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      09-30-2012, 01:46 AM   #22
teagueAMX
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I hear you. Smaller displacement is the trend. Most have accepted it without question.

You see, I've lived through an era when things were overbuilt. Regardless if it was cars, tools, equipment or a building. Engineer's understanding of materials science was far inferior to ours today. They compensated by designing a little bit stronger, a little bit heavier, a little bit larger than was needed because it was more seat of the pants and you never knew exactly what punishment the product might face. As a consequence, things were designed in the long run to last longer than they needed to. But, we have many of those products that one might consider relics of the past that still function today with little or no effort. They are worth quite a bit of money, too.

Today, we design things to meet exacting product "life cycle" expectations and function. We dare not over design due to cost and the need for immediate profit expectations, not to mention the consumer losing interest. In basic terms we produce and sell/buy throw away products.

The laughable aspect of this is we justify it in the name of efficiency and economy. Everybody is freaking out as if buying smaller, but higher tech products could really save the planet. The fact is the huge energy requirements for high tech production, shorter life cycles, and the continual need to feed new product into the market place belies any savings.

I defy anyone to suggest that any 2012 automobile will function within spec 40 years from now, not to mention being crushed and recycled to make another Toyota or refrigerator. However, I own 4 such relics that would pass that test right now.

So the sort answer: complaining about smaller displacement is really about diminishing returns and lack of product longevity.

Cheers
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Last edited by teagueAMX; 09-30-2012 at 02:00 AM..
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