Do newer cars require less maintenance than older ones? (vehicles, spark plugs, brake)
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I own a 1999 Honda accord that is still reliable because I maintain it. I do regular oil changes service /inspection. Moreover, I get the repairs fixed before they become huge repairs. My car has never broken down or left me stranded other than a tire blow out and battery problems on a occasion ( weak or old battery)
In addition, I recently got my battery replaced when my car wouldn't - it was -40 where I live. So I took it to the garage and they confirmed that my battery was indeed weak and needs to be replaced.However,2 days ago I decided to stop by at the grocery store on my way home from work. When I attempted to start my car after my grocery shopping, It wouldn't start and completely died in the parking. I got it jump start and I was able to drive it home. I decided to drive to the garage instead to ascertain the cause of the problem--The garage concluded that it was the battery so therefore replaced it for free given it was still under warranty.
with that being said, my sister and my co worker told me If I buy a newer car then I wouldn't have issues and that newer cars requires less maintenance .The funny thing is, they both don't own cars nor do they know anything about car maintenance.On the contrary, sometimes I contemplate buying a newer car but then again the repairs will come up at some point right ? So do you just change oil in newer cars without major maintenance? for those who own newer car, do you hardly take your car to the garage?
Yes, newer requires less maintenance...until they also become old.
Just look at the maintenance schedule in an owner's manual. It becomes more significant as the miles add up.
Also speaking generally newer car designs require less maintenance overall. Exceptions of course if you're comparing a performance car to an old Camry/accord.
Buying a new car to avoid tire and battery issues though is of course absurd.
In 1980, cars needed 3,000 mile oil changes. Spark plugs might make 20,000 miles. Lots of cars didn't have electronic ignition so they needed cap, rotor, points, condenser and a timing light every 10,000 miles.
Compared to that, a new car is very low maintenance. Compared to a 1999 Honda, it's not much different. Maybe longer oil change intervals using synthetic oil. Car battery technology hasn't changed in a century. If you live in Phoenix or Vegas, it's a miracle if your battery lives 3 years since hot weather kills batteries. If you live on the coast of Maine where 90F is unusual and only lasts a couple of days, your battery could live 10 years and 7 or 8 years is pretty normal.
If a battery died on you in a short period of time, either the battery was defective or you have a problem in your charging system or a slow discharge problem that killed the battery.
3 things kill batteries:
* heat
* overcharging them
* continuously discharging/re-charging them
Rather than debug the problem, the garage took the easy route and sold you a new battery. Maybe the battery was defective. Maybe you have a bad voltage regulator that fried the battery from overcharging it. Maybe you have a slow discharge where you were constantly discharging/re-charging the battery every day causing it to die. If it dies again, you want to have someone actually put a meter on the car.
Newer cars require less maintenance, however they're more expensive to fix because of how much equipment and gadgets car manufactures put in them. It was much easier to get under the hood and find the problem back when I owned cars in the 80's and 90's. Now you need a labtop and expensive diagnosis equipment to fix cars. (Depending on the problem)
I don't agree with that. Now a $10 Bluetooth obd dongle can tell you more about your car than you could hope to know in the 80s/90s without a huge bank of hundreds of gauges. Throw a check engine light, just pull the code and look it up online. There's probably even a YouTube video walking you through how to fix it.
Newer cars generally require less maintenance, but are more complicated. Certain older vehicles don't require a lot of maintenance, but the car's past and the car's manufacturer factor into that.
They seem to require less maintenance. Of course, technology has a lot to do with it not just in the cars themselves but also the advancement of synthetic fluids, tire technology, etc.
I remember the day of 3,000 mile oil changes. Not most are going to 5,000+ miles and I believe BMW is 10,000 miles.
I remember cutting brake rotors, now it seems they're expendable items that you just replace.
Now the iridium tipped plugs are said to last for 100,000 miles.
I don't agree with that. Now a $10 Bluetooth obd dongle can tell you more about your car than you could hope to know in the 80s/90s without a huge bank of hundreds of gauges. Throw a check engine light, just pull the code and look it up online. There's probably even a YouTube video walking you through how to fix it.
In a 1970 car, you just had to know "spark, air, fuel" to troubleshoot anything. Cars were dirt simple. You didn't need an ODB-II port. You pulled an ignition wire, jammed a screwdriver in it, and cranked the engine to see if you had spark. You popped the air filter and looked at it to verify air. You looked at the water trap on the carb for fuel. You could clean and rebuild a carburator on your kitchen table in an hour with a cheap rebuild kit and some carb cleaner. It was pretty easy to debug a coil + mechanical distributor ignition system. You'd give it a tune up. If it still didn't start, you put a voltmeter on the coil. About the same as when my Briggs & Stratton lawnmower dies.
I had a VAG-COM cable, the software, and the shop manuals for my VWs that I drove for 15 years. 80% of the fault codes weren't something a shade tree mechanic could handle. The shop manual basically tells you what to try replacing when it pulls a fault code. Nobody really diagnoses problems these days. They just swap in new parts until the fault code goes away.
Op, keep changing that oil in your car and driving it. You will gain NOTHING by buying a new one. Well, gain a debt, that's about it. Batteries in new cars are no different from what you have in yours. You can simply replace plugs with 100 000 miles NGKs, air filter with Sceptr high air flow one, and if your car leaks no oil or otherwise does not go low on oil unusually fast, switch to semi synthetic oil and do oil changes every 7 000 or so miles. That's it.
What happened to your battery indicates a clean up of all the connections and grounds, not purchase of a new car.
Btw, we owned 1994 Toyota Corolla. Sticker on the hood said oil changes once a year or every 10 000 miles. That's 94, boys and girls.
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