge Aries and the Plymouth Acclaim. Later versions turned out to be some of the best cars Chryser ever built. But they were boring.
Actually what saved Chryco from going under was a Government loan.
But yes the KCar was a huge success. but the KCar was extremely unreliable.