Who Says Cars Aren't an Investment 4126Replace "they" with "you" in the following excerpt from "Perhaps they should ask Vancouver BC's Andrew Grant, the world's first Toyota Prius taxi cab driver. After...
On Wed, 13 Apr 2005 18:12:46 -0700, L Sternn
Lab tests and real life usually have nothing in common. Least of all battery tests, which simply buttume that because of some more charge and discharge cycles in a nice airconditioned lab they will be able to predict the lifespan of a battery that may be frozen today, heated to 200 degrees tomorrow and ...
And the 'lifespan' the japanese car manufacturers usually apply is about 5 years, because in Japan you have to junk your car after 5 years if you don't want to perform a total resto with exchange of most safety relevant parts, including the complete brake system (yes, with lines).
There is a market for parts for 20 year old Hondas. Yet the parts are very hard to come by or simply unavailable, which makes hacks necessary.
The japanese auto makers want you to junk your car every 5 years and buy a new one. They don't care about clbuttic cars or people who don't want to blow 30000 bucks by buying a new car every 5 years.
Feel free to buy a Prius and come back in 10 years, when your dealer told you that your battery is damaged and a new one costs $10000 instead of the original 5000 because there are only a handful of them left.
Chris
