While at my local indie Corvette shop there was talk between the owner and a customer regarding C7 parts that are no longer available anywhere with local sources having to repair certain parts with varying success.
I didn't catch the part in question.
Is this going to be a problem for us C7 owners?

 

Eventually, we'll all scour the junkyards for parts

 

MB used to brag about the car lasting. They give you 250000 km, 500000 km, 750000km and 1 million miles badges. IIRC, they buy back the vehicle at 1 million miles. Used to be, if you wanted a 60s MB part, you might have to wait a bit for it till it came from the fatherland in a box with an inch of dust on it but you got it. Today, that paradigm is changed. Audi, someone told me, would make sure you have parts for 12 years at least. AFAIK, manufacturers have to make parts available till the end of the factory warranty. That means that the 2019 C7 has to go for as long as the warranty is in force. After that, good luck.

I spent too much on my C4 so I felt obliged to run it till the wheels fell off. In the meantime, all kinds of stuff wasn't available. You bought stuff on eBay hoping the salvage part is better than yours. Finally the wife got fed up with me screwing with the car and insisted we sell it. Since I didn't know where the rear engine design would go and didn't want it to become another LT1 engine, I settled on the C7 to await the C9. For the ;ast couple of years, I didn't have to (not that I cannot) rely on a used part to get the car moving. When it becomes too much that way, the C7 will be gone. I have owned an 89 Merkur XR4Ti and Scorpio. No more of dumpster diving unless it is by choice for me.

 

Only if one decides to keep the old stuff.

 

I would imagine that the C7 will follow the path of the C5 (not sure about C6 parts availability) - many parts are not available for the C5 except through the used parts market or in some instances the aftermarket.

 

The good news is that there are a whole lot of Cars & Coffee types with low mileage garage queens that feel compelled to show off when they leave....promptly crashing the car. Picked up a lot of pristine, low mileage parts off of FB Marketplace

 

sorry to say, it already is...................

 

Like I have stated before. The end of these cars will be when the electronics, modules, start to fail.

No replacement modules and no one to troubleshoot them down to the component level.

No schematics, no chips.

These modules are throw away items.

On my 2006 GT Mustang the ECM has failed again. No replacements available. Had to troubleshoot it myself. Motorola that manufactures these boards don't even have any silkscreen on them. Chips with unknown P/N's. Boards can't be removed from their cases due to potting and so on.
Good luck!

Corvettes will fall into this catagory in the near future.

Sad but true.

 

I think that technology has increased exponentially. With that comes more and more features. Back then, labor was cheaper so we can afford to make it last by repairing. Today, I can't afford to repair my 5 year old washing machine. When my hood range/microwave had an issue, I could buy the refurbished part and DIY it for $200 with no guarantees that it would fix the problem. Even if it did fix the problem, next time, it probably will be just as expensive. On top of that, I would have to hire someone to come in and fix it if I didn't know how or wanted them to make absolutely sure that was the problem and I wouldn't be stuck with a $200 paperweight. OTOH, I can buy a new one installed for under $500. Sorry, that is a no brainer.

In talking to older folk and even those of my age, they often feel sad about it because that was what they were used to. Handing things down was a thing. My guess is that in a couple of generations, people will be even more concerned with "What's coming next?" as opposed to "What was".

 

These things can be annoying, expensive, and ultimately fatal to the car; but there is some hope.
Our 2009 Z51 had a lot of mechanical problems, but all that I can remember were just that- mechanical. The automatic seat recall would occasionally act wonky but resetting everything would fix it. Traded at 8 yrs/102k miles and the electrons were still friends.

Our 2017 Z51 is now at 7 yrs/61k miles, again the few problems have been with the hard stuff, not the electronics.

We have a color TV that's about 15 years old, and the computer I'm typing this on is 9 years old and still going strong.

We could have kept our 1967 'vette going forever with a good mechanic/machinist on speed dial, and that won't be true with our C7. But for most people, I think the reliability of modern electronics will keep them going as long as the want to keep the car. Just not forever.
We should revisit this topic in 10 years...

 

if we are alive then

 

Yeah, the statistics say the car will keep running longer than I will.

 

When you see how the old live in their diminished capacity, it might cheer you up.

 

A lot of consumer electronics, ie: TVs etc, live in a very mild environment and are never 'stressed'.

Automotive electronics don't have this privilege, they live and operate in a very abusive environment, heat, cold, vibration, etc.

So after 55 years or more in the electronics field I know for certain that a harsh environment is extremely hard on these modules. Anything we built was put through stress, humidity, heat, viberation and cold testing. This is how we 'weeded' out the units that would fail over time. Even though we used higher spec components than consumer grade, ie: cars, we still had failures.

 

This is true. Kinda why I advised a friend to buy the service plan at Best Buy for his laptop which he takes to the field. He also leaves it in the car in the summer heat and winter cold and it gets banged around and shook while he works with it. Ya think that could cause issues within 3 years?

 

Thats still a mild environment compared to what temps, vibration, etc that the car modules go through.

Just the temp testing we did ran from -40* to +185* cycling for 24 hrs. This hasn't even gotten to the vibration, EMI, oh god the list goes on and on.

Kinda hard to get a tech to a spacecraft a couple million miles away to trouble shoot the untested parts that you decided to install to save a few dollars.

 

Yeah, AAA does not go that way.