Posted by David Sherman on Wednesday, December 20, 2000 at 20:18:03:
In Reply to: Collector Vehicles Threatened? posted by Troubled Owner on Wednesday, December 20, 2000 at 17:30:30:
I do think those guys are "spitting" into the wind. I've heard lots of these drastic scare stories for conservatives and liberals about dire things the government is about to do. I do believe "eternal vigilance is the price of freedom", but I find it hard to believe that anybody is pushing to ban the manufacturer of parts for old vehicles. On the other hand, when the price of gas goes up by 100X, like the wholesale price of electricity has in California recently, they might was well ban our vehicles.
The main reason new cars won't be on the road 100 years from now is the electronics. Not only is all the computerized stuff hard to fix, but in order to fix it you need to get the custom chips they use. Once the model is discontinued and they quit making the chips, you're hosed. Government edicts or not, a good machinist could make any part needed for an old truck, but nobody can make a replacement CPU for an engine-control module.