We all hear how things aren't made like they used to be. In 1986/87, I bought a new Troy-Bilt 7HP, Horse Tiller. It has done everything I and several others have asked of it. Including the original set of tines, it has had five sets of tines. Each of these have been resurfaced / built up with hard surface rod, at least twice. This is equal to a total of fifteen sets of tines. Well, today, I replaced the ORIGINAL drive belt. Belt is only 24+ years old. So much for OEM quality. Along the same lines, wife has a 94 Ford Areostar van (built in 93.) Original battery was replaced after nine years. Still worked, just felt it was time. Well, looking back, replacement battery has been in there nine years also. Our 86 Chevy Nova has a 3 year replacement battery that has been in it for seven years now. Sure wished the batteries in my cordless tools lasted as long. I'm sure there are others with similar stories.
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Good deal, nice to hear some stuff lasts! But whether things used to be made better...how many tools/ appliances/ cars are actually left from 1986? This is entirely my opinion, but it probably appears stuff from then was better because the items that were junk have long since disappeared.
Yea back in the day a man was a man, chrome was chrome and steel was steel. Nowadays, I'm not quite so sure what is what... I'm so confused...
In the late 70s, when I was buying my first cars, any used car with over 100,000 was practically given away. I paid under $200 for a couple of running cars at used car dealerships. At about 60,000 or so there were plenty in the $500 range. Even ones that seemed completely sound. Lots of decently maintained cars did not make it to 100,000. Overall, I don't think quality of workmanship has dropped. There are many cases where quality of raw material has.
My first car had a cartridge oil filter and points & condenser. Had to tune up very frequently; very messy to change the oil. Today we have engines that go 100k without tuneup, and you can just about change the oil in a dress shirt without getting it dirty.
We have 2.0 liter 4 cylinder engines with horsepower outputs that we used to get from smallblock V8's-with much better mileage.
100k mileage isn't that unique now.
Better in the car world? Argument can be made for that. More convenient? For sure.
It does seem like just about everything else is built throwaway. Not surprising when you consider how inexpensively things are being built. I'm not sure that things are designed in such a way as to not be easier to work on as much as manufacturers have figured out the absolute lowest cost way to build things. Besides, we have pretty much told mfg's that we want lowest cost, which really means making things replaceable instead of repairable. And, one other factor in this may be liability. If something breaks, OEM parts are used and something goes wrong, many today would sue the mfg for any damages.
In summary, I personally think things are built better, just not repairable. And that annoys some people.
MTCW :gar-Bi
We have 2.0 liter 4 cylinder engines with horsepower outputs that we used to get from smallblock V8's-with much better mileage.
100k mileage isn't that unique now.
Better in the car world? Argument can be made for that. More convenient? For sure.
It does seem like just about everything else is built throwaway. Not surprising when you consider how inexpensively things are being built. I'm not sure that things are designed in such a way as to not be easier to work on as much as manufacturers have figured out the absolute lowest cost way to build things. Besides, we have pretty much told mfg's that we want lowest cost, which really means making things replaceable instead of repairable. And, one other factor in this may be liability. If something breaks, OEM parts are used and something goes wrong, many today would sue the mfg for any damages.
In summary, I personally think things are built better, just not repairable. And that annoys some people.
MTCW :gar-Bi
I think that's exactly right. Something has to be pretty expensive to be worth repairing. Once you get past major appliances, your house, and cars...things are so cheap that it is hard to justify paying for the time it takes to diagnose the problem. Much less ordering a part and actually making the repair. And with high-tech products, the replacement will likely be less expensive than the original was, more reliable, have better performance and more features.
While I do hate to throw things away...there is only so much time in the day. Most of my broken but repairable items go onto Craigslist in the hope that someone else will either fix it or strip the parts.
I agree with Andy, with so many materials recycled today there has been degradation. It has been known for years that tramp metals such as copper etc. are showing up in greater percentages in steel plant feed stocks. :wsmile:
Well You can get with this or you can get with that. :roll:
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