4th Sep 2017, 08:08
I am with you on how modern cars being disposable. I recently just purchased a 17 Impala, and posted a review on it.
As much as I love the car and all the new features it has, including the way it drives, I don't consider it being a classic, or gathering any sort of significance in the future like how my older classic cars from the 60s and 70s do. Modern cars simply cannot compare in terms of styling, character, presence, and that cool feeling you get getting behind the wheel of something fully mechanical.
Sure the new stuff is reliable in all, but they are getting impossible for any DIYer to be able to work on them, without some sort of special tools, a laptop, and having tiny hands just so you can be able to access a hard to reach part.
Also, I feel that the body and interior parts not might hold up in 10-20 years. Paint is thin, the door handles are plastic, and use plastic hinges, this is an issue in all new cars, the old metal door handles were built to last, and I worry that that will probably be one part that will need replacing in the near future because of constant use. Too many plastic engine parts to fail, and plastic trim pieces that will eventually break in a short amount of time.
Another big problem I cannot stand, and this goes for the majority of FWD unibody cars, is how they ride. NVH is getting better in them and this Impala is a perfect example, but you still hear high amounts of road noise in the majority of new cars, and the ride quality is very bumpy, uneven and stiff. There's hardly any wheel travel either, so when going over a pot hole, you tend to feel it more often than not. Added foam and sound deadening materials are helping improve NVH, but even with all those improvements, a body-on-frame car will still ride so much better, and block out tire noise than a uni-body in my experience, especially if it is big Chevy, Ford or Chrysler sedan of the late 60s-70s. Cadillac or Lincoln being the ultimate ride back then, nothing can touch those classics as far ride smoothness goes, they are pure heavenly to drive. Only a modern Bently-Rolls compares.
In an RWD luxury based car, or even an old Buick, Pontiac or big full-size Ford sedan of the 60s and 70s, the ride was, and still is so much more comfortable, and smoother vs the modern FWD. The reason for this is because you cannot compare front struts with its limited suspension geometry to a Short-L-Arm suspension in an RWD car that has a lot more wheel movement and is able to absorb road shocks much better.
Add to the fact that the big RWD cars of yore were beefy and had a full frame underneath of it, the driveability and road smoothness is almost impossible to obtain these days unless you purchase a Chrysler 300 or something much more expensive. I know my new 17 Impala doesn't ride nearly as nice, like my uncle's 65 Impala did; that car glided down the road with such a calmness, that it makes you wonder, with all the new state of the art technology with modern body design, and engineering improvements that have been made in the last 20 years in new vehicles, why on earth can't automakers design a car that can ride as nice like those big old RWD 60s-70s American cars using old suspension technology?
Sometimes progress isn't so great after all in certain cases.
31st Aug 2017, 21:15
I tend to agree with you. But, older cars from 60s, 70s, and even 80s now, are a bit impractical as an everyday driver for most people who lack technical knowledge to maintain them. They are really only good as a second car to play about with. And good old nostalgia.
In my humble opinion however, the 90s was the most reliable period for cars, and is still just about feasible to run everyday. But even now most cars from that era are getting rarer. As for more modern cars made after the year 2000 - no one is denying they have come a long way and generally improved in security, safety and driving dynamics, but the problem seems to be (as others have already alluded to) the general cost of when something electronic goes wrong on a car in the last 15 years or so; it really is worthless as it will likely cost more than the car to repair.