Why people don't keep older equipment running

[Hay Dude]

I don稚 want to be rich and helpless. I could be RICH and also a very capable mechanic. If Im rich I can chose. If Im poor, I cannot choose. I like choices.
Each year older I get, the chore of repairing gets less desirable and the option to continue making money gets more desirable. You will almost never see me paying for repairs in the off-season, but when the grass is flying or the nails are gettin pounded in, the call might be made.

 

[Zebrafive]

If I can fix it, I do, or if I think I can I try.
My lawn tractor was 26 years old when some low life wanted it bad enough to destroy a deadbolted door to steal it. Probably sold it for dope and it probably no longer runs and sits rotting away.:thumbsdown:
I've had my truck 42 years, rust is taking it's toll. I doubt I could get 42 years out of a new one, but maybe, I don't run it as hard as when it was newer. :thumbsup:

 

[dnw64]

I've had my truck 42 years, rust is taking it's toll. I doubt I could get 42 years out of a new one, but maybe, I don't run it as hard as when it was newer. :thumbsup:

Mechanically, sure, as long as it's maintained. Should be better than the (current) old one.

But vehicles nowadays are more electronics and computers than anything else and I don't know if there will still be the infrastructure to keep them going 4 decades from now. No demand.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I love it when people bring me old 80s electronic technology and apologise for bringing me something so old, and I say NO, THIS, I have a good chance of repairing!

 

[ruffdog]

I do like fixing stuff because it is a challenge and I'm cheap.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Cheap is Good. "They" say the longer you live a life as if you are poor, despite not being so, the richer you will become. I believe that. My Dad wears three pairs of mismatched socks turned around to cover the holes from one pair to the next and has no shortage of wealth. I scoffed at that as a kid, Not no more.

 

[sixdogs]

Another factor is the mechanical "dumbing down" of society. Mechanics are looked upon as second class tradesmen and all the kids are going to college for business degrees. Fewer and fewer people know how to fix anything anymore.

Inability to understand simple mechanical function seems a big part of it and lazy people make up the difference. I am always on the lookout for poorly maintained or sloppy looking equipment that is not screwed up and selling cheap. Change the fluids, buy some tires, detail it and people have told me multiple times, "wow, that looks like a new tractor". Yeah, but at 50% off in price.

Quote of the day from the Roman chap Cicero..."Men do not realize how great a revenue economy is".

 

[buck12]

I see a ton of what I term 'disposa-mowers' mowing lawns with no hood's anymore. Quite a few box store John Deere's with no plastic hoods actually.

I have “real” JD mower (GT 235) and my Dad and BIL both have 425s and all have the same problem cheap broken plastic. That is why last tractor was a Mahindra and my current tractor is a Kubota. Metal hoods and fenders.

 

[3Ts]

I saw this first hand in my family. We grew up poor, and on a farm, and so we ate lamb, veal, beef, pork, and chicken...all raised on the farm.

Then we "made it", and no longer had to do that stuff, and that was also when the divorces started happening, we started eating a lot of pasta, packed on the weight, and started in-fighting among the extended family.

If that is "making it", then I want to fail.

But the ironic thing is, I did not fail. 85% of American's live paycheck to paycheck and do not have a even $1000 in the bank for emergencies. But yet money is a funny thing, because despite being BROKE, people will tell you why what I do will never work...

"And you want me to live like you", I have to ask?

But I also eat humble-pie by getting my hands black with oil, skin my knuckles, and scrape rust off old parts. In short, I fix my own equipment, and run my vehicles to 250,000 miles. I also let my (4) daughters watch me do all this, and hope, when they pick their husbands, they will pick doers and not lazy-bones. Equally, I am not sexiest, and hope they pick up the wrenches as well.

All this talk about spending time with kids is hogwash: kids take in what they see you do, not what you tell them. My one and only job as a parent is not to baby them to 18 years old, but to raise them so they can be adults. My job is to ensure they need me less and less with every passing year.

As my daughter got older I required her to help with all things. If she was going to drive she'd have to learn basic maintenance including oil changes. When I built the barn, she helped with it's construction. Years later she's now involved in the design side of architecture and the construction of the barn has helped her understand what she was putting in the drawings and while she no longer does auto maintenance she knows enough that the mechanics will listen to her.

 

[Richard001]

If people only know of the totally clueless mechanics and technicians that were working on their stuff back at the "Dealerships". Don't get me wrong. In most cases it's not the employees fault. There are exceptions though. I know some dealerships, and it's a daily occurance when some mechanic has to put a blade or lights on some UTV, and has never seen either before, or has to repair something he has never worked on before. How in any way shape or form, does that make a dealership "THE EXPERTS" on such stuff? AND, worthy of high hourly rates?

Now you've hit on a subject that is a tender spot for me. This is not JD related, but is related to Dealerships.

The first thing you have to remember is that the people working at most dealerships are not mechanics but instead are technicians. Mechanics repair things, technicians replace things. One of the other posters on here made that clear in his post about a repair shop.

It think that the people who work at car dealerships a just inexperienced and get low pay on account of that. I have a 1997 Camaro Z28 that the last time I took it into the Chev dealer was because I could smell strong gas fumes from the fuel tank area.

They checked it out and said that the vent tube was broken or missing. So they were going to just put a new vent tube in and be done. Well the next day I got a call from the dealer saying that while attempting to replace the tube the "technician" broke the line from the fuel pump. So now a $300 job suddenly turned in to a $1,200 job.

After several e-mail conversations with the service manager, I was informed that the car is too old and they do not want to work on it any more. So much for Chev service.