Modified cars. What do people here in AH think of them?

Stevieluvsye wrote: »

Actually had a lend car the last week of an 08 2.0 diesel Zetec and the handling is unreal, decent pace in it too

Off topic apologies

The Focus? Yeah pretty good handling in them alright.

Henry Ford, him being of Irish stock and of Cork stock in particular, built the first Ford factory outside of America in Cork in 1917 IIRC. Was still going into the early 80's.

rob316 wrote: »

No one seems to do it anymore.

I;d reckon a fair bit of that, other than the recession, is that car companies started to make more cars "souped up" from the factory and the generation got older and got into more suburban "acceptable" cars. BMW were the winners in this. They build cars that can be modified, but more they can still stay socially and age "acceptable". A hot hatch or a mad bastid JDM car wouldn't be to nearly the same degree. And a fair chunk of BMW drivers still modify their cars. Look at the motors forum hereabouts and BMW's are the maker in many ways. Now that's age demographics too, mostly older farts . I would say that the younger generations are less into cars in general, especially when it comes to modifying them. Things like extended warranties and PCP loans to buy new kill that as modifying will screw with warranties. More people are in essence "renting" their cars.

Plus modern cars are in many ways less modifiable, or require a lot of resources and money to do so. EG lift the bonnet of most modern cars and what you are faced with is a sea of plastic panels covering up the engine and oily bits. They're designed to be less accessible.

And the twist is they're generally much more reliable and hands off than say cars of the 70's and 80's, where the average car owner would need some mechanical knowledge to keep them going, or pay for someone to do so.

You can buy a car today that will run for 100,000 miles without issue and if an issue comes up it's covered by warranty and someone else. Gone are the days of saturday mornings with dads around the country setting points and checking oil and all that. Something that connected people with the mechanics of their car and made them learn about it, even if they didn't want to. That's how I first learned about cars and their anatomy. But that was back in the 80's. Fewer kids are learning like that today, or making that organic connection.

Then there's the major cost of insurance if you do modify. There are still folks out there tinkering, but the landscape has changed quite a bit.