Advanced Driving Hub

As an old one, who has, mainly, always self serviced and maintained our vehicles, I do think that, despite my dislike for some of the current digital control systems, the modern car is much more reliable, with easier and less servicing needed and longer lasting components.

We have cars at ten and more years old which have not needed any new exhaust components, a new battery, any suspension components, no new sensors and many other parts which, in the past, I'd be constantly working on.

What are others' experiences, especially the olduns?

Interesting thought... how do you define age ranges though? You refer to having cars at 10 and more years old - are they still modern?

I think that we might have gone through a golden era some 10-20 years ago when reliability in many instances was better, and the cars were still not hugely electronic... as soon as electronics (and I suppose I really mean computerised) became mainstream I think that it has reverted, though now instead of having mechanical issues it is electronic gremlins...

my z3 (2001) is basically very reliable (other than a current alarm unit issue)
my 2015 skoda octavia had a sensor failure within 1,400 miles from new!
my business partner's 4 year old Discovery 4 has all sorts of electronic issues

my future philosophy might well be along the lines of either older (classic) cars, or buy and keep only within warranty (or lease) so that some-one else picks up the electronic issues...

Alasdair

WhoseGeneration wrote:As an old one, who has, mainly, always self serviced and maintained our vehicles, I do think that, despite my dislike for some of the current digital control systems, the modern car is much more reliable, with easier and less servicing needed and longer lasting components.

We have cars at ten and more years old which have not needed any new exhaust components, a new battery, any suspension components, no new sensors and many other parts which, in the past, I'd be constantly working on.

What are others' experiences, especially the olduns?

I tend to agree.
We recently sold a Focus (Spanish made and spec and basically an ST chassis with a diesel engine) that in seven years did not have one single fault; not a light bulb, nothing at all. It was utterly reliable and nice to drive as well.
A Citroen van we've had for two years has not had a single fault or cause a moments concern.
The MX5 we have (2000 construction and 80s technology)has been mechanically reliable but body wise is typical of 80s vehicles; very prone to rust!
A 2005 model Seat did however need pretty much constant revision and replacement; something that has been a feature of all VW products I have ever owned.
By and large modern vehicles are much better made and the individual components are included in that.

I'm sure that modern cars are generally more reliable than those of earlier eras, but TBH I have not really had much trouble with lack of reliability, and that's going back, er, quite quite a long time.

To a large extent I think it boils down to how we treat our cars, and that doesn't mean we have to confine ourselves to pussyfooting around all the time in Miss Daisy fashion. A good bootful does 'em good periodically - if done with a good degree of mechanical sympathy. Well that's my story.

Yes 'use it or lose it' has stood me well also; no point in having the thing otherwise
An instructor of mine used to say 'keep the drive train in a straight line' which pretty much fits in with advanced driving in any case.

Have to agree with the OP. When I think back to the '70's and '80's and how frequently some of the company Fords I was driving at that time were almost routinely in the dealers for new exhausts, new dynamos, new shock absorbers, water pumps and the like, which were almost regarded as consumables in those days, then I have to agree that the modern car is a feat of engineering. In the last twelve years, in five cars I have had from new only one has required anything replaced other than during standard servicing, and that was a seat belt sensor that failed on the way home on after picking the car up! I've had a radiator seal failure and HGF on a couple of the MG's I've owned more recently, but then they have been subjected to a lot of track work.

I think i depends on how far back and what you call reliability. Back in the 70s when I was driving cars from the late 50s to early 60s they could be relied upon to break down regularly A points failure or water in the electrics seemed to be the cause of most. You had to check everything almost every day. As I became more affluent during the 80s I was driving newer cars and in general they were mechanically better but could be relied upon to rust to pieces and leak everywhere. Servicing time were extended as oils became better and the engineering tolerances improved. Today most cars should be very dependable unless you get a bad one.
My wife had a 2012 Panda that developed an electrical fault which caused a considerable reduction in ( already limited) power once the system had got to operating temperature. Main dealers could not cure it. Part x against a new car. All that said I have been surprised recently at the number of cars I have seen on the motorway hard shoulder. I guess that may be down to drivers not doing routine checks though

Without a doubt modern cars are more reliable. As I'm sure you already know, I tend to use my cars a lot (to the point of smugness even). Going back 20 years, it was fairly common for a car to have a major and expensive failure before getting to 100K. Now it's very unlikely. These days, I would say the first things to fail are more likely to be suspension and transmission components - and they're just as easy/hard to fix as they always have been, so I don't believe cars of today will be beyond the skill of the DIY mechanic of the future.

The things I don't like about modern cars are more to do with implementation and dumbing down of tech rather than the tech itself. To give an example, my car has an electric handbrake, which would be great if it didn't insist on being too clever. I don't know why it insists on applying itself automatically when stopped or why, when you put it in manual mode, you have to put your foot on the foot-brake before you can release it - and why in the name of all that is holy does it flash up a message on the sat-nav display to tell you the hand-brake has been applied and another when it's released - this is exactly the time I'm most likely to glance at the sat-nav.

I'm in agreement here. Modern cars are infinately more reliable than cars from the 50s and 60s, which was the vintage I had to start on in the late 60s.

Points failure was quite common, get a dirty plug lead and you'd lose power. At least at night you could see the current tracking up thr outside of the lead. Failure of a dynamo or coil was not that uncommon, and distributor caps were prone to developing a hairline crack. All easy to fix but bloody annoying at midnight on a cold winters night when it's p*****g down with rain.

Tyres lasting 3000 miles if you were lucky plus exhausts almost a yearly replacement.
Shock absorbers weren't much better and service intervals much less than nowadays.
The quality of ancillary parts was terrible from windscreen wiper blades to nodding dogs or spark plugs.
I won't go into the appalling handling and horrific brakes and lack of proper heaters.
Oh yes and six month warranties.