When the sensational Honda NSX first come out, the rear suspension was set for absolute maximum "handling", which wore out the rear tires in about 1500-2000 miles, resulting in a lawsuit about that, hence Honda made adjustments to the suspension settings to give more miles on the rear tires. On my present 1952 Army M37 "weapons carrier", actually a military 3/4 ton pickup, on which I put the military non-directional tires, which require removing the deadly split ring's and the tube and hub liner, the tires last about 2K miles on the highway. The NDT tires are hard to get, and tubes and liners are almost impossible to get. Replacing a tires is about $7-$8 hundred if you can even get a tire place to do it.
I have to drive about 200 miles to a place that will swap out a tire. I have learned to do it myself, with safety chains and sledge hammers. For my '63 TR4, the spec was a full chassis lube every thousand miles, at which time one was supposed to oil the springs with used motor oil.
Oh, my neighbor who had an early NSX, he won an Oscar for his computer which was used in the first Jurrasic Park movie, parked it in front of his home, and one eve, a car full of teens stopped, they jumped out, and jumped all over his aluminum NSX. He shortly thereafter moved to a gated community in TX. Back in the early '80's, GM designed one of their cars with such a tight engine compartment, that to change the rear non-platinum spark plugs the engine had to be removed. Bias ply tires were usually gone by 10K miles, and the low profile tires, the first being the '65 Firestone Wide Ovals, were just a future dream . My '69 Dodge Charger R/T, my first new car, came stock with tiny E70 14 inch rubber, less than what a Civic comes with now days.
And back in the old days, mufflers rusted out in a year or so, and it was customary to have worn out shocks in about 10 K miles. Heck, for some late '40's Chrysler products, an oil filter was an extra cost option. It wasn't until the early 70's that multi-wt synthetic oils were reasonably shear resistant. On that same, TR4 I had not gotten around to changing my summer 30Wt oil to a less viscous 10o or 20 wt, and one cold Nebraska nite, wiped my bearings just moving my TR4 across the street. All cars leaked and dripped fluids from multiple places. My first car with AC was my TR8, in 1980. A good MPG was about 10 miles or so per gallon of gas back then. In my TR4, on cold Nebraska winter nights, I would dress up, and go out several times in the cold nite to start and warm up my engine or it wouldn't crank in the morning. And shove several stereo cans under the sump, avoiding the leaks, to try to heat the oil so it would flow. Plus plugging in my battery warmer and my heated dipstick.
Modern autos are expensive, some more so than others to buy and maintain. But are infinitely better and safer than in my younger days.
NAM VET
