The next generation coming of age - We are all doomed !!

[Lakewood90712]

I agreed to have some auto body work done at a low cost shop I know of for a shirt tail relative ( Just turned 18, A+ student in school) . Minor rear ended, not his fault. .

His grandmother drove the car to me, 150 mile trip. Before I drove it my self, checked the oil. Nothing on the dip stick, 2 1/2 quarts later, now full. not leaking ..... driving around with 2 1/2 qts low oh 4 1/2 qts capacity, just great.

? " When was the last oil change - uh, last year sometime"... " "About how many miles from the last oil change - I dont know". ' How often do you check the oil _ Whats that "

The kid is not stupid, but I fear this is an indication our our future leaders.

 

[OldShooter]

... The kid is not stupid, but I fear this is an indication our our future leaders.

The more things change the more they stay the same.

DS will turn 50 soon. When he was in his late teens he bought an old pickup truck, didn't check the oil, and seized the engine. I told him he was going to have to change the engine to get any value out of the truck. So he bought an engine from a friend of mine who owned a junkyard and spent a couple of very dirty and uncomfortable weeks doing the change. Since then he has been quite careful with his automotive maintenance.

 

[brett]

I have worked closely with a number of highly intelligent, highly educated, and very talented individuals for whom maintaining their automobile was a mystery.

Their response to some of those questions would probably be the same.

 

[bigcmagor]

The sensor for the low oil level idiot light must be broken. Just for fun, I'd cross wire it to the driver's seat pressure switch.

 

[Meadbh]

The kid is not stupid, but I fear this is an indication our our future leaders.

It’s a bit of a stretch to extrapolate from one teenager’s lack of knowledge about the internal combustion engine to the potential leadership qualities of an entire generation.

 

[Chuckanut]

Take a look at the video of the February 6 Falcon Heavy launch - a great success.

Pay particular attention to the shots inside the SpaceX headquarters. Note the age of the faces. These people:

1. Successfully launched the world's most powerful rocket.
2. Recovered two of the first stage booster and came close to recovering the 3rd.
3. Proved the 2nd stage can be restarted after spending 6 hours in the freezing cold of outer space (important to the military and those launching heavy satellites into geosynchronous orbit).
4. Sent a sports car out to Mars orbit (OK, a crazy publicity stunt, but who is going to put a multi-million dollar satellite on top of a rocket that is being tested for the first time?)
5. The cost of the rocket is less than 1/2 the cost of its closest, less powerful competitor.

It's a pretty impressive group of young people.

 

[aja8888]

The sensor for the low oil level idiot light must be broken. Just for fun, I'd cross wire it to the driver's seat pressure switch.

That "oil light" just comes on when the OIL PRESSURE is non-existent, which, by then, is usually too late. It's not an oil level light.

And we also have a family full of new generation folks who don't even know how to open the hood of a car or change a flat tire. It's me they always call when there is "trouble with the car".

 

[Chuckanut]

That "oil light" just comes on when the OIL PRESSURE is non-existent, which, by then, is usually too late. It's not an oil level light.

And we also have a family full of new generation folks who don't even know how to open the hood of a car or change a flat tire. It's me they always call when there is "trouble with the car".

Dang cars are getting to reliable! We need more cars like my 1985 Pontiac. After 60K, I learned a huge amount about steering racks, carburetors, transmissions, suspension boots, AC, radiators, passenger compartment heaters, water pumps, generators, etc. etc. etc.

 

[harley]

When I was a kid ('72) I had a '65 Mustang with 80K miles on it. I never once changed the oil, just added a quart now and then. I kept the car for 6 years, put an addition 90K on it, and it was still running (not all that well) when I sold it. So that was the Boomer generation, and we haven't done all that well by the country. So maybe you're right.

 

[Which Roger]

I don't think I ever gave a thought to car maintenance or any other kind of maintenance when I was that age. 18-year-olds have other things on their minds.

 

[Ready]

Electric cars should solve these problems. No oil to worry about, and the car will text you when it needs attention.

 

[Walt34]

Dang cars are getting to reliable! We need more cars like my 1985 Pontiac.

The cars I learned on were even worse. All 1950's models about ten years old at the time and two of them stick shift. Those cars were doing very well indeed to go 100k miles without an engine and transmission overhaul. And yes, I knew how to rebuild a carburetor by age 14 or 15.

I remember my father telling me that with his first car you had to carry a grease gun in the trunk and grease the water pump at every fill-up.

Given the complexity of today's fuel injection and all the electronics in vehicles now, I don't even try to take care of that stuff. Fortunately they rarely need any attention so cars are being made a lot better.

 

[Midpack]

It’s a bit of a stretch to extrapolate from one teenager’s lack of knowledge about the internal combustion engine to the potential leadership qualities of an entire generation.

+1. I know a Boomer, accomplished Chemical Engineer, who trashed the transmission on his Chrysler mini van at 80K miles. Cost him $ dearly. He didn’t know there was transmission fluid he was supposed to check or change. Must have gotten lucky or traded earlier on his previous family cars. Should we question the collective knowledge of Boomers?

We all have our strengths and weaknesses. And I don’t think our elders were all too confident in our generation when were Hippie age...

 

[GravitySucks]

Socrates - 400BC
“The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.”

 

[Jerry1]

Unfortunately, I have to agree with the OP. No one is teaching kids about maintenance. I've taken it upon myself to may sure my grandsons have a good general knowledge about cars but it is true that there is a lot less one can do today compared to when I had my first car in the 70's. The electronics and reliability have changed the framework significantly.

One of my pet peeves is the commercial below. It is so sad that two young men can't even change a tire.

 

[RunningBum]

Hard to blame the kids if no one is teaching them. And I agree with Meadbh, it's a total reach to make this sweeping conclusion.

When my son was in HS I was one of the parent chaperones for the marching band. They could screw around like you'd expect, but there was a set time when they'd go in "game mode" as the competition got nearer, and the focus all of them had was very impressive. I'm not worried.

 

[RunningBum]

I also wouldn't draw conclusions on portrayals of kids on TV whether in commercials or shows.

 

[marko]

Socrates - 400BC
“The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.”

And look how Greece has turned out since. Maybe ol' Soc was onto something.
If it weren't for tourism.........

Back in the day it seemed that kids knew a lot more about cars. One afternoon we swapped engines on two VW bugs just to see if we could. (we could).

Now, cars are not only more complicated but kids just don't seem to have the interest in even getting their license, let alone checking the oil. Most young'uns appear terrified behind the wheel....unlike when I was just itchin' to get out there and hit the gas.

Cars no longer seem to be part of the rite of passage.

 

[Midpack]

Unfortunately, I have to agree with the OP. No one is teaching kids about maintenance. I've taken it upon myself to may sure my grandsons have a good general knowledge about cars but it is true that there is a lot less one can do today compared to when I had my first car in the 70's. The electronics and reliability have changed the framework significantly.

That’s commendable, and the kids will be better for it.

However what some of today’s kids may lack in knowledge about cars, they more than make up for in tech savvy - where many/most Boomers are weaker if not clueless. We should go to a millennial forum and see what they say about Boomers - except there’s probably no such forum.

 

[Nemo2]

DW's daughter's husband, a millwright type who is regularly sent to Europe to coordinate with other company operations, started showing their eldest daughter (now six) how things work when she was about three (maybe four).

Smart kid...and she's going to be competent too.

(Next up...the two year old twin girls. )

 

[MRG]

When I was a kid ('72) I had a '65 Mustang with 80K miles on it. I never once changed the oil, just added a quart now and then. I kept the car for 6 years, put an addition 90K on it, and it was still running (not all that well) when I sold it. So that was the Boomer generation, and we haven't done all that well by the country. So maybe you're right.

After not being changed for so long the first change makes it a burner. We had a late 1930's Oliver crawler loader that hadn't been changed for 30+ years. Changed the filter and added as needed.

 

[meierlde]

Actually with many recent cars it is much simpler, the car tells you when the oil needs changing. All you need to know is where the place you want it changed is and have your credit card handy. As a result of the rollovers with SUVs in the 1990s cars now also tell you when the tire pressure is low. Further many cars no longer come with spares so in many cases its call the tow truck to get the tire changed if it is a blowout type of flat. Further many of the telematics systems such as onstar tell you required maint. on their monthly check up. Of course compared to the 1960s when gm could put out a 100 page book that told how cars work, today I have no idea how long a book would be required when you include the computers needed to make fuel injection etc work would be required. (not at the shop manual level of course but)

 

[calmloki]

When my younger sister was due for a first car the folks bought her a perfect body and decent original interior 1949 ford sedan for cheap. Thing was, it blew oil smoke like a fog machine. Car would go into a dip in the highway and go up the next rise and leave an obscured blue cloud filled valley. Oil was cheap; she managed to remember to keep it supplied till a 70 mile trip to the coast after a few months. She didn't have any oil when the oil light came on, so she kept driving till it seized. Sad deal. Her daughter has about the same cavalier attitude toward maintenance.

I had a number of oil leakers but I did incremental oil changes - if a car is dumping a quart every 600 miles or so you end up sticking about the right amount of new oil in every 3000...Sis and I went through a number of POS cars. My current BMW doesn't even have a dip stick, though the new Mazda CX5 does. I'm pretty sure that today's cars are designed to last about to the end of a three year lease with very little care: see spark-plug change intervals. Cheap robotic product assembly trumps expensive troubleshooting and repair by human mechs.

 

[GoodWishes]

DS works at Google. Google hosted a Take Your Parents to Work Day which we attended. It was a well organized event and we enjoyed it. Average age of the employees are very young which makes Google seem more like a college campus. I doubt that DS or many of his coworkers know much about car maintenance. But nowadays it is hard to run into people not using Google products, Google search, mail, calendar, map, translate, etc ... Also they are very well paid. So does it matter that they don't know about car maintenance, probably not.

 

[MRG]

Further many cars no longer come with spares so in many cases its call the tow truck to get the tire changed if it is a blowout type of flat.

The last time I tried to change a flat tire, the spare on my pickup wouldn't come down. Read the owner'smanual and followed the directions, almost. They didn't explain the "safety device" preventing the spare from accidentally dropping was also a spring loaded trap, capable of rendering an adult male totally helpless and trapped under the truck!

It was great when the EMT's rolled up with a fire truck, two assist trucks, and an ambulance! I asked the first guy if he had a couple of pairs of vise grips? After the grueling 30 second extraction he asks if I went transportation to the ER? NO! I'm embarrassed enough.