No Pete's or Ken's .third choice?

It’s a Freightliner deal. Their emission system is all in “One Box” and the parts can’t be serviced individually. If any part fails the entire system has to be replaced. It’s pretty well known that they fail at 5-600k miles but people buy a used truck with 450k on it and act surprised when the emission system fails at 500k.

 

That's today's "technology" for you. Seems like it's all designed to steal cash from our wallets to me.

 

Maybe. But you’d be surprised at how many people buy an emission truck and spend zero on preventative maintenance and then wonder why it goes to crap after a few hundred thousand miles. If you’re buying new every three years then all you have to do is drive it. But if you keep it longer or you’re the second owner then it’s going to need maintenance. The fact that a Freightliner has what amounts to a throw away emission system is a bad deal for whoever owns it when it hits 5-600k.

 

Definitely. I think that mentality could be applied to any machinery though. Machinery requires maintenance but this EPA/emissions nonsense and seemingly disposable goods we're dealing with is a joke in itself. Look at an original fender from a 50's car and look at what we have today. Just an example of how things used to be engineered to last a lifetime.

 

Everybody wanted cheaper stuff.
So they made it cheaper.

 

I dunno about that. I don't see vehicles from the late 2000s to now rot out like vehicles from the early 2000s and older.

 

I disagree. Making cheap products is job security and a never ending revenue supply for the manufacturers. I don't know a single person who enjoys replacing products over and over again. I'm not talking cars only here but everything you can imagine from jeans to can openers.

 

You say people don't like to replace stuff but when a new fad comes on the market they junk the "old" and buy new.
Take tv's.
When the flatscreen became affordeble the old ,still working tv's were massively dumped.

 

Oh, indeed. I see your point now. The disposable society.