Is Anyone Else Sick of Todays Junk?

 
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jpete
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Post by jpete » Thu. Jan. 02, 2014 7:18 pm

lsayre wrote:Does buying old stuff boost the economy?
Only if the sellers of old junk go out and buy new junk. :D

 
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Post by warminmn » Thu. Jan. 02, 2014 8:11 pm

I own 4 trucks and all of them are old enough to vote :)

One could get Social Security.

As long as Im able to work on them, and Im a pretty good mechanic/rat rodder, I will never buy the new overpriced junk trucks.

I buy American almost always, including food. I feel guilty when its China made as I always feel Im paying for the bullets they could use on us. it is tough with electronics.

 
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Post by hcarlow » Thu. Jan. 02, 2014 8:21 pm

Billyirons wrote:I am just old enough to remember paying more meant getting better quality
AND longer life for cars,machinery, tools and appliances. I am still using many
tools and machines my father bought in the 1950's and 60's.
I just purchased a new refrigerator to replace one only 8 years old (too expensive
to repair). The old 1990 refrigerator has lived outside (8 years) for
summer use and a 1950's one is in the cellar and both work just fine!
I try to buy USA but it seems almost everything is disposable junk.
I know the feeling , when we bought a new stove and refrig. the service tech told us not to expect them to last more than 10 years for they want you to keep buying new ones .

 
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Post by CoalHeat » Thu. Jan. 02, 2014 8:40 pm

The Westinghouse refrigerator in my kitchen dates from the early 1970's I'm guessing. Got it for free around 1991. I did have to replace the defrost timer once though. It was 1970's copper brown, a quart of white Rustoleum fixed that.


 
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SMITTY
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Post by SMITTY » Thu. Jan. 02, 2014 8:56 pm

Oh boy ... I'm probably the most vocal guy on this topic because I deal with the cheap crap companies build on a daily basis. I have to fix this *censored* and make it work again! :lol:

Snowblowers, chainsaws, lawn equipment of any kind, garden equipment .... 95% of it is owned & built by just 2 or 3 companies. MTD ... and I forget the other ones. MTD has taken many once great brands and driven them straight into the shitter. Yeah, they work fine (sometimes) for the first 4 years or so .. but who the hell wants to replace equipment every 5 years??

I've repaired Troy-Bilt rototillers older than me, and they STILL run PERFECT ... even after being neglected in the worst possible ways. Same with early 70's Ariens snowblowers - they just run and run and run for decades. Echo products from the 1980's all the way up to present (as far as I know) are built damn good and last forever. That's one brand I see the LEAST often here. I get lots of new Stihls with bad coils and frayed kill wires.

I bought my very first new vehicle EVER in '07. Even with payments close to $500 with a HEFTY down payment, I STILL had to fix the damn thing. Endless brake issues - went to dealer under warranty many many times for that, and squeaks/rattles from shitty fit/finish, I replaced the lower ball joints which failed at 38k miles ... and the front struts which one failed at around 50k miles unbeknownst to me - I was upgrading them when I discovered one wasn't even working! I've lost all faith in new vehicles. Oh .. almost forgot .. I just received new upper control arms & wheel hub bearings in the mail the other day for it. Never ends ....

As far as cars/trucks go, it is ALWAYS cheaper to buy used. ALWAYS. Especially if you live in MA! The annual excise taxes, insurance, and sales tax is enough to choke a horse on new vehicles ... not even including the initial outlay. New cars are now a rich man's luxury, rather than the average working man's pride that they were in the very infancy of the automobile, all the way up until the 1970's. The 80's found more government meddling, sticker shock, and some really REALLY bad cars. 90's weren't much better .. and then in '96, the holy grail of gov't intervention - OBD-II - took our simple engines to a whole new extremely aggravating and EXPENSIVE level. All in the name of "clean air" - BULLSHIT! It's about CLEANING OUT YOUR WALLET! Could go on all day about that topic ...

I have a 28 year old Mercury (summer only), and a 25 year old Chevy (winter only) that cart my wife 70 miles per day to work 5 days a week, plus weekends of shopping, sewing and all kinds of other things that add 2 more days to the total. That Mercury Grand Marquis we bought back in 2003 with 68k miles on it. It now has 212k miles - over 100K & 9 years on most of the front end components - and it still fires right up and runs perfect. She gets 21 mpg average consistently out of that 5.0 liter (302) V8. Leaks a quart every 1,500 miles or so. Has ice cold air, power everything, and is like driving a giant sofa. Best car we've EVER owned, besides my '72 El Camino which visited Mexico, northern Cali, Arizona (where I bought it), and then pulled a U-Haul trailer 3,200 miles back to MA with a motorcycle, tools, and everything else I owned at the time in 2001. Still laid rubber up the road in 2011 after being parked for 4 straight years.

From now on, any "new" vehicle this household purchases will be manufactured prior to '72. I'll do the rest, thank you very much! ;)

 
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CoalHeat
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Post by CoalHeat » Thu. Jan. 02, 2014 10:07 pm

How did I know you'd have something to say on this topic? You already know how I feel! :doh: :mad:

 
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Post by KLook » Thu. Jan. 02, 2014 10:23 pm

Same logic prevails here in the housing market. I am in very expensive homes and the quality is dreadful. The consumer does not seem to know better and just want their McMansion to come in under ?$$$$$$. Gated communities, golf courses(private) ponds, lake front, but the houses are junk. Made by a Mexican sending it home.

Kevin

 
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Post by wsherrick » Fri. Jan. 03, 2014 12:40 am

lsayre wrote:Does buying old stuff boost the economy?
It certainly boosts my personal economy.


 
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Post by mmcoal » Fri. Jan. 03, 2014 1:00 am

KLook wrote:Same logic prevails here in the housing market. I am in very expensive homes and the quality is dreadful. The consumer does not seem to know better and just want their McMansion to come in under ?$$$$$$. Gated communities, golf courses(private) ponds, lake front, but the houses are junk. Made by a Mexican sending it home.

Kevin
People buy into the status symbol of living in those developments. I could never understand how anyone could spend that much on those big boxy cookie cutter homes with some fancy plastic slapped on the outside. Biggest laugh is that MANY of those big fancy homes have those big stupid looking vinyl sided boxed in chimneys! People spend hundreds of thousands on a status symbol with a cheap chimney, never understood that. It's like buying a $100K car with steel wheels because you didn't want to spend the extra grand for the alloys. Maybe it's for the better, those cheap a$% builders would probably just stiff the masons anyway if they had one come in and actually add some character to those homes.

 
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Post by mmcoal » Fri. Jan. 03, 2014 1:05 am

SMITTY wrote:Oh boy ... I'm probably the most vocal guy on this topic because I deal with the cheap crap companies build on a daily basis. I have to fix this *censored* and make it work again! :lol:

Snowblowers, chainsaws, lawn equipment of any kind, garden equipment .... 95% of it is owned & built by just 2 or 3 companies. MTD ... and I forget the other ones. MTD has taken many once great brands and driven them straight into the shitter. Yeah, they work fine (sometimes) for the first 4 years or so .. but who the hell wants to replace equipment every 5 years??

I've repaired Troy-Bilt rototillers older than me, and they STILL run PERFECT ... even after being neglected in the worst possible ways. Same with early 70's Ariens snowblowers - they just run and run and run for decades. Echo products from the 1980's all the way up to present (as far as I know) are built damn good and last forever. That's one brand I see the LEAST often here. I get lots of new Stihls with bad coils and frayed kill wires.

I bought my very first new vehicle EVER in '07. Even with payments close to $500 with a HEFTY down payment, I STILL had to fix the damn thing. Endless brake issues - went to dealer under warranty many many times for that, and squeaks/rattles from shitty fit/finish, I replaced the lower ball joints which failed at 38k miles ... and the front struts which one failed at around 50k miles unbeknownst to me - I was upgrading them when I discovered one wasn't even working! I've lost all faith in new vehicles. Oh .. almost forgot .. I just received new upper control arms & wheel hub bearings in the mail the other day for it. Never ends ....

As far as cars/trucks go, it is ALWAYS cheaper to buy used. ALWAYS. Especially if you live in MA! The annual excise taxes, insurance, and sales tax is enough to choke a horse on new vehicles ... not even including the initial outlay. New cars are now a rich man's luxury, rather than the average working man's pride that they were in the very infancy of the automobile, all the way up until the 1970's. The 80's found more government meddling, sticker shock, and some really REALLY bad cars. 90's weren't much better .. and then in '96, the holy grail of gov't intervention - OBD-II - took our simple engines to a whole new extremely aggravating and EXPENSIVE level. All in the name of "clean air" - BULLSHIT! It's about CLEANING OUT YOUR WALLET! Could go on all day about that topic ...

I have a 28 year old Mercury (summer only), and a 25 year old Chevy (winter only) that cart my wife 70 miles per day to work 5 days a week, plus weekends of shopping, sewing and all kinds of other things that add 2 more days to the total. That Mercury Grand Marquis we bought back in 2003 with 68k miles on it. It now has 212k miles - over 100K & 9 years on most of the front end components - and it still fires right up and runs perfect. She gets 21 mpg average consistently out of that 5.0 liter (302) V8. Leaks a quart every 1,500 miles or so. Has ice cold air, power everything, and is like driving a giant sofa. Best car we've EVER owned, besides my '72 El Camino which visited Mexico, northern Cali, Arizona (where I bought it), and then pulled a U-Haul trailer 3,200 miles back to MA with a motorcycle, tools, and everything else I owned at the time in 2001. Still laid rubber up the road in 2011 after being parked for 4 straight years.

From now on, any "new" vehicle this household purchases will be manufactured prior to '72. I'll do the rest, thank you very much! ;)
I'm with you Smitty, when I ever need another vehicle I will probably buy a nice old vehicle, not that lightly used crap people think is such a bargain.

 
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Post by jubileejerry » Fri. Jan. 03, 2014 7:28 am

We like to drive big Grand Marquis cars. The mileage is good on trips and the spacious inside is really nice. Most of our driving involves long distances. Everything we have has 200,000+ miles, then a deer intervened with our best one. I had already been watching for a replacement for a year before that happened. We planned on a lower mileage car, then let our son drive the other one to work. Well, the deer thing happened and took out the whole front end , and almost at the same time, another car, two years newer, showed up on craigslist only 80 miles away and only had 30,000 miles on it. What are the odds of finding a 2002 car like that? It turned out to be a beautiful car with leather, multi cd player, air-leveling system, etc. It was LOADED, for $5,000. It even had brand-new Firestone tires. So far we've put a couple thousand miles on it and no problems showed up. I'm more than happy to let someone else take the new out of a car. I'm not sure what a car like that would have cost new, but I'll bet we got it for about 1/6 of what it would have been. I found enough parts to put the old one back together, fenders, grille, headlights, front grille support, etc for $635, postage included. Now we have both cars going. I don't think I'll ever buy a new car. Jerry

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