Is there a market for basic cars, appliances,etc?

[Lee DeRaud]

My parents had a 1977 Ford LTD II where the engine seized at 85,000 miles.

I always thought the traditional Detroit design criteria called for the body to rust through about the same time the engine needed rebuilding.

[dennis thompson]

When I started this thread my idea was a basic car, appliance, etc.. This thread seems, in some responses, to indicate that basic equals junk, I.e. the picture of a Yugo, probably the worst car ever made. Of course I want a quality product, but just with some basic requirements, unlike the Toyota Highlander described in one response. For example I have friend,who bought a new car with what I guess you call lane control. She shut it off as it was driving her nuts yelling at her every minute or two.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Dennis, These are good things for me to be thinking about. I saw an Instapot on the curb last trash day. The kids thought we should have one , so we do. I like it and use it. I it will be on the curb long before our pressure cookers.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

My first vehicle was a 1949 International KB-2 pick up. I wish I still had it. The heater worked so well that you could probably toast marshmallows in front of it. The air conditioning was great too. It was a crank on the dash that opened the windsheild. If you wanted to use the air it helped to have goggles.

Scan_20220416 (2).jpg Whoops I left the AC on.

[Kev Williams]

When I started this thread my idea was a basic car, appliance, etc.. This thread seems, in some responses, to indicate that basic equals junk, I.e. the picture of a Yugo, probably the worst car ever made. Of course I want a quality product, but just with some basic requirements, unlike the Toyota Highlander described in one response...

These exist-- Like my Truck:
mytruck.jpg
-- bought new in 2002, options: 4-wheel drive (manual hubs), auto trans, air, cruise control... That's it. Manual windows, no carpet, AM/FM radio, no frills... Was it dirt cheap? No, but $24k wasn't bad either...

Back in 1982 I bought a new Plymouth TC3, $5250-
mine was silver-blue, and no fancy stripe
tc3.jpg
other than an AM/FM radio, NO options whatsoever, 2.2 4-banger, stick shift. Never had a single problem with it, sold it to a friend a couple years later who got 240k miles on before needing a head gasket. The TC3 was truly a very decent and reliable car, pretty much opposite a Yugo

For comparison, 2 years later my new '84 Buick Regal Ttype Turbo cost me $15,800--
buick.jpg
Very cool, fast car, but of all the cars I've ever owned, this was the absolute winner in the 'unreliable' category. Bar none the worst car I ever owned...3x the money of the TC3, probably the best car I've owned..

That was then, but good cheap cars are still out there. Maybe not 'cheap' like the old days, even the sparsest frilled car will need expensive ABS brakes, air bags, engine control systems... And at the moment one may have to wait awhile for the worldwide logistics nightmare to wind down a bit...

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I am in the market to replace my old truck. It's going to be a long search.

Screen Shot 2022-04-17 at 8.20.14 PM.jpg

[Andrew More]

I am in the market to replace my old truck. It's going to be a long search.

Guessing that has one of those fancy new electric starters. I think we should seriously consider going back to the basic hand crank starters. Sure it's a bit more work, but this electricity thing is probably a fad, and you can't depend on batteries, and a hand crank is so much more reliable.

[Mike Soaper]

The heating elements in our 20yr old 4 slice toaster were starting to fail so the toasting wasn't all that great, that and occasionally the toaster would launch a piece of toast onto the counter top.

We ordered a 2 slice wide slot toaster for homemade breads. It had a count down timer to let you know when the toast would be done, but it couldn't make a decent piece of toast. One side burnt on the edges, the other side half untoasted the other half burnt. Sent it back, the older failing one worked better.

[Curt Harms]

Some people have difficulty with the map due to an inability to visualize the scale difference. Then of course there are those who can never fold the map properly once it is opened.

My vehicle GPS is nice but it does make mistakes or is ambiguous. It looks like it is a few years old. My vehicle shows most of the street speed limits on the display. Some of the speed limits in town have been lowered in the past few years so mine shows many incorrectly.

Google maps are also off at times. As someone else mentioned the street name being wrong. My street finally was corrected but then they have put in nonexistent roads:

Attachment 476268

Google shows the road going by my house & shop to the neighbors'. It ends about where the top black line is in front of my shop. It connects to my neighbors' properties by a road along an easement at the front of my property indicated be the lower black line in the bottom half of the image.




This is from one of my favorite scenes in Remo Williams The Adventure Begins:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1tJOKHxezo

jtk

I have a stand alone Garmin GPS as well as Google maps on my phone. The Garmin maps sometimes don't show roads where there clearly is one - I'm driving on it. The other thing about Garmin is they love to use local names for roads rather than route numbers. Local names that NOBODY uses. I don't know how many different roads in my area are named "meeting house road" (for the Quaker meetinghouse it led to) or "Headquarters Road" (Revolutionary war headquarters at some point). That worked fine when people seldom traveled more than 10 miles from home. It's confusing today.

[Andrew More]

Mike I thought this video on toasters was pretty good. Basically Toaster Technology peaked in the 1920s and it's been a downward slide ever since. I mean it makes sense if you think about it, you just need a way to get a couple of wires hot.

[Brian Elfert]

I have a stand alone Garmin GPS as well as Google maps on my phone. The Garmin maps sometimes don't show roads where there clearly is one - I'm driving on it. The other thing about Garmin is they love to use local names for roads rather than route numbers. Local names that NOBODY uses. I don't know how many different roads in my area are named "meeting house road" (for the Quaker meetinghouse it led to) or "Headquarters Road" (Revolutionary war headquarters at some point). That worked fine when people seldom traveled more than 10 miles from home. It's confusing today.

In 2018 I went on a long road trip with a group of friends. One of them had a fancy Garmin GPS so we used that for most of the trip. At one point we were on Hwy 99 in California. The GPS showed us driving across a field. Hwy 99 had been rebuilt and apparently shifted over 100 or 200 feet.

[Kev Williams]

The heating elements in our 20yr old 4 slice toaster were starting to fail so the toasting wasn't all that great, that and occasionally the toaster would launch a piece of toast onto the counter top.

We ordered a 2 slice wide slot toaster for homemade breads. It had a count down timer to let you know when the toast would be done, but it couldn't make a decent piece of toast. One side burnt on the edges, the other side half untoasted the other half burnt. Sent it back, the older failing one worked better.

We have one of these Cuisinart do-it-all ovens-
cto.jpg
While it's the exact opposite of the thread topic, aside from it being ridiculously fast at air-frying,
great for cooking hot dogs, re-heating fries and pizza (among other things),
since it's essentially a 'convection toaster' it even makes great toast! And just as fast as my regular toaster...

[Jim Becker]

We have one of these Cuisinart do-it-all ovens-
cto.jpg
While it's the exact opposite of the thread topic, aside from it being ridiculously fast at air-frying,
great for cooking hot dogs, re-heating fries and pizza (among other things),
since it's essentially a 'convection toaster' it even makes great toast! And just as fast as my regular toaster...

Same, but ours is a Ninja. Wonderful machine and it performs a whole lot of tasks in my kitchen. I can't even remember the last time I actually owned a normal "toster" as we switched to toaster ovens a couple decades ago and now do the Ninja Foodi that "slices, dices and julians".

[Warren Lake]

always had old vehicles like shop machinery. Last year first time 19 years the 72 pickup would not start. Figured it was the solenoid. Guys on here said loosen the nut rotate the bolt new surface so likely could have kept going. Took it in and for a new solenoid, bench test and new brushes. In on monday aft call tuesday morning first thing it was ready 90.00. newest car is 18 years old bought for good gas mileage for distance stuff.

[Jim Becker]

When I started this thread my idea was a basic car, appliance, etc.. This thread seems, in some responses, to indicate that basic equals junk, .

Sadly, in many cases that actually has come to pass. Setting aside vehicles for a moment, when it comes to things like appliances that are mass produced, quality, quality control and value have evolved to what I'll call "short term solutions". That's not actually limited to the lowest, "base" products, either. It just the way that things have evolved. For vehicles, you can still buy "base" vehicles, but they are harder to find because of low demand and even those have to meet certain safety requirements that require electronics...