Pring Prosed:
“My original post was not about mathematics or choices of motor oil. It
was intended to stimulate thought on the actual cost / benefit analysis
of using synthetics. My conclusion, in regard to the exercise, was that
one is highly unlikely to ever recoup the cost of using synthetics in
normal usage. Cost / Benefit analysis is a disciplined approach to
evaluating the returns of any process. If applied to automotive
maintenance practices, it becomes an “eye opening” exercise as it
disregards myth and conventional wisdom to reveal … in many cases …
illogical and wasteful practices.”
The world’s automakers would die if everybody applied cost/benefit
analysis to car purchases. Depreciation is by far the largest cost of
owning a car for most people. That’s why I chose a six year old Cat, at
1/5 the cost of new. It’s still depreciating maybe 20% a year, but of a
smaller number each year.
This just came across the news:
“Amid PC Industry Famine, Gateway Restructures (Interactive Week INWK)”
“What if everyone who already owned a car suddenly stopped buying new
ones? That’s almost the situation facing the PC industry, which has
been belching such a miasma of bad news that even Microsoft’s launch of
Windows XP next month is not expected to help clear the air.
[Ziff-Davis Publishing]”
rdr