Advantages of pricey cars?

Whatever. When I was cleaning my dad’s house out I put the gas cultivator out with a free sign. Not a hour later a guy stopped and loaded it. I told him it leaks oil like crazy but he said he had a friend that would fix it. I thought maybe former friend bringing junk to him to be fixed.

Well that screen was about as coarse as the screens on your window, so it didn’t really filter anything. Might have trapped chunks of metal that were floating around in there, but at that point the engine is toast anyway.

A screen is not a filter.

For off-road use, people sometimes add a remote oil filter to the VW engine. The oil lines connect to the oil cooler under the blower housing.

Hey don’t ask me, I was 4-years old when my '54 was built, back then I was still wondering why the sky is blue during the day but black at night… L :full_moon_with_face: L . . .

There are so many oil filter part numbers that odds of finding one on the curb that that will fit any of my vehicles are very slim. I wouldn’t even slow down to look at a filter on the street, I already have too many filters I can’t use.

yes of course a new oil filter… And no, I would not even look at oil filters put out on the street, furniture maybe, a baseball bat or something that could be used as a tool or for making/building something, I made a yard trailer out of old metal bed frames for example, but nothing that if contaminated could potentially damage my engine, over a $2-$15 filter…

And the likelihood of a filter that a neighbor left out to the curb is very slim…

We’ve had cars with power windows since 1988 and only the 1988 Grand Voyager had any problems, a $20 repair kit replaced the part that failed twice in 22 years of ownership. Power lock switch just had a bad connection one day but plugged back in it worked perfectly after that.

Dad wanted the latest safety gear and tech features when he traded a 2007 CRV for a 2019 CRV Touring, had considered looking at Lexus or Acura but most of the one’s he wanted were priced a little to close to what the spent building the house they’ve lived in for 45yrs now. Dealer service would be better at the premium brands but not enough to make him want to drive 60mi round trip to the dealership.

Mom bought her Prius in the summer of 2009 after a marathon car search because she finally couldn’t stand not having A/C and cruise control. Power Windows/Locks and various features like Tilt/Tele steering wheel and height adjustment for the driver’s seats were luxury feature compared to the 19yr old Mazda but mandatory for her comfort. Luckily the basic Prius had all the features we were aiming for with the new car and the Climate Control and Keyless access became features she was glad to have. After 19yrs and 194,000mi Dad & I had decided she’d gotten more than her money’s worth out of the old car and deserved something nicer.

A number of manufacturers did include oil filters as a standard equipment. I can not remember if my 49 Studebaker had an oil filter,I know our 60 Lark did not. Our 64 Impala 327 had cartridge type, kits were available to convert it to a spin on filter.

My 62 had the much more powerful 170 ci and manual 3 speed transmission engine as opposed to the base 144 ci. :wink: My friend had a 60 Falcon with the 144 ci and 2 speed automatic transmission. Sometimes it wouldn’t exceed 30 mph going up hills. I always thought the 60 model was the best looking Falcon.

Yes, it was good-looking, it rode nicely, and it was fairly roomy. But, the lack of power was appalling.

However, it served its purpose as my back-up car when my nearly-new Volvo was in the shop… which was much of the time. At that point, the Falcon was 16 years old, and it was much more reliable than my POS Volvo.

I once owned a 1955 Pontiac that I purchased in 1962. I bought it from the Rambler dealer and his service department had “overhauled” the engine. The Pontiac I bought was the bottom of the line 860 model with the column shift manual transmission.
The oil filter was an option on the Pontiac in 1955 and my Pontiac did not have the oil filter. I had problems with oil sludge plugging up the passages in the studs that held the rocker arms. I think all the dealer had done in the overhaul was fit new piston rings and grind the valves. I did have an oil filter installed soon after I bought the car. The car also didn’t have a radio, so I bought a radio from a salvage yard and installed it.
I also had to replace the bearings in the three speed manual transmission and the column shifter was never allowed smooth shifting.
I think it terrible that GM would make the oil filter optional on the Pontiac V8 with overhead valves and hydraulic tappets. In 1955, most Pontiacs were equipped with the Hydramatic automatic transmission. The three speed manual was just a way to charge extra for the Hydramatic
I assume most were sold with the oil filter option.
I knew a couple of people with the pricier 1955 Pontiacs and these people didn’t have the problems I had. The no option 1955 Pontiac I owned was not a bargain.

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I once found myself checking out a 1930s Roll-Royce and recognized why it had such a great reputation. There was a distributor and a magneto, a mechanical and electric fuel pump and the chassis was greased from the drivers seat with a mounted grease gun attached to metal and rubber plumbing to all suspension and steering components. Needless to say the car was reliable. And notoriously pricey I’ve heard.

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My dad had a 60 falcon as a commuter car and then a 62. It was usually the car I could use on dates. I noticed the difference in power on the 62. I also noticed the intermittent vacuum wipers. Dad cautioned not to use the radio and lights at the same time. I didn’t listen and my date and I walked about a mile in the winter to get a jump start. Not a very big generator but was fire engine red and kept it waxed.

Back in the late '60s, the local Ford dealer had a mid-50s Bentley on their used car lot. This was from the era before Rolls/Bentley began using a V8, so it had their “adequate” 6 under the hood. I took a look at it on a Sunday, and–to my astonishment–it wasn’t locked!

The seats were extremely comfortable, even though the leather was showing its age, and the paint was in decent condition. I lifted the hood, and the engine seemed to be a bit grimy, but the price that they were asking for that Bentley seemed to be reasonable, so I actually (briefly) considered buying it.

But, I decided to first research the price of Rolls/Bentley parts, and when I saw that a muffler cost ~$1,200 (equivalent to more than $10k today), I decided that I couldn’t afford to buy it.

Interesting comment. I’m curious why you’d be so concerned using a curbside oil filter that your neighbor put out on the curb with a “free” sign on it b/c they couldn’t use it. If the neighbor also put out a paper bag of fruit you’d be buying at the grocery store anyway from their tree in the same curb-side pile, would you refuse that also?

My guess, the stove issue is probably related to a power struggle between the two spouses. Hubby refuses to purchase a new stove b/c that shows the wife he’s in charge. If the wife in turn buys a stove herself, hubby will say that’s wrong b/c spending from their community-property pot of money can only be done by consensus. So wife is stuck. Dysfunctional families could be an entire category here … lol …

I run into “never spend money” folks quite frequently. One of my fences was badly in need of help so I offered the neighbor that I’d tear down and rebuild the fence between our properties myself, provided he pay 1/2 of the materials cost. He refused, saying he didn’t like to spend any money on “optional” homeowners items. He said he’d agree only if the fence was leaning more than 15 degrees, and he brought a level with him to prove to me it wasn’t.

A friend of mine in another city – against my advice — hired a questionable-quality re-roof job, saving money by not obtaining a roofing permit. He’s now complaining about all the roof leaks … lol …

Folks choosing the lowest-bid home repair services, etc, etc, etc …

If course there’s a lot of “cheap” behavior among the corporate types too. Bank executives who elect to pay 0.1% interest on their checking accounts, when 30 day treasury bills pay 1%.

Your guess is wrong. Back around 2008-2010, my penny-pinching friend had his bathroom window broken by falling ice. When the window guy he called in quoted him a price of $400-something to replace the double-pane glass, he told the glass guy that he was a thief, and he threw the guy out. His “solution” was to tape a piece of cardboard over the broken pane, but the result was that my friend didn’t bathe during the winter for a couple of years because of how cold his bathroom was. :face_vomiting:

Fast forward a couple of years, and when his new girlfriend saw the condition of his bathroom (as well as other parts of his condo) she told him that she wouldn’t be coming back unless he fixed the problems… and he did so–albeit at a much higher price than he had originally been quoted.

But, after a few years of marriage to the former girlfriend (his 3rd marriage), his inclination to avoid spending any money apparently overcame his desire for a happy relationship, and she departed.

As I stated previously, his penny-pinching ways are eroding the quality of his life, and that trend seems to be accelerating at an alarming rate.

One weird “relationship” I have to hear about from time to time, the gf complains that the bf spends hours upon hours at his desk looking through the list of recent checks and credit card items. If not to his liking, he breaks up yet another time with the gf … lol …

Back then the fuel pump often had to be replaced after a few years and if the car came with the vacuum wipers and the car came with a Duel Action Fuel pump (an option…), the owners often put on a single action pump and directly connected the vacuum line from the intake manifold to the wiper motor because it was much cheaper… The dual action pump maintained constant vacuum to the wipers even when climbing hills or accelerating… IT was not perfect, but the added cost was worth it in a rainy, snowy location…

Ah ha ha. I hope our friend that took his girl friends car to wal mart is listening.

Oh man. Years ago we had a young pastor that gave a firey sermon on the man being the head of the household. His wife Was sitting near us and you could almost see the steam coming from her. Next week he clarified what he really meant.

Same guy brought us a program called marriage encounter, which was a weekend locked up in a hotel writing letters to your spouse on how you really felt about stuff. Do I look fat? I don’t know who it was based on, Jung or somebody, but a psychologist friend got there, asked a few questions and promptly went back home. Within a year we had about an 80% divorce rate among participants. I think we
Were saved by not following the rules and breaking out of the place under cover.

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