Hi Scotty,
Thank you for your free advice and entertaining video's. Watching your video's is always informative and at the very least puts a smile on my face.
I have a 2006 Opel Zafira B, 1.8 manual with just over 100k miles on the clock. I keep the vehicle maintained by servicing it regularly and replacing any components at the first sign of trouble. We bought the car second hand and had it for 8 years without any issues other than the usual wear and tear.
We will most likely not be able to afford a replacement vehicle and I wanted to know if it is practical to keep the car for the next ten years or more. What about things like airbags? Should that be replaced or removed at some stage?
Kind regards,
Klaus Oellrich
Western Cape,
South Africa
I don't think any modern vehicles will achieve the longevity of older vehicles simply because they have more and complex systems. The more electronic (auto start/stop) and mechanical (AFM, VVT) junk added to cars, the shorter their life will be. When there is more to go wrong, it will.
Thank you for the reply. How wonderful it is that a perfect stranger would take the time to answer my simple question. I suppose one could have asked google the same question, but getting an answer direct from the source just seems better to me.
Modern cars are filled to the brim with planned obsolescence, the way everything is built there's almost no way to keep the majority of them on the road for longer than 10 years or so. Just about everybody can learn how to change spark plugs, fuel injectors, and brake pads. But not everyone can learn how to fix computers, software, and security systems.
One example I have of earlier planned obsolescence is in my 1993 Olds, I one point when I was driving it I got off the highway and the car began to shutter and shake like mad when I got under 30 MPH and quickly put itself into failsafe mode, shut off and stopped, right on a freeway exit ramp.
While I had no idea what the problem was, it continued to happen whenever I drove at freeway speeds and slowed down, it was my only car at the time and was becoming a safety issue so I had to figure out what it was and fix it.
At first I thought it could be an issue with the transmission or computer, but then after some deeper digging I came across the knowledge that this car along with it's similar counterpart the Buick Century had a "clutch solenoid" which I learned lots of owners had unplugged or taken out when it stopped working for this exact reason alone, and when I did this the problem went away completely like it never happened. Sure, I sacrificed a bit fuel milage and the "check engine" light comes on often, but that was it.
Then I thought about it a bit, and I realized how many people they must've tricked into having their transmissions "serviced or replaced" When the clutch solenoid went out of these cars, these were reliable, well made, and great vehicles. But GM had to put in something that would stop working, and make the driver think it's the transmission that is going out so some money could given to the dealerships at the time, while there's an easy fix you can do by merely unplugging a cable in the engine bay.
This is just one of the earlier examples of planned obsolescence, it started with smaller things like the smoke control systems in the late 70s and worked it's way into cars more and more since then, it's now at the point where 50 different things can go wrong in a car, the majority of which people cannot fix on their own.
The more gadgets and gizmos get put into the new cars, the shorter of a life span they will have, just based on the fact like everything else the gadgets and gizmos with the lesser quality will age and stop functioning, and the owner will have to either replace and repair thousands of dollars in the cars functionality, or get a new/used car. And when everything new is so expensive which option do you think they're going to chose?
You can attempt to keep a newer car forever, but you better have a very, VERY big bank account.
Thank you for sharing some of your personal experiences. I agree that modern cars are not made to last as long as the old ones. I think that car manufacturers have lost some of their pride as time went on and profit became the main factor. I just have to believe that my Opel is somehow different to the cars that came from the same era and that it will magically last as long as I need it to last. Fingers crossed. Hopefully future repairs will still be cheaper than another second hand replacement which will come with it's own hidden costs.
You're welcome, I'm glad one of my car stories could have some significance on this topic. I do think profit became a driving factor in the cheapness and planned obsolescence of cars especially in the last 10 years, but that's just a tip of the iceberg when it comes to the full story, I'm still doing occasional research on this subject just out of pure curiosity. But considering that your car is a manual, it's non turbo, and it only has just over 100k miles, if you don't drive it too much and you take care of it on a yearly basis, it's possible you could have it for the next 10 years without any major problems happening. I'm not %100 sure on this, but it is possible. Also don't drive it like a maniac lol.
It used to be you would have labels in the car to replace air bags once every 10 to 15 years. Modern vehicles, however, do not require airbag replacement no matter how long you own the vehicle (assuming they have not been deployed).
Is it possible to keep the car indefinitely? Yes. But you need a deep wallet so you have the ability to cover major repairs.
Thank you for the reply. I would like to extend the same gratitude to you as I did to "Doc", but feel a simple copy and paste is not appropriate. Again I am pleasantly surprised that anyone bothered to take the time to respond to my question. I see that you are a former GM Engineer. Do you think GM produced good cars between 2005 and 2015? Also is a 2006 Opel more of an Opel or more GM?
I would not put much faith into anything GM beyond right around 2006. That's around when quality control fell off. As for the Opel, I'd say more GM than Opel. And you're welcome. Answering questions is what we are here for. 🙂
I recommend keeping up with the maintenance and repairs as long as it is worth doing so.
Some cars can last 200K miles, 300K miles, or more miles on just basic maintenance. Others have a tough time getting to 100K without putting major money down.
