David,
It has been said that there are more parts available for MGBs now than
there was when they were in production. Prices are lower too! My
son-in-law paid Cdn$350 for a new alternator for his 2 year old Ford
Contour - I paid $80 for the one for the MGB! Twenty years ago no garage
would touch my MG - they only serviced "late model domestic cars". Now I
find they flock to it and murmur in delight as they recognize actual
motor-car parts as opposed to pipes and plug in spots for diagnostic computers.
At 10:12 AM 1/24/2003 -0800, David Breneman wrote:
>james SEZ -
> > My dad's Audi A4 has them, and I have always felt that they looked green
> > when they dim. I have a four panel wink mirror in my V8 and like you said,
> > I only notice it when I realize that I am not being blinded.
>
>My evil dolphin-killing Trailblazer has them as well, and they
>do turn slightly green when active, like a pair of sunglasses.
>There is also a slight double image effect, so I assume the
>dimming layer is somewhat separated from the reflective layer.
>All this fancy-shmancy stuff on cars and trucks today makes me
>wonder if any vehicle made in the last 20 or so years will ever
>have any collector value. In a few decades all this stuff will
>be obsolete or broken with replacement parts unavailable.
>
>I have a hard time imagining, say, a 2003 Silverado ever becoming
>someone's beloved old beater pickup truck like the trucks my
>friends owned in their teens and twenties (and some even own now).
>I really liked my 1995 Blazer, but I lost interest in it fast when
>I learned that after 250,000 miles, it would need a $4000 engine
>rebuild to combat *electrolysis* from some as-yet-unidentified
>computer-comtrolled something with a bad ground under the hood
>that had trashed two heater cores in three months.
>
>It seemed like a yuppie Eldorado when I bought it, but the
>new one has the computer tied into *everything*! It will even
>turn off the dome light if you leave it on too long. IT has
>two fuse/breaker blocks with dozens of fuses in each, and
>even a mysterious cooling fan that runs inside one of the
>door pillars for several minutes when the engine is shut off.
>This ain't no shade-tree mechanic's vehicle, if such a car or
>truck is even made today. When it starts to act up, it's off
>to the crusher I'll bet.
>
>In contrast, the primitive zero-electronic driving experience of
>my MGA (as I remember it and hope to experience it again this
>summer when it's back on the road) is refreshingly minimalist.
>And I'm sure you'll still be able to buy the same U-joint that
>fits any MG (through the MGB) made since 1928 in 2028, but the
>self-dimming mirror for the Trailblazer will have been discontinued
>long ago.
>
>--
>David Breneman | "Before there were CDs there were
>Distributed Systems S/W Analyst | records, and before there were
>Airborne Express, Inc. | records, there were 78s."
>david.breneman@airborne.com | --- Seen on eBay
Regards
Barrie
Barrie Robinson
barrier@bconnex.net
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