The Centennial Light of cars
Image by Radosław Kulupa from Pixabay
I usually look at my expensive life decisions as an education fee. With that mindset, it is easier to find positive aspects even when life gives you lemons. To become an owner of an old classic car was one of the best decisions of my life. Apart from the obvious economic savings, I have learned several important lessons. The most unexpected one was how much nicer it is to be a customer at a generic workshop instead of a brand-specific one.
Of course, my testimony is purely anecdotal and based on only two data points, but I suspect there is a greater pattern at play here. For the past 10-15 years, I have driven premium cars from the VW group. The cars have been very competent and refined, and I have enjoyed the driving experience and overall quality feeling. However, in hindsight they are notoriously expensive to maintain. I have had bad luck I guess, with annoying and expensive errors like a failed central lock and airbag connectors on top of the regular maintenance.
No-one should be surprised and frustrated by hefty bills when choosing to drive a premium car. That is your own problem and if you can’t afford it, you should make different choices. What annoys me though, is the feeling I have gotten as a client at the brand specific VW workshop. More often than not, I have experienced a lack of social competence on the other side of the desk. There’s an aura in the air that they treat me as a potential troublemaker and I have perceived them as rude and it has happened with at least with three different employees on separate occasions. When you are paying invoices in the 1000-2000-3000 EUR range, I think that the least you should expect is a smile and nice social experience. Honestly, that’s not much I am asking for. But no, I just feel like another cog in a big profit machine.
Fast forward to 2024 and my experience at Laga Bilen in Umeå, a generic workshop, which I was personally recommended to bring my W124 for restoration. I have been there maybe four times now and had a lot of contact over the phone and email. The social experience could not be more different. Here, I feel that they really care about me as a client, they smile, and everyone seems to be in a much better mood. And happiness is very contagious. Their behaviour towards me does not feel fake at all, it feels genuine. Yesterday I realized that after I get rid of my current Superb, there is zero chance that I will buy another car that cannot come with me to the generic workshop or at least to a workshop where they are nice. Car maintenance is such an integral part of car ownership, and it is much more important than I had previously realized. I liked my VW cars so I thought that I could just brush off my bad experiences and enjoy the drive at least. Well, not anymore.
This brings me to the second important lesson – the Right to Repair. Many sectors, not just cars, are rapidly moving away from the right to repair. More and more things become proprietary and very difficult to source spare parts or even online connected to the brand specific workshops for certain operations. The outcome is that with time, it will just get harder and harder for generic workshops to exist. The automakers are making sure of that with their business decisions. And you can find this pattern in many other fields as well. In the long term, the only way to enjoy the experience of a generic workshop will perhaps be a custom shop for pure enthusiasts. With bills that reflect that. At least I’m doing my part now to maintain the car culture, by replacing a new fancy SUV with a 32-year-old W124. I intend to keep that car alive for as long as I can. That car is such a perfect statement of how good we can build cars – if we want to – that with proper maintenance will outlast you. Their biggest problem was that they were way too good to the point that sales suffered. Every time I get behind the wheel, I have a hard time wrapping my head around how solid and modern it feels even in its fourth decade on the roads. Just incredible. That’s proper sustainability if you ask me.
The W124 is the Centennial Light of the car world. If you haven’t heard that expression before, it is the world’s oldest light bulb which has been shining continuously since 1901. This was extremely bad business for the light bulb industry so they decided to force obsolescence on the light bulbs so that they would break more often and increase sales. I think my next daily driver might be Japanese. They seem to have figured out that proper engineering is desirable. I have had a couple of motorcycles from the land of the rising sun, and none of them ever had a single error or problem. Nothing! My experience with European brands, especially KTM, on the other hand… For reference I once killed a KTM by cleaning it with water from a garden hose (not a high-pressure wash). On the upside, they are exceptionally fun to ride between the mandatory breakdowns.