Ed Burger wrote:
> I don't know if this has been said yet, but what Mazda is going to be
> around in any restorable condition in 20 years? My Mom has a 1995 626
> and the things allready showing signs of wear. I don't really know of
> many newer cars that will be around in 20 years.
But compare apples to apples here. Most of the cars we find nowadays
that are really worth restoring are in 50000 mile range. For a 20-40
year old car, that works out to like 2000 miles a year, or more likely,
a few years of use and many years of storage.
Simply put, most LBCs on the road right now haven't been in
daily usage since they were new. Your mom's 1995 probably has
25000 miles on it already, perhaps more. It probably also sees
all season and all weather use. It has had half as much wear
and tear in the last two years that many of our LBCs have in
their whole lives, and probably never got treated with the
same care and devotion as our cars.
The LBCs that we are all driving now were, in general, not driven
since the day they were new. They were likely not driven in winters,
and might have been spare the odd rainstorm. If they were daily
driven the usual 15000 miles a year, even the newest 1980 cars
would have a quarter of a million miles on it.
I'm certainly not saying that people bought LBCs and never
drove them, that's not true. Some people bought them brand new,
used them as daily drivers, and got tonnes of enjoyable miles
out of them. It's just that those cars are mostly the parts cars
and crushed shells of today. The number of 200000 mile LBCs
out there is pretty slim.
> I don't personally ever forsee an aftermarket of parts for the
> Miata
I'm not a big Miata fan, but even today the Miata aftermarket
parts industry is enormous. As more of the cars leave the hands
of housewives and land in the hands of enthusiasts, I suspect that
the industry will continue to grow. (especially as the value of
the cars depreciates and people are more likely to hack them
up for fun)
--
Trevor Boicey
Ottawa, Canada
tboicey@brit.ca
http://www.brit.ca/~tboicey/
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