rev up your engines, today I'm gonna talk about good trends in modern cars, now the
first modern trend that I really like is, the use of timing chains now instead of
these rubber timing belts, and I'll give a little history for that originally
your crankshaft was connected to your camshaft that opens the valves, using
just gears timing gear, strong reliable lasted almost forever, but it cost a lot
of money to make all these gears that laced in right so then they went to
gears they had timing chains connecting them, it's a little bit cheaper making
them that way but it's still pretty strong these are strong steel chains, but
alas then things got even cheaper, they started to replace the timing chains
with these rubber timing belts that have cogs, much cheaper to make them that way
but these are rubber belts they're gonna wear out a lot faster than a metal chain
so this 2002 Lexus has a timing belt it's a v6 engine and changing that
timing belt is a very expensive procedure, but at least in this case it's
a non-interference engine, so if that rubber belt breaks the Pistons don't hit
the valves and there's no damage done, but some companies like Nissan made most
of their vehicles with interference engines and a rubber timing belt when it
broke Pistons hit the valve broke the inside of the engine, goodbye engine in
most cases, and that's why I like the modern trend of going back to timing
chains, this is an 07 Toyota Matrix and it has a timing chain inside it instead
of one of those rubber belts, the chain is hidden inside the engine it's
lubricated by the motor oil, as long as you change your oil and the vehicle is made
correctly those chains can last hundreds of thousands of miles
now the next modern trend that I think is good, is the better and better gas
mileage that modern engines are getting, here's my 94 Toyota Celica it's got a
1.8 4-cylinder engine, but here's a 2007 Toyota Matrix it also has a 1.8 liter
4-cylinder engine, but guess what it gets 14 miles a gallon better gas
mileage than the celica does, with modern computer-controlled ignition
fuel injection systems, hey the vehicles just are more efficient at burning
gasoline, and guess what they do that on regular pump gas you don't need the
premium gas, they run perfectly fine on the cheapest gas that you can buy, so you're
not wasting money on high test gas, now the next good trend in modern cars has to
do with the exhaust systems, this 07 matrix has the entire exhaust
system that's still original, never leaked nothing's ever been changed, now
when I was a young mechanic we used to change out mufflers and exhaust pipes
all the time, they'd rot and leak and you had to
replace them, but the modern designs are better made, they're not made out of
plain steel like they were when I was young, they have aluminumized ones
stainless steel parts and all that let's these exhaust systems last a really long
time, which is great for you because you have to buy anything, but not so great
for those muffler shops, if you notice a lot of the muffler shops now they do tune
ups and they do all kinds of other work because they really can't make a
living doing exhaust alone, because the parts are so well made they don't wear
out like they used to, I used to have cars that over a 10-year period I might
have gone through three or four mufflers not anymore
now the next modern trend that I like, is better painting, cars are being painted
by machines now and they do an almost perfect job, looking at this lexus you'd
never think that the thing is 17 years old, but the paint holds up so well
because of the way they paint them, at least when the vehicles are new because
if you ever notice if you get in a wreck and have your car repainted, the
paint hardly ever matches perfectly and it never lasts as long as the original
paint because guess what, the original paint was done by robots and they do it
in a really good sealed environment where the humidity and a temperature is
carefully controlled, so if you want your car to stay looking great stay away from
wrecks because odds are the car will never look the same, unless the entire
car was repainted in a really well sealed environment, which I don't see that
much of any more, every time I get a customer have a car get in a wreck
and they bring it back, I look at it in the Sun and I can tell okay this part
was painted, this part doesn't match perfectly and
then often a few years later they start to fade all over the place, unlike the
original one done by robots, and the next modern trend that I think is
fantastic, the anti rusting capabilities that modern cars have, when modern cars
are built they often make the paint that they're soaked into in the beginning the
frame and the body be electrically charged and the body is the opposite
electrical charge, so this anti rust paint usually rich in
zinc, zaps right on to the metal and keeps it from rusting, my mother still
lives in Buffalo, she's got a Toyota Corolla
it's the only car she ever had that didn't trust out, yeah it's 15 years old
but there's still no rust on the thing, they learned how to seal the rust out when
they build the cars, when I was a kid we had a 53 Ford and we used to
pretend we were playing hockey in a back seat because there were so many holes
the floorboards would fill up with water and freeze, but eventually that rotted
through and you could see the road go by when
you looked under your feet, so cars have gone a long way since then, and the last
modern trend in modern cars that I like is, the improvement of tires, since I was
a young mechanic tires have gotten better and better, not only do they last
longer, but they grip better, they've computer design treads so that
they work best for your driving situation, when I was a kid up north you
had to put snow tires on a car in the winter or you're gonna slide all over the
place, but now they got all season tires that
you can just leave on all year, heck my mother lives in Buffalo she's got a 15
year old Toyota Corolla with all season tires, she's 91 years old and she still
drives her car around there and doesn't have to put snow tires on in the winter
and the tires themselves are better made, if you buy quality tires, that's the
caveat there, you go out and buy say the cheapest chinese-made tires you can get
they're not gonna last that long, you're gonna get flats as the nails go through
them, I've seen that with customers over the last decade over and over again, but
if you buy quality tires, I can't remember the last time I got a
flat in any of my tires, because I buy quality tires, steel belted radials and
unless you drive in an area where there's a zillion nails all over the
place, you may never see a flat tire again, which is a far cry from when I was
a young mechanic and tires had tubes inside, and they were always going flat
and a royal pain to fix, cause you had to take them apart, you had to either patch
the tube or put a new tube in, find out what made the hole and take it out, then
put it all back together again and re-balance the tire, was a giant pain modern
tires hey they've gone a long way, so now you know some of the good modern trends
in cars, so you don't have to be depressed from my previous video telling
you all the bad things that have been happening, so if you never want to miss
another one of my new car repair videos, remember to ring that Bell!