New demand for very old farm tractors specifically because they're low tech

IDK which is more reliable. Back in the day the gas station attendant used to ask the driver if they wanted the oil checked. Trying to provide good service plus the incentive to sell a quart of oil. Seems like a robust, reliable system.

Now most stations are self-serve.The cars I’ve owned more recently have lower oil consumption than the cars I used to drive so I’ve gotten out of the habit of checking the oil, don’t do it anywhere near as often as I used to.

My guess is that in a large percentage of newer cars the oil doesn’t get checked between oil changes.

If someone was to purchase an older car with no dipstick a method even more reliable but far less convenient than checking the dipstick is to drain the oil out either measure or replace it.

One of my first jobs as a kid was pumping gas. Checking the oil and cleaning the windshield was part of the service. Shortly after I started, the station’s owner told me I should be selling more oil. I told him I did whenever the customer’s level was low. He told me to always add a quart regardless of the level and that the customer would never know the difference. I felt it was dishonest.
A few weeks later he fired me for ignoring his directive but I got the last laugh. On my last day, his young wife came by the station and made sure I left with a big smile on my face.

Are you saying you filled her sump?

…and verify the pressure of the tires.

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Nice chuckle this a.m.

I worked in a gas station on weekends when I was in college. A bit more to the story but I once told a customer that if he gave me any more shit I’d pump the gas in his ear.

She taught me a lesson I never forgot. It began a lifelong habit of dedication to sumps whenever they needed filling.

Well now, chuckle in the a.m., chuckle in the p.m. I started out in a filling station early on as well. never that kind of luck.Maybe with a customer or two, but not the bosses wife. Nice work sir.

how come farmers need to keep buying new tractors if the old ones were fixable?

Automation, telemetrics, air conditioning, and sound systems.

And they don’t like sitting in the rain and not hearing their phone.

Theres some good videos out there on the “right to repair” shit with Deere, anything basically built after 2006 or so they virtually have a monopoly on, that’s why you see guys still running 80s stuff but now Deere is really phasing the parts out, either spend big money or get out. Cat will sell you the software tuned to what you own, it’s not cheap but your not fucked like with Deere. Farm tractor 20yrs ago and now on the over 100hp stuff is a huge diff, we bought a T4-110 new recently and it’s like a spaceship, def, cant fix shit, load it on the trailer if it breaks, unfortunately how all this stuff is going.

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