MORE than expensive - outrageous!

This price would not have caused me so much anguish.

 

Apple computers are great. A lot of people who work with IBM

What the HELL is an IBM Compatible? I believe the correct term these
days is "PC" or "Windows Machine"

IBM doesn't set the standards for other PC manufacturers to follow
anymore.



Back to the post about the electronics cost comparison - that's the
most ridiculous comparison I've ever seen. A 1 gram microprocessor
costs a hell of a lot more than a 1 gram nand-gate array, and the 1
gram microprocessor needed MANY more engineers and many more hours to
develop than the nand array. Weight is a piss poor factor to use when
comparing electronics

 

I dunno... seems like you made of well considering. You applied some
sort of pointless weight to dollar formula that didn't really have
anything to do with anything thats why I made up mine. Believe me,
there are things smaller and much more expensive than that probably in
your own house, you just don't know it.
Components fail, these things happen and we have to live with it.
Cars are imperfect machines made by imperfect beings.

 

We should have acreage with maybe half a dozen '81 Hondas or '73
Datsuns parked in the weeds. Then there'd be no problem with parts
departments or scrap yards.

Did you ever hear the story about why Datsuns were called Datsuns and
not Nissans? Nissan was not convinced that their cars would be
suitable for US consumers or successful in the marketplace. They
called the early cars "Datsun" so that a failure in the marketplace
would not reflect negatively on the Nissan brand name.

 

I am sure my car ('73 Datsun 1200) hasn't cost anythere near your
example yearly rate in the ENTIRE 30 years I've had it. Can't complain
at all. I can only hope that my "new" '95 Nissan proves as frugal to
own.

Of course, the Datsun is all beat-up looking on the outside...sort of
in character with my chronic "cash flow" problem. In fact, the car
looks quite at home here in El Paso, TX, on the Mexican border, since
people think it's one of the many junker car visiting from
Mexico...except mine doesn't smoke!

And when I am driving slow -- like 42.5 mph on freeway access/frontage
roads listening to my really nice sound system with beverage
refreshments -- cops don't pay any attention to me since my car looks
like it couldn't GO any faster anyway. ;-)

John D.

 

That's a pretty tall spec. Try adding that to the sales contract and I
doubt you'll find a dealer in North America who'd sell you a car.

That's your goal (which I understand, BTW, having just a new Accord as
my "retirement car") and has nothing to do with Honda or Honda dealers.

Keep in mind that companies don't really "care" about their customers,
no matter what their advertising screams about. They want to sell you
something good enough so you'll come back and buy another, and they want
to make money on both transactions. IMHO it's completely unrealistic to
expect any big company to really care about its customers, everyone has
a sad story.

 

I don't agree.

What's an "igniter"? I'm not familiar with the term.

 

No, with or without gas & oil?

 

Thanks.

I have done this analysis many times and you've hit the nail on the
head. That's why my long-term plan is to get out of car ownership
altogether. All I really need if I live in the right place is public
transportation, cabs for special occasions, and to be able to rent a
car every now and again. London or Amsterdam would be nice, Rome or
Paris better still, but, alas, it will have to be Portland or Seattle.

 

Good idea. I did suggest this jokingly to my mechanic, but he wasn't
laughing. Car storage costs $25-$50/mo. Befor I spent money on that,
I think I'd get a telephone. But that's a good idea. As I suggested
to someone else in this thread, I need a piece of property with a half
dozen junkers parked in the weeds

 

You'd never know by me. I guess Windows machine is better and I will
try to use it henceforth. Thank you.

It's not ridiculous. I'd rather think of it as interesting. C'mon,
loosen up a little bit. Any other analysis would be technical, and I
don't have the figures or the know-how. It should be obvious to all
who read my cost analysis that it's tongue in cheek. I only did it
because it was the closest thing I had that had the same components -
electronics and plastic. Maybe the television/VCR remote control. But
I have no specific cost figures to go by, and then there's always...
with or without batteries.

If I was off by 50%, then it's a factor of 45 instead of 90. That
would be an $8,500 computer (by weight of electronics and plastics).
Still way too expensive. Or $2,400 divided by 45 = $53 for the part.
I would have paid $53 without a second thought.

 

My mechanic said that this component rarely fails. Someone here
suggested that this item should not have failed. Failure was bad
enough, but the o'priced part took the cake.

 

Falling asleep through expensive's post...

That you're going on and on about it does as well

Haha, that was good

I've learned that you cannot price parts like that in a junkyard. The hard
way.

I take back any remark then. Still, the way you carried on sounded like
one without any mechanical experience.

Even if parts are never supposed to die in Hondas, and your's was a rare
part to break, remember the time it was made. Electronics have come a long
way. You got 22 years out of it. Low milage or not, it's sat through at
least 21 winters and summers, all of which can **** with a consumer grade
part. But, you are expecting a little much, now knowing that you were/are
an avaition mechanic. They don't build cars like those planes! Especially
back then

--
"If you can't change a tire, you're not allowed to have a beard. It's the
most basic part of a car: If you don't know that much about a car, you
really shouldn't be driving, should you?" - Jimmy Kimmel

Dan**** (10:38:51 PM): I have more respect for you than ever before

 

It's a little super-gotcha hummer under the rotor that takes the place
of points and associated stuff. It looks like a little pile of
electronic components like diodes and other circuitry encased in resin
and a plastic case. That's why I compared it with my notebook
computer. They both might not be beagles, but they're both canines.

 

I would say without the driver but with gas and oil.

 

You're going well past reasonable with this discussion. Do you really
believe that anything man-made will last forever? In the same way as people
get sick, vehicles break down, it's a fact of life.

Whether you want to admit it or not, you are driving a vehicle that is
twenty two years old. It does not matter that you only drive it a few times
a week, the parts that make up the vehicle are twenty two years old and you
are extremely lucky to have gotten that much time out of the vehicle.

You're crying over a very small amount of money to get your vehicle back on
the road. I think if this amount of petty cash has you worked up to this
point, you probably can't afford to operate a vehicle in the first place. My
god man, give your head a shake and when the rattling dies down, that means
that the marbles have lined themselves back into place. LOL!

 

You're priceless.

 

San Leandro Honda sells it for $153.

 

That's one way to look at it, I guess. But I don't agree. Once
someone feels as if they've been wronged, it's hard to dispel the
notion. So that's where I'm at. The dealer, in my opinion, made my
bank account smaller than he should have. If I do the same by telling
my igniter story, then turnabout's fair play.

 

<hLgWa.47564$>, Stephen

Thank you.