Parts availability for old cars

[TFB1]

Originally Posted By: hattaresguy
Depends on the car.

With Ford and GM in my experience the dealers start to not want to know you after 10 years or so.

Coming from Mercedes its shocking because I can walk into any dealer in the US and buy an oddball part or order it and have it in a day or two regardless of the year. Need a gasket or some trim for a 1960 220SB? No problem sir its in NJ and we can have it tomorrow and its usually pretty fairly priced. But if I walk into a Ford dealer and need a part for anything from 1960 I'm SOL.


Interesting, I'd suspect because Mercedes is somewhat a status vehicle and the owners often have a couple newer ones as well, it helps give a good image to their customers... No doubt many of those parts are still being used by global customers...

Good example of non avail is the climate control temp sensor for a '86-'88 T-Bird, unless you have some ingenuity or find a used you're gonna be sweating...

 

[zzyzzx]

Getting parts for my 1995 Ford Escort is still pretty easy.
Getting parts for older cars is also much easier since the internet.

 

[artificialist]

I remember 2 years ago, some of my co-workers were working on an older Acura model. It seems finding the right stuff for an Acura that shares little with a Honda is quite hard. I remember the dealership didn't have outer tie-rod ends, and they couldn't get any from another dealer.

I had never seen such a situation from any car made less than 20 years ago.

 

[default]

Originally Posted By: NHGUY
Mechanical parts will always be available as long as the engine/trans was used in other cars,its the body parts and trim items (dash pad,headliner,seat upholstery,weatherstripping....etc) that gets really tough to find.Imagine for a moment a 1978 Dodge Omni.The VW based engine parts and VW man/Chrysler Automatic transmission parts are somewhat available,but try to find doors,fenders,weatherstrip,bumpers,glass.....etc.So while it may continue to run,it might not look very good or not be "legal" for road use.


The rarest production car in the Henry Ford museum is said to be the first year omni they have.