I feel horrible. I'm the guy that leaves notes. Old woman all over the town have my number, their old Toyota's and other interesting cars that have survived Armageddon in their car ports. Dead and buried their Toyota's will predictably outlive them.
These notes are there as a contact point, I want what you have, and whenever your done with it, I want to make sure it doesn't get scrapped. The world is the same new place it's always been, new ideas slowly turned into old. There are three worlds that begin with the letter 'R', displayed in a symbol of an infinite loop, however these 'R's have an order that many people have forgotten.
The Japanese car industry began by adding wheels to motorcycles, and eventually 3 wheelers became 4. When that 4th wheel hit the game of industrial catchup suddenly had a strong American influence. Pictures of these western boats obviously crossed the ocean, but they didn't bring scale and build quality along with them when they hit the shores of Japan. Just the gleam of chrome and gloss paint, and the Japanese cars reflected this in their much smaller designs.
Through the years the tofu has soaked up more and more cheeseburger flavor, and eventually the cores of these Japanese automakers began to smell like a royal au fromage. Recycling is a word that the english speaking world has accepted as universal name covering the three 'R's: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. All hail Cuba, they've got this order sorted out, unlike us, the reduction of new items, the reduction of waste, the reduction of recycled items comes first. Cuba takes using things again very literal, as they still use a majority of the cars that were on the island when the boarder shut for emigration and immigration in 1963. These cars have been rebuilt, endlessly, over and over again and are still in service today.
It's funny how laws affect lifestyle, Australia is a good example, their car industry is very interesting. In any case, North Americans have no incentive to 'reuse'. These use again, is part of the reduction of waste, but it's also part of the reduction of recycling. It's very much encouraged to just take that old car, and have it crushed to buy a new one, sometimes you even get a discount on your new car, both from the dealers and the governments. There's a few factors in mind, but the fact is, the order is backwards: recycling always comes first in North America, and this doesn't help anyone.
Recently I just couldn't save a tercel, there was one things wrong with the entire car, the lower control arms were damaged. Through my wide series of contacts I just couldn't find a decent replacement or repair. A perfectly saveable car, couldn't be saved, no one had the resources to spend saving it.
You've got 9 old cars of the same model driving around the area, and one in the junkyard. Chances the majority of those people are driving those old cars because, well, they still work. The minority are enthusiasts, or just enjoy their old car and want to keep it alive. The lack of care, sorry, compassion to maintaining older vehicles in North America has fault in the desire to feed the over fed auto workers. This one old car in the junkyard has a very high value for it's parts, there's a large number of customers needing parts, and most likely the same parts as some always wear before others. The problem is, those who drive old cars in North America are that split, of enthusiasts, or those who live in poverty. The Enthusiast will gladly pay a premium for parts if they can afford it, while the majority of users, who just use vehicles for transportation will not, and when one of their old cars breaks, it gets junked and replaced. Now, there are 2 in the junkyard and 8 on the roads. Slowly these 8 vehicles remaining work their way into the junkyard as well, but why? The prices the junkyard charges never changes with supply and demand. Demand will always raise a price, but once that supply increases, or the demand drops the price never seems to drop. This basically leads to the demise of these older vehicles, and unlike 30-40 years ago, new cars actually do not offer improvements over the old.
This cycle continues in North America, and sadly, it's completely illogical and wasteful, as it's proven that to produce a new car actually produces more waste than keeping and old one alive. However, there is a 4th 'R' and it's also to blame. Restoration is not helping the cause at all, the problem is, there are more people in either fields of work building new cars, or recycling old ones, and very few 'restoring' them. Restoration is a word that instantly associates itself with high costs; the idea of making something new, seems more intense and demanding than simply buying new, and this is the cause of a lack of jobs in the restoration sector. A lack of people just making things work like new again, and this is a very similar yet oddly very different idea than just a regular mechanic.
There's a huge industry here, and unlike new cars, the restoration of cars is not Mafia/Union/Politically controlled. These American car companies are just riddled with people working for other causes, oil companies, both foreign and domestic, mafia's mixed with unions, those wishing to move up or into the political ladder, and all their boys clubs, but there's no one there for the cars. The American government gave these companies money to help bring them back to their feet, only to be squandered to the vast internal competitive power struggles.
Lets talk about that for a second, the logistics of the bailout. Apparently $160 of each tax paying American residents taxes went to these companies. Now a massively small percentage of Americans actually work for these companies, for what purpose do these employees jobs matter more than those who paid for them to retain their right to resist change in their lives? $160 to each person would've changed the lives of many who struggle with poverty, and it's funny the lack of support for the rebuilding after Katrina.
I'd like to see a push to change these plants that produce new cars, to build parts for old ones. For these reliable old models to be rounded up, disassembled and brought back to life....
If anyone has some land, I'd like to start a Toyota graveyard.
Sorry, no pictures. I'm too mad for pictures.
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This world needs more humans like you. I enjoy reading these posts regarding car industry and other things that people don’t notice, like tiny windows on the bloated cars being made nowadays.
And my avatar is some kind of bastard triangle.
It would make me very happy to see you as the old, crotchety, hairy man that owns and lives in the Toyota Graveyard 40 years from now. Srsly.