5th Aug 2019, 12:52
I would also like to add, do not forget about regulation - it varies state by state in the USA, but in the UK they have pretty strict MOT (Ministry Of Transport) test like your USA yearly inspection in some states.
A lot of cars won't pass unless their emissions and things like any dash warning lights about electronic faults are in perfect order, so it is possible for a car to have a good bodywork and engine, be relatively young, and still end up on the scrap heap unfortunately. Here in the UK scrap is big business now - they pay you a small sum for your broken car, and sell the good parts for profit worldwide.
4th Aug 2019, 17:43
Maybe you are looking in the wrong places - I have seen this comment on here before. I believe the confusion comes from the UK / USA side of things. I live in the UK and the comment before yours is correct - over here the scrap yards are full of mid 2000's crap. Perfectly good cars but with so many electronic faults, (amongst some other mechanical stuff) they were uneconomical to repair. You guys in the USA must have good garages that can take care of older cars if they are still going, because here the average lifespan is around 11 years for a car.
Myself I just scrapped a Volvo S40, 2007 model. (Review is on here, see the 2007 S40 section the one with lots of comments) Good engine, transmission, body, the lot. But the airbag light was on. The exhaust was falling off. Clunking from suspension. You name it. The car was worth £1200 UK pounds at best, and my repair bill was quoted at over £2500. So you do the math. Why would I spend nearly 3 grand on a 12 year old car with over 100,000 when I can spend just the same £3000 and get a newer low mileage car? So that's exactly what I did. Makes much more sense.
As for 80s and 90s cars, well that was a long time ago, that's why most of them are in the scrap yard. And I do miss that era of cars - I easily got 15 years out of them, whereas nowadays cars are struggling for 12 years before the economy of keeping them or not has to considered. You could argue all day about reliability and what era was better, but longevity is an interesting one. I do not think we have seen much progress in that respect. Also in the UK the cost of having a car is substantially higher in general than you guys in the USA - fuel, insurance, and of course, parts and repairs. It is possible to keep an older car here - but it is getting harder.