who looks at cars different because of internet

i am 53 years old and have been doing things with cars since i was 14 years old and i use to walk away from some cars because it was a pain to get parts for it. It took many phone calls, looking in the back of magazines to try to locate the parts you needed. Now its just a click of the mouse away. what took days or months now takes minutes. so now when i look at cars to buy first thing i do is google it and find out right there what parts are out there the going prices what do people feel about it all while i am standing there looking at it. you young guys have it so easy.......i wish i was 25yrs younger

I was just talking about this with a guy on my kids soccer team. I was telling him that I could tackle just about anything now because 10 minutes of googling will turn up my problem, it's solution, and a step by step procedure usually with pictures. If someone has owned it and fixed it they've posted about it somewhere, I just have to find it.
It's awesome.

Well, I'll be damned; I am 25 years younger. The big change I have seen is from early internet parts to later. The newer ebay parts are much better than what was available.

I remember when I had my Dodge Colt GT Turbo. I was working at a parts store and this was really before many message boards. I as looking at the engine and my buddies talon and thought man they look very close. I took a long time when it was slow in work and I would compare the parts between the two.

Now, 10 minutes on www.4g61T.org will give you everything you need.

Parts shopping is a breeze now. Google the car and find out what is available.

Parts are more convenient but for me a much bigger impact is the easy information you can get. Knowing I can get on a message board and talk to guys that have done the same stupid conversion I'm thinking about really raps ds what I'm willing to consider doing

When I bought my TR3 in 1976, there was almost nowhere to buy parts other than a few engine parts. The Roadster Factory started around that time, but is was all through the mail or phone. Now I can get parts with a couple of mouse clicks and in a few days. It may take a while, but you can darn near get anything for anything.

Simultaneously, used car prices have skyrocketed and under 150k miles is considered "low mileage" by many.

Parts-wise, totally agree with everyone. There is virtually nothing you can't find a solution for in a few minutes of searching provided you are not restoring some sort of steam powered buggy from the turn of the century.

The cost of parts though has gone through the roof. I was just pricing new repro body panels for a 70 Chevelle and just to buy/ship new quarters - I could have just about bought a new Chevelle in 1970.

I can buy odd ball cars with more confidence. Heck I can find parts for my almost 50 year old Vauxhall without too much heart burn. Just got a carb rebuild kit from Australia.

mazdeuce wrote: I was just talking about this with a guy on my kids soccer team. I was telling him that I could tackle just about anything now because 10 minutes of googling will turn up my problem, it's solution, and a step by step procedure usually with pictures. If someone has owned it and fixed it they've posted about it somewhere, I just have to find it. It's awesome.

This. It's not just cars. As long as a job doesn't require special skills or expensive tools, I'm usually willing to take it on. Case in point, I put up a tile backsplash when we re-did our kitchen. I've never done tile work in my life, but I read a couple of guides, watched a couple of Youtube videos, took my time, and it came out great. God bless the internet!

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: I was just pricing new repro body panels for a 70 Chevelle and just to buy/ship new quarters - I could have just about bought a new Chevelle in 1970.

i have a rust free 70 chevelle sitting in my sisters barn outside Lynchburg Va. it has a bad 307 in it auto bench seat car i could sale you at a good price the internet is a wonderful thing

Tom_Spangler wrote:

mazdeuce wrote: I was just talking about this with a guy on my kids soccer team. I was telling him that I could tackle just about anything now because 10 minutes of googling will turn up my problem, it's solution, and a step by step procedure usually with pictures. If someone has owned it and fixed it they've posted about it somewhere, I just have to find it. It's awesome.

This. It's not just cars. As long as a job doesn't require special skills or expensive tools, I'm usually willing to take it on. Case in point, I put up a tile backsplash when we re-did our kitchen. I've never done tile work in my life, but I read a couple of guides, watched a couple of Youtube videos, took my time, and it came out great. God bless the internet!

This. It's prety much everything. Hell, I can often get .pdf owner's manuals for older appliances and electronics with a few clicks anymore, so buying used stuff is able to be done with more confidence. And tackling repair jobs, while not always a breeze, is MUCH easier when you have expert advice just a few clicks away at any time of day or night.

I'm younger than you, but in high school, I inherited the '67 Plymouth Belvedere II hardtop that my grandfather had bought new. I pretty much grew up in that car. Eventually, I sold it for $300 because the gas tank was leaking and I couldn't find a replacement. I didn't even know that Mopar magazines existed because the only book store around didn't carry them. Today, I would be able to find anything I'd need to restore the car from the ground up.

The only thing that I wasn't able to find was my grandfather's car. I searched for ten years before finding the guy who cut it up and used "everything" to restore his GTX.

The cars I drive wouldn't be 1/2 as interesting without the internet.

That said, I still use the Haynes manual for many many things. The internet just makes it much easier. Hurrah for pictures!

Pre-internet days were a E36 M3load more work... but very interesting to say the least. You bought every car, bike, 4X4 and mechanical rag on the shelf and scoured for info and ads, ordered all the catalogs you could find. Bought books and manuals... lotta books. Tech lines were a godsend, Summit was great for street/ race type of stuff as long as it was Chevy/ Ford/ Mopar. You made contacts at the track, machine shop or bench racing and highly valued them. Oddball stuff took a lot more digging.

When I was looking to replace the old Water Buffalo w/ a 1L four stroke for my old D/SR I'd hit the cycle rag ads, called every day after work for builders/ suppliers. Call FBF, Elrado Ferraci answers the phone... wow, it's the frickin' man himself. Yamaha was hot at the time so after a few lesser calls I went to the top w/ Don Vesco's shop. Billy Tally answers, I explained the parameters for the D/SR powerplant. Within ten minutes not only did he convince me of the FZR 1000 engine but provided the hot set up w/ reground cams, ignition, carbs, oil pump and baffling, primary header length for my app etc. Spent an hour after that just BSn racing, Billy was Vesco's right hand man, had his own LSR bike... geezus, this guy is berkeleying brilliant... the stories, wow. Little did I know who he was at the time.

Drew up plans for a Quaife diff for the D/SR using their VW Golf unit. Needed custom output gears/ axle stubs made. Up at 3 a.m. EST and call England... Michael Quaife himself answers the phone. Yea, we can do that, fax the print over, had 'em w/ in two weeks. Cool dude there, he was intrigued by the alternate uses of their products at the time.

There's plenty more powerhouse people I've spoken with but that's how it was done back then, hell it wasn't even that long ago. The internet may provide tons more information these days but it has become much less personable. Yea, I'm prolly the dinosaur here.

I like the internet/ Information Age but I still value the old days/ ways too.

In reply to cutter67:

In a sense, I'm actually mad about it. When I graduated high school, I had a '65 Chevelle Malibu 4-door. I loved that car. I actually can't describe the love I had for that car. When I learned up on '65 Chevelles on the internet then (1999), I got all these ideas in my head of what I wanted to do with it, but nobody made parts for the '65 Chevelle.

I ended up having to sell it scrap price to a guy who just wanted the drivetrain because the bolt that retained the spider gear pin in the rear axle was sheared off by the PO. I couldn't find another axle anywhere.

Literally 3 years later one of the big parts repro companies decided to make parts for other year Chevelles that weren't produced between 1968 and 1972 and all of a sudden it was one click on the internet and I could have a new set of quarters for my 4-Door Chevelle.. I was mad. I'm still mad.

Fortunately by the time I was able to buy a car, the internet was available and you could find most information on most cars, so learning up on stuff became easy.

The Internet is great. We had a Maytag vibration issue and I found our urethane (poly?) wear ring had worn out - new ring and I was back in business.

Same thing with cars - replaced the Trailblazer battery and the heating/cooling actuators mess up. Found the issue on the web.

When I built stuff, pre-internet, I did a ridiculous amount of research, and running around to get info and parts. In hindsight, it's really amazing what I ended up with, but one project would take well over a year, countless phone calls, and visits to shops and individuals before my research was complete. In the end, I was always successful, whether it was a street, or race car, and because of the info and parts I gathered, was almost always able to do it on a small budget. I really enjoyed that legwork, was really good at it, and it always gave me an advantage. Today, I (and everybody else I race against) could do most of that research in under 30 minutes on the internet.

I don't believe the 'net has changed how I look at cars. I do believe that is has changed what I look for in cars. I am no longer "stuck" with cars I would never buy because they aren't around locally, too expensive, or impossible to get parts for besides the dealer.

Certain fixes I have had to do, I don't think I would find immediately like I do now, but I would still find them.

JohnRW1621 wrote: Simultaneously, used car prices have skyrocketed and under 150k miles is considered "low mileage" by many.

Agree. Except for me, I just fly down to Washington, Oregon, or California, and buy a car at a significantly reduced price (probably 20% compared to up here) that is in mint shape since it's never saw snow, salt, or -40*C weather, and then bring it back up here (which is really only possible thanks to the interwebs)

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: The cost of parts though has gone through the roof.

Disagree, at least for more common stuff. It really depends on what type of individual you are dealing with and the brand, but more often than not, I find MOST brand/car dedicated forums typically give you better deals if the junk they are selling isn't super rare/readily available. Also, because of the capability of the interwebs to bring people together, lots of batch order parts that NEVER could have been made previously at a reasonable price are available when you get enough people involved.

Yeah, I remember in high school (in the early 90s) driving my GT6 and when I needed a part it was either "Call Roadster Factory" (since I could never find where i put the catalog), or call around to the three British car shops (that I knew of) in the mid-Atlantic region, or call "this guy Mike who has a lot of parts" whose name was apparently just handed down between LBC owners in the area, haha.

IT's also helped with racing, etc. Back in the day to get into racing and stuff you really had to be "in the know" as to what was going on and when things were happening (autocross, track days, etc). Now I get notifications of all that stuff in my email, etc.

In reply to HiTempguy:

I agree. It's also given us access to parts, and pricing that we never would have had before. No longer do we have to pay 100% more for everything because of greedy Canadian distributors, and retailers.

Zomby Woof wrote: In reply to HiTempguy: I agree. It's also given us access to parts, and pricing that we never would have had before. No longer do we have to pay 100% more for everything because of greedy Canadian distributors, and retailers.

And it's also forced manufacturers to make the price of vehicles much more on par (we are still quite a bit higher, but before it was ludicrous). I think it's pretty telling when companies start voiding warranties because of where you bought the vehicle.

as easy as the internet age might be...... I've been looking for 3 years for a set of unbroken taillights (only 1983, and only sport coupe - my - body style), as well as a driverside undamaged solid blue door panel (again 1983 only)

I've looked, and posted in forums... with little luck. no lights, and an offer to buy similar door panels(1980 version - slightly different color) at a jacked up price.

Getting parts in the early 1990s for my 428 SCJ Mach 1 restoration was far easier then it has been trying to find these few parts I still need for my Corolla...

In reply to oldeskewltoy:

Try downunder, I will bet you can get them there