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Comment by bombcar | Hacker News Reader

That last line is the reason everything is disposable, things got too cheap to be worth hiring someone to fix them.

A $30k car? You'll pay a mechanic to fix that, it's too valuable an asset to just throw away (and even then, you see people selling cars with "something broken" that is not economical _for them_ to fix, but if you know how to fix it you can get a car cheap).

A $500-1k wash machine? Unlikely to be worth the $100-200 to bring out a repairman (because now you're looking at a $200 "discount" on a new one, which is probably much more "advanced" (if that's good) than the existing), so it gets tossed.

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> A $30k car? You'll pay a mechanic to fix that

As long as the vehicle is reasonably dependable. Sometimes an older undependable vehicle might not be worth it. (think of stranding a loved one, or dying in winter, etc)

That said, brand new cars without spares are a disturbing trend.

There's always a tipping point, but the line for "literally drag the vehicle to the scrapper" is much lower than it is for most appliances, and mainly because of residual value - even a completely dead car will have companies willing to take it off your hands for you, or even give you a few hundred for.

I knew a retired guy years ago whose speciality was fixing microwaves; any dead microwave you could find he'd get working again. They still exist, but they're nearly impossible to find unless you hear about it.

I know I'd love to find someone to offload these old SpeedQueens on (even there, a burnt out motor was $350 to replace, a brand new one was $700 or so).

If you're talking about old washing machines or refrigerators, you might want to consider they might not be economically viable. New versions might pay for themselves quickly in water or electricity use.

I had a friend who (years ago) bought a version 1 humvee, but it turned out to be impractical, struggling to achieve highway speeds while guzzling gas like a toilet.

Craigslist or Facebook marketplace. Some fool like me would be happy for a used speed queen to fix and keep forever. It's 20 items down my household Todo list but will never get done since my 20 year old top loader just keeps working.

It depends how old the washer is though - a lot of times the older ones are just plain better than newer models with their planned obsolescence and weird software junk that frequently is the first component to break.

I've noticed that, (and found certain models that have "almost feels unauthorized" fill-and-soak modes).

Almost any modern refrigerator is quite reliable and energy efficient compared to ancient ones - but wash machines seem to be retrogressing in quality (and only partially can the blame be laid on the energy/water saving requirements).

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