75&ZT Enthusiasts believe that if a car is broken then the net result is simply one less car on the road, a car that can never be recreated. It is lost forever. This is not to say we believe that our cars should never be broken; if a car has been in a smash, shunt, severe bump, severe flood and such-like then chances are it is beyond repair and is then fit only for parts. That is a shame but it does at least make more expensive or difficult to source parts available at a fraction of the normal cost. At the moment we believe there are probably enough cars in this unsaveable category to supply owners with cheap spares when required. Unfortunately many owners are actually their own worst enemies in that they will encourage others to break a car so that they can have parts to mod / improve their own cars at little cost. Often this has nothing to do with saving their own car due to a melted engine or such-like but has everything to do with wanting to upgrade their own cars with heated leather seats or powerfolds or a walnut dash etc. Whether the car being broken is fixable or not doesnt really enter the equation for them. When a good car with a duff clutch or HGF, or noisy gearbox - that is to say a fixable car - gets broken, in itself, it does not save a single other car by its demise. There is already a plentiful supply of parts available, either new or from cars that really are beyond saving. So we lose another car from the road due to relatively minor and easily fixable faults. So, what is the knock-on effect of this? Short term: # Second-hand spares become extremely cheap for a while. # New spares may follow suit as suppliers see the market dwindling before their eyes. # Owners clubs, failing to see the wood for the trees, cash in on this by signing up paying traders / breakers to offer cheap spares to members erroneously believing they are helping to keep the cars on the road, or simply not caring about the fact that they are actively encouraging the destruction of the cars they are supposed to be supporting? # Owners clubs simply become the first port of call for the cheap fix in the world of bangernomics. # Owners get cheap parts, owners then expect cheap parts in the future. (This being in spite of the fact that this is a luxury saloon that was never designed to be run on peanuts.) When the cheap parts dry up owners will scrap the cars anyway because they bought them cheap, ran them cheap and have no intention of maintaining any car in any other way to this. # The number of cars on the roads reduces exponentially. # The need for a genuine enthusiasts group in order to preserve the cars becomes paramount as existing owners clubs simply become a part of the problem rather than a part of the solution. The longer term knock-on effects of losing cars: # Less cars on the road, less reason for manufacturers / suppliers to support them. # The cost of parts will go up in direct correlation to the numbers of cars on the road going down. # The expertise for the cars will start to fade away due to a lack of demand from the reducing pool of owners. #Specialists in these cars that survive will be forced to increase prices, again, due to reduction in demand. # Keeping the cars on the roads becomes considerably more difficult. # Enthusiasts of the cars band together to try to staunch the blood-loss of all of the above and pray they are not too late. In this instance 75&ZT Enthusiasts was hopefully launched in time...perhaps even a bit too early... as it is only now, very slowly that people are starting to understand what is happening and starting to see that the status quo is simply not sustainable. We really hope that the owners who are genuine enthusiasts for the cars will join us and support us. We cannot do this on our own but we really truly genuinely believe that what 75&ZT Enthusiasts stands for is the way forward. Its a long post but if you feel the same then please share this! Thanks for reading!
Posted on: Sat, 18 Jan 2014 13:36:35 +0000
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