Tom1200 said:Many moons ago Peter Egan wrote an article or made a comment people wouldn't restore modern cars due to the electronics.
So after reading this thread I'm struck by a couple of things.
People like Frenchyd, and really myself as well, can make our old carbed cars run forever...........I will not contend that they are better but they do work.
And my final thought.................I suspect in 40yrs they'll be more 140 year model Ts still running than 60 year old VW Touaregs. Not because the Model T was built to last but because enthusiast cars are run by people willing to do more to keep them going. I'd also be willing to bet that in 2050 some clever folks will make parts to keep your 2019 Scat Pack Charger on the road.
But that also means that nobody wants to learn electronics to deal with them. Which is really extrapolating a personal opinion to the general public.
There's clearly enough interest in electronics to keep cars running- given the amount of hacking that goes on that has been "slapped down". And how many small companies are out there to make problematic cars survive- on our '94 Alfa 164, there was a company that repaired the HVAC display 20 years ago.
If there is a desire to keep a car, someone will find a way. Someone will manage to smuggle out the development tools OEM's have and are scrapping- or at least make their own- I've seen some companies that made the tools that were our old RCON development tool.
Heck, all OBDI cars and earlier - the ECU can be replaced by almost any aftermarket one. So the era that I question computer durability- they can just be straight up replaced by something more modern. It's not cheap, and hardly ever DIY, but it can be done.
As for cars surviving- that really takes cars that are significant to want to keep running. T's are universally significant being the first car that was made for the every-man. Combine that with the numbers they made- which is probably two orders of magnitude more than the Touareg, well, yea the odds of more T's being running in 50 years is a good bet. Just like there will certainly be more Bugs running than Touaregs- heck, right now, there are probably more Bugs on the road than Touaregs.
