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Comment by f1shy | Hacker News Reader

>and here in Germany people buy a car for life.

In which Germany are you living? People change car pretty regularly, especially because of the maintenance cost for passing the TÜV. All small cars sold have distribution belt soaked in oil, so you have to change before 10 years, and by that time the cost of changing the belt is more than the car value.

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The median car in Germany is 12 years old or so, almost the same as in similar countries. That's a result of cars simply lasting longer than they used to.

First owner is usually a lease customer (company car), second owner will keep it for much longer, third or fourth owner will run the car into the ground, and it'll almost always be crushed in Eastern Europe. Guessing grandparent is seeing a lot of second and third owner cars.

For anyone wondering, a distribution belt is the timing chair (or timing belt in this example). GM has a Duramax 3.0 diesel engine with a timing belt instead of a chain and it’s on the back. People were so angry GM put out a warranty for 5 year 100k miles.

I’ve seen tear downs on YouTube and the Duramax people are livid about a belt.

I think we're getting a little confused here. The Duramax 3.0 diesel has a timing chain, not a belt. The belt people usually bitch about is the oil pump belt.

I think the comment referred to wet timing belt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SASSFjIt5I

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