ms on the offensive again

[James Knott]

billt-lxSQFCZeNF4 at public.gmane.org wrote:
> On Fri, May 20, 2005 at 01:05:12PM -0400, Lennart Sorensen wrote:
> 
>>On Fri, May 20, 2005 at 10:35:59AM -0400, Alex Beamish wrote:
>>
>>>it's the same mentality that American car makers espouse -- "You car's
>>>three years old? It's junk! Get a new car!!" This, compared to the ads
>>>that Volvo or Volkswagen run, boasting about how their cars are still
>>>on the road ten years later, thank you very much.
>>
>>How about being unable to buy spare parts for a 10 year old american
>>car.  It makes no sense.  If they didn't think changing them every
>>single model year they wouldn't have to many different spare parts and
>>they would be able to stock parts for 20 or 30 years of models.  Of
>>course it probably is a matter of trying to force people to buy a new
>>car instead.  My dad has no problems getting parts for a 20 year old
>>Mercedes, but for a 10 year old Pontiac it is much harder.
> 
> 
> This reminds me of a little adventure I had in 2002. I needed to change a gas filter, so I went to my local gas filter store (Canadian Tire) and counted in the two isles of gas filters 148 different type, none of which fit my car (they had to specially order that one).
> 
> That evening I was browsing the internet and decided to google gas filters. I discovered a 'vintage' car page that described that the 1942 gas filter which is still in common use today, fit a Ford, a GM, a Jeep, a Tank, and a Airplane engine at the time.
> 
> I can assume that perhaps there are certain variations that could be justified in what is effectively a closed cylinder with a coffee filter mounted on it, but is there really 148 useful permitations?
> 
> I thought I would share that.

IIRC, at one time, gas filters were installed on the fuel line, ahead of 
the carburator.  Now they're in with the fuel pump, at the bottom of the 
tank.  It's easier to make a one size fits all filter, when it goes on 
the fuel line.  Also, fuel injectors are a lot fussier than carburators, 
about clean gas, so the filters have to be better.  Another factor, is 
way back when, the engine compartments etc., weren't as crowded, so 
there was more room to allow for off the shelf parts.  Nowadays, 
designed to fit a tight space is more common.


--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml