when will mechanical parts be expensive for my 71?

[Brett]

Hey folks,

aside from trim, a different issue altogether, when will mechanical parts be unavailable or $$$$ for my 71 Fleetwood?

I feel very fortunate that I can go to rockauto and buy just about anything to keep this car going (again not looking good, thats another story), for example, I just bought a reman distributor for $55, alternators are $30, starter $25, and so on. Does the 472 use accessories similar to other GM cars that will be available for some time or will all this goodness come to an end?

As a side note, with these parts so inexpensive, I replaced just about everything under the hood and now I feel my Caddy is ready for an apocolypse.

[Bruce Reynolds # 18992]

Gday Brett,

You have asked one of those questions that are impossible to answer.

Now, NOS parts may be unavailable, and the Auto Manufacturers would like ALL parts to be made unavailable for old cars because the longer that parts are available, the less chance the makers have of selling new cars.

There is a common legal requirement that parts are to me still available for a certain time after the end of a model, and I always was led to believe that it was ten years.   Try and buy these parts for your 71 at a GM Dealer.

We had a case here in Australia where Holden has estimated how many Chassis would be required to enable that ten year supply.   Everything was working well until a sports car maker found that the Holden 1 tonner Chassis was ideal for the base of their car.   Well, the supply ran out, and as the dies had been either got rid of, or converted, the supply is now defunct for the supply of these chassis to the Automotive Repair Market.

If you intend to keep your car for a long time, then it might be a good thing to purchase a few of each item that you think may need replacing before they get scarce.

But, the reason that the aftermarket suppliers continue to make the parts is that there is a market for them, and if the market dries up, so will the supply of parts.

Bruce,
The Tassie Devil(le),
60 CDV