Old Car Life Extension Systems

In many ways, the cars are the same. Functionally, they both drive, corner and brake. In terms of quality, they both look nice. They're both fast, quiet, safe and elegant. In terms of features, the list of things they have in common is much, much longer than the list of differences. They both have lights, wipers, indicators, windshields, and so on. If you put them on a scale, each of them contains several thousand pounds of well-engineered parts.

The newer car isn't always better, either. Socialism makes about as little sense in the automotive industry as it does anywhere else, and laws regulating what cars should and shouldn't have, and should and shouldn't do, have steadily been increasing over the years. History shows that even what socialists intend to accomplish something good, they often fail miserably to the point where they actually achieve the opposite effect.

Also, environmentalism has made it more and more difficult and expensive to build good cars. For example, the way you could legally paint a car back in 1988 is now illegal due to socialistic laws based on environmentalism. For those reasons, a 1980s car has many advantages over cars being built today.

Another reason to prefer older cars is: simplicity. The average mechanic is more confident and capable of finding and fixing a problem in a 1980s car than in a modern car, because on the latter, much is controlled by electronics that only a factory mechanic can decrypt, with specialized equipment and lots of training.

So, where does OCLES come in? We're engineers. We try to bridge the gap. We try to find ways to make the owner of a $2,000 car get the experience of someone who buys the $80,000 car. And, we try to accomplish this without making that person spend $78,000 in the process.

The following might appear be the key reasons:

• The styles of the 1980s is not the same as the style of today. This does emphatically not mean a vote in favor of the newer car. In fact, many BMW afficionados hate the newer design, espcially the 7-series Chris Bangle design. They instead love the classic look, such as the older 6-series and 7-series cars designed by Paul Bracq. In our opinion, this issue could go either way and it's simply an issue of personal preference.
• The cars of the 1980s have less features than the cars built nowadays. We believe that this argument stands, but these issues pertain mostly to top-end features. Basic luxuries that exist on a mid-1980s BMW include air conditioning, power brakes, power steering, power sunroof, power leather seats, power windows, power locks, trip computer, fuel efficiency indicator, tachometer, diagnostic readouts, anti-lock brakes, 4-speed automatic transmission with lock-up torque converter for an effective overdrive-type 5-speed experience, and service indicator lights. Features that a new BMW has relative to the older ones are "above and beyond" what already is a rich set of features. Arguably, some people would rather dispense with some of the newer features, such as BMWs i-drive. Many consider them reason to avoid the car, as opposed to embracing it. And, the more cool features the car has, the more there is that might break, in later years. In our opinion, this issue could go either way and it's simply an issue of personal preference, while keeping in mind that the early-1980s BMWs had a lot fewer features than the mid-1980s BMWs and those in turn had far fewer features yet than the late-1980s BMWs. For example, a 1988 750iL had heated seats with memory, self-leveling hydraulic suspension, a V-12 engine with many redundant systems so that it could drive on half of the engine if there was a problem with the other half, thermostatically controlled split driver/passenger heating and air conditioning, text readout of diagnostics, and so on.
• The cars of the 1980s have less quality than the cars built nowadays. Probably, that argument stands. A car built today can out-brake, out-handle and out-accelerate a car built in the 1980s, and it probably creates less pollution and uses less gasoline while being quieter and safer. However, we believe that these differences lie in areas that most people can't even discern, most of the time. Most people don't drive their cars at the limit of their acceleration, top speed, braking and cornering, so they never explore the area where the cars built nowadays outperform the 1980s cars. As to level of sound, pollution, and fuel efficiency, most people can either not tell the difference or they don't care. So, this becomes a non-issue, too.
• Higher DMV fees. On today's socialistic premises, simply owning a nicer car implies the obligation to pay more in DMV fees than someone who owns a less expensive car. That approach is morally flawed but knowing this doesn't change the law. Every year, an owner of a new BMW pays hundreds more dollars than someone who owns a 1980s BMW.
• The cars of the 1980s need repairs and the ones of today don't yet. We believe that this is the root of the issue. This translates into:
  • High repair bills
  • Unexpected breakdowns
  • Downtime while repairs are being made
  • When things are not fixed, living with flaws
  Emotionally, this means:
  • A sense of dread
  • Unpredictable finances
  • Reduced pride in one's car, or irritation or frustration, or even a sense of embarrassment or shame.

• Reliable enough to where the owner can go on a long trip and not have to worry about arriving safely
• Cosmetically perfect, so that the average focused observer cannot spot anything that indicates the car is not in showroom-new condition
• Robust enough to where the car doesn't need repairing for many more years

The value of 'x' is variable. Some people would be willing to settle for less: save money and get a used part that'll last another year or three years or five years. We intend to accommodate every such market segment.

Making the car newer, in the traditional way, is financially unfeasible. We've tried and failed. So, our revised approach uses a different philosophy: we break things down to the component level and renew them there. For example, if the battery on the instrument panel is dead, don't replace the entire instrument panel: replace the battery. This presumes understanding the parts very well, down to the component level. And, that's why we're engineers. That's what we strive to do.

We also propose approaching disassembly and re-assembly using the same sequence as was used to build the car in the first place. We sub-contract with professional dismantlers and provide them with information to guide them to take the cars apart more efficiently and without breaking things. We then buy the used parts from these dismantlers and we analyze, categorize and document each part. We renew what needs to be renewed, or urgently renewed. We then sell the used parts, whether in good-used or renewed condition, to BMW owners.

We hope to one day empower the process of disassembling and re-assembling 1980s luxury cars, and the process of offering these for rent, sale and lease. We hope to empower offering damage repair and general repair facilities throughout the US and even abroad. For legal reasons, we won't do these activities ourselves. We instead plan to work with affiliated companies who are entities in their own right. We're fundamentally an engineering firm and we'll limit ourselves to that.