http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/metro1.jpg
Remember GM doing this a couple of years ago. This is good news now that car companies are reacting to the threat of transit and there business. Now that U only drive 3-15 miles a day to and from the rail station your car will take that much longer to hit 30,000 miles before it clunks out in a fit of planned obsolescence. (PO) PO is when U have to decide to either get a new car or pay $$$$$$$ for a major repair
Cars haven't 'clunked out' at 30K miles for a number of decades. My present daily driver (and tow vehicle for the race car) has over 275K miles and is still going strong!
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
For what it's worth, years ago a mechanic friend of mine told me any American car will give you 100,000 miles easily, IF you take care of it the way you're supposed to.
He also said you'd probably get 200,000 miles out of it if the body didn't go bad.
My all-time mileage champ? A 1994 Chevy Cavalier. I got 265,000 miles on it before it got a little too rickety to keep anymore, and even then the engine was still a strong runner.
In my distant youth, a car with 100,000 miles was a bit unusual. Now it's almost routine. I kept a 1987 Plymouth Reliant for 141,000 miles and a 1995 Saturn for 180,000. I could have kept the Saturn longer but a lot of small things were starting to wear out.
I've had a couple of pick-ups do over 200,000 miles, and several other vehicles with over 100,000 miles. It does help that CA does not use slat on the roads.
As for short trips to the station, going much less than 4-5 miles is likely to be harder than 4-5 miles and higher for a gas or diesel car. The issue is that the oil never gets hot enough to boil out condensation (though this was a bigger issue in the days of breather tubes). Short round trip distances to the station would be an ideal application for an electric car.
On the LOSSAN corridor, getting to work from the nearest station can be even more of a challenge to getting between home and the nearest station. Quite a large number of people leave a car/truck at the "work" station to get to/from work. The Irvine station has a few spots for leased electric cars specifically for commuters to use to get to work.
- Erik
I had a 89 Honda Accord that had 400,000 kms on it by the time I sold it. It ran perfect but the body dissolved. It got to the point where it wasn't safe to drive and by that I mean the floor under the driver's seat was ready to fall out. Not good!
I A big problem is bodys of american cars were designed to rust out on purpose another one was that GM Transmissions where desigend sligtley out of round by microns on purpose to wear out after x thousands of miles
n the United States, automotive design reached a turning point in 1924 when the American national automobile market began reaching saturation. To maintain unit sales, General Motors head Alfred P. Sloan Jr. suggested annual model-year design changes to convince car owners that they needed to buy a new replacement each year, an idea borrowed from the bicycle industry (though Sloan usually gets the credit, or blame).[2] Critics called his strategy "planned obsolescence". Sloan preferred the term "dynamic obsolescence". This strategy had far-reaching effects on the auto business, the field of product design, and eventually the American economy. The smaller players could not maintain the pace and expense of yearly re-styling. Henry Ford did not like the model-year change because he clung to an engineer's notions of simplicity, economies of scale, and design integrity. GM surpassed Ford's sales in 1931 and became the dominant company in the industry thereafter. The frequent design changes also made it necessary to use a body-on-frame rather than the lighter, but less flexible,[clarification needed] monocoque design used by most European automakers
^ Babaian, Sharon (1998). The Most Benevolent Machine: A Historical Assessment of Cycles in Canada. National Museum of Science and Technology (Ottawa). p. 97. ISBN 0-660-91670-3.
In the northern states, the big problem with rust was caused by salt spread on the roads during the winter to promote ice melt. If you didn't wash your car a couple of times a month, it would really attack the metal. I think cars have better rust-proofing now, and the rock salt has largely been replaced with chemical versions that don't seem as corrosive.
Henry Ford did cling to the idea of simplicity and by doing that drove Ford Motor company to the brink of bankruptcy twice. First when he kept building the Model T which no one much wanted after the early twenties when the competition offered much better cars for not much more money and then when he kept building cars with mechanical brakes which are totally unsafe long after everyone else had hydraulic brakes. Cars do have better rustproofing today but they will still rust out considering the astonishing amount of salt that has been dumped this past winter. In Toronto, anyway.
I wouldn't say that American cars were designed to rust out, it's just that rust protection wasn't thought about and that goes for all cars. For example, I've restored old Citroens and Mercedes. Inside the box sections of the underside, the metal was unpainted from the factory. No protection, no nothing. Even high-end classic cars were built this way.
wjstix I think cars have better rust-proofing now, and the rock salt has largely been replaced with chemical versions that don't seem as corrosive.
Now they use liquid brine or chloride solutions that are a lot worse.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.
Polish Falcon http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/metro1.jpg
54light15For example, I've restored old Citroens and Mercedes. Inside the box sections of the underside, the metal was unpainted from the factory. No protection, no nothing.
Isn't that why Waxoyl was invented?
I think Waxoyl had to be invented for that reason. Good stuff, by the way. I toured the GM plant in Oshawa, Ontario a few years ago. It was interesting watching the car bodies being completely submerged in primer and then paint before assembling the running gear and so forth. Once the car is ready for final paint, each one is water sanded by hand by men with sandpaper in their hands. No machines are used. Then, before the final paint is applied, each car goes through a tunnel like a car wash with rollers rubbing every surface of the car to receive paint. What's on the rollers? Ostrich feathers! They take away every trace of oil from workers fingers so the paint will stick and not peel off the way it did 20 years ago. Fascinating!
Somewhere there is a Ostrich Farm supplying GM Wonder if PETA knows this
It's easy to pluck Ostrich feathers, you just wait until they bury their heads in the sand, sneak up and grab some. I thought everyone knew that.
I think that applies only to unique ostriches. You neak up on them.
Patrick Boylan
Free yacht rides, 27' sailboat, zip code 19114 Delaware River, get great Delair bridge photos from the river. Send me a private message
It took me altogether too long to recognize what an awful groaner that was. I must be getting old much too fast.
I wonder if EMU feathers are an acceptable ISO-quality-compliant replacement for ostrich feathers. Even today there should be plenty of those awful birds around...
[and no, before anyone gets ideas, no multiple-unit jokes.]
No multiple unit jokes? Ah jeez. I had some good ones. Wait, no I didn't.
I always thought that EMU's had pantographs but no feathers. Some wear third-rail shoes, though
Oh brother[:o)
Very well polished, those third rail shoes.
Wasn't that from a classic movie from 1950 with Orson Welles, you know, "The Third Rail Theme?" Played on a kazoo as I recall.
There's a farm around here that raises emus. They must be good to eat, otherwise I don't know why you'd want such a butt-ugly bird around in the first place.
http://www.blue-emu.com/
and yes it comes from Emus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emu_oil
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.