Over years of working in a mechanic shop and shopping Craigslist, I’ve noticed here and there that people will claim that their old car is still equipped with its original factory-installed fuel pump or fan belt or water pump or whatever, despite the vehicle’s high mileage. “Pulled the brakes apart today. The car is still using the original brake rotors.”

Usually this is 3 or 4 owners in.

Unless they have access to every service record from day one, and know that they aren’t missing any, how do they know that it’s an original part? Do they just see dealer-installed OEM parts and assume they’re the original ones? Kinda confused here. Maybe I’m missing something obvious.

  • lazarus870@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    My dad bought a mid 90’s Corolla from an elderly lady. It was about 15 years old at the time, and it had the original tires and everything. Car had like 15,000 miles on it. He bought it to gift to somebody who needed a car.

    Before he gave it away, he gave me a ride to the ferry terminal. My dad drives like an absolute fucking maniac, taking the smallest gaps, tailgating people at 1/2 car length at 60 MPH kind of thing. So I’m holding on for dear fucking life, yelling at him to slow the hell down, as we’re flying down the highway on these original little 14 inch ancient, dry-rotted tires.

    Suddenly traffic stops and he slams on the brakes…and realizes a car with original, old rotten tires and no ABS doesn’t stop very well, especially when you’re used to a modern car.
    It was a white knuckle ride as this little tin can car locked up and slid all over the fucking highway and we very narrowly missed a horrific accident. The whole highway was billowing with tire smoke.

    I guarantee those were the originals, lol. When he picked me up a few days later he was in his regular, modern car.

    • Careful_Fly3606@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Original tires on a 15 year old car!? That’s not safe at all.

      This is a perfect example where original parts not always being a good thing.

      • LiteratureSentiment@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        Lol I don’t think the tires were the issue at all in this scenario, if not the tires it would’ve been something else

      • alwayswatchyoursix@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        10 months ago

        I had a coworker with an old Mercedes handed down from her parents. Old as in the car was older than even me. She ended up with a flat one night so a couple of us offered to help install the spare. Looking at the tire, we realized that her tires were completely bald and about 15 years old. We made all the usual comments about old tires needing to be replaced and so on. Then we pulled out the spare. It was the original that came with the car. The valve stem crumbled as soon as we touched it.