Remember I sell and manage homes for a living. We probably buy 20 water heaters a year. You shouldn't be paying more than $6-700 to install a water heater, if you are you're being taken advantage of. Don't buy stuff from Home Depot, use actual appliance dealers and have plumbers source water heaters. Do yourself a favor and never buy anything from HD or Lowes other than stuff that doesnt have to be delivered again.

You're making generalizations based on your own negative experiences. Did you do research before you bought your dishwasher? Like everything else there are good and bad ones, that was true 30 years ago too. I spent a lot of time finding the best dishwasher before I bought it. Same with refrigerators, have you had anybody out to see why vegetables are rotting? Are your settings set properly?

You're saying all new appliances are terrible because yours are terrible. It just isn't true. Like I said before, we manage 400 rental properties and I renovate and sell 25 houses a year, we deal with a lot of appliances. There are many many excellent modern appliances, there are also really crappy ones. If you buy good ones, they will live a good life and provide you great service.

Its like cars, if you buy a modern high quality car it will last. A 2024 S Class will still be around 20 years from now. Remember W220s are still around and they were terrible.

They will be and they will be better for it. Hybrids are very reliable, plenty of them running around that are 20 years old.

You said the same thing about the new Escalade and now you love it. You'll come around.

I hated the button shifter in the ones I have rented. The new one has a Mercedes style column shifter. That shifter design really works well.

 

I've bought a number of new Hotpoint/GE/Maytag appliances from HD and Sears (before Sears went out of buisness), and have not had any real problems. They all have lasted at least ten years or more..although, living alone, I generally don't give my washer a lot of heavy-duty use.

 

Its not the appliance itself its the service that you get from HD and Lowes. Terrible. Much better off to find a local appliance dealer and buy through them.

 

Okay? This water heater was installed from the home warranty. I got screwed on the labor (and believe me I fought over it). I had no choice but to use this place, but please tell me I'm a dumb consumer and am getting taken advantage of. Christ.

Stuff is not made as well as it used to be, sorry. Yes the settings are set properly and yes I did plenty of research on our dishwasher, my god dude my family and I aren't idiots.

I miss dishwashers that would burn your fingertips, and washers that were old school but got all kinds of stains out. Again, we bought a "good" washer and dryer too.

I said it will be a challenge with the batteries and tech. W220s were terrible but the engines weren't, at least the M113s. That ancient engine is what keeps these beater Benzes going.

No I don't think they will (it's possible), and no they won't be better for it. GM is the only smart automaker left just about with engines. The Denali does not need to be hybridized, I can promise you. Why add more weight for 1 or 2 claimed MPG? In 20 years the Denali will be chugging along from its V8 just fine.

I always meant the looks of the Escalade. I don't want a hybrid vehicle and never will.

Duly noted, YOU don't like it. But I've used this shifter for two years and you haven't touched the new one. I'm sure it's okay too but I want the REGULAR column shifter back and so do lots of owners. They put it in the 2500 trucks. The buttons are Lexus quality and you quickly get used to it.

 

Why not just take the advice from somebody who has installed a lot of water heaters? Do yourself a favor and find a good plumber, and a good appliance company. Home warranties suck, just put the cost of it away in a savings account every year and use it to help when something goes bad.

Just saying I have a dishwasher that washes my dishes and a refrigerator that doesn't let my vegetables rot lol. Somethings wrong with that refrigerator. No proper functioning refrigerator lets stuff rot, you should call an appliance repair person and let them come look at it.

"Stuff isnt made like it used to be" is a common statement, the whole "they don't build it like they used to" is really overstated. People just choose to throw appliances away instead of repairing them when they fail. Sometimes its not worth repairing them but if you invest in good appliances it likely will be. You might replace a refrigerator when you could repair it for $400. If its a $800 refrigerator that makes no sense but if its a $4,000 one then it does.

Like with cars, I don't have any desire to keep appliances for 20 years, I will renovate my kitchen etc within those 20 years and all those appliances will be replaced. The kitchen in our house was renovated in 2007, and we bought it in 2021, we have replaced all the kitchen appliances except the gas cooktop out of need (meaning the old ones broke down). But, they were 15 years old or so when we replaced them. thats good life. Replaced the water heater from 2007 in 2021 not because it had to be replaced but because we finished the basement and figured it was a good time...so that was 14 years old and still working fine. Furnace and HVAC is all from 2007 and it all functions perfectly, but it is also serviced twice a year and always has been.

Like I said we manage 400 properties, we have many properties with 20 year old appliances that are still working just fine...

So...stuff still lasts if you buy the right stuff and take care of it. Cars are no different.

My dishwasher burns my fingertips and my washer and dryer get out all our stains...

I was commenting on the looks too.

Regular column shifter isn't coming back. Of all of the e-shifters I have used the Mercedes stalk is the best. The new one works just like it.

 

Possibly not the Q7, as when we got it there were 4 of us and we did a lot of stuff together, so we needed the space. But my FIL died 18 months ago, and our son is going to college in the fall. We don't know what he's going to do after that. So we don't really need that big for just the two of us. Will we keep it as a winter beater when my wife gets her "fun car"? Maybe, maybe not.

In general, we have historically kept our cars right around 12 years. Traded my 2000 323i for a demo 2011 335d (2012s were already out). But it's such a damn good car I couldn't trade it on the 2023 M3. So I kept it, and now my son is driving it. I expect one of us will be driving that regularly until it's at least 25 years old, if not longer. And I plan to keep the M3 forever.

Likewise, we traded my wife's 2007 RX350 on the 2018 Q7, with plans on keeping that until around 2029 (when MY2030 cars would be out). Conveniently enough, that's when he should finish his Bachelor's, so we should have a better idea of our plans at that point.

 

I know which way the wind blows. I had no choice, it was that or pay for the new part as well. Yes, I had to eat it a little on this WH but overall I have come out ahead which I'll explain...

I have both. My HVAC guy did my upstairs for $9,000 when everyone else in town wanted 12k.

We've been through this, it's an anomaly but I got so much stuff fixed from that home warranty that I'm still welllll ahead, water heater or not. They replaced my whole garage door opener bc I thought to call on the very last day of the contract. I thought it was just an opener issue but they came right out and replaced it all, a week later after my warranty was expired.

She hates it regardless. There's an Amana in the garage that still works that came with the house when we bought it new.....in 1993. And it looks like it's from 1993 but it's still purring. Her water heater lasted 30 years also, from 1993.

My dishwasher washes dishes too but all this HE crap sucks. I believe my dishwasher only uses like 3 gallons of water in a 3 hour cycle?? I want it to use 20 gallons. I want the dryer on for so long and so hot that it will raise my power bill and use lots of energy. You know good and damn well nothing new will dry like a dishwasher from the 80s or 90s did, come on. The burners would be left on for an hour back in the day.

My washing machine, to get more than an inkling of water in the cycle you have to press 14 buttons... it's just obnoxious. I want the old one from my parents house that buzzed like a buzzer from a 70s car. That thing would suck out anything.

It really depends. On a few factors.

They do, and that's what manufacturers want and they're getting it. And that's also why things are built crappy because they're disposable half the time. I'm not fixing our dishwasher, hell no. We'll just get a new one.

Right, like I said I think things were built better back then. I also have a nearly 20 year old appliance, the tank whirlpool fridge I mentioned. It's no frills but that's how I want it. There aren't 54 motors that have to actuate to get ice.

A new 2024 car with all the features and tech won't be the same in 20 years as 20 year old cars are now. Like I said, it is my opinion that all this complexity with hybrids and incredibly complex transmissions etc. etc. baked into modern 2024 cars will present challenges years down the line. Classic Mercedes will continue but it's going to be more challenging for those owners

I'm aware. But that's what the customers want. I miss the ever loving hell out of the column shifter in the old one.

 

In 2004 everybody was saying “stuff they make today is crap” and now that stuff is 20 years old and a lot of it is still working fine. People love to talk about how “great things used to be” but I reality…stuff they make today is also fine.

Why would you want appliances to use more water than they need to in order to work well? It’s like wanting your car to use as much gas as it can for no purpose. Like I said my HE appliances are great and we use the normal settings. I have kids too, so I have a lot of dirty stuff.

Why would cars today not be as solid as cars built 20 years ago today? Hybrid tech…this tech has been around for a long time. I know people with 20 year old old Priuses with hundreds of thousands of miles…most 48v cars are actually less complex. My main issue would be all the technology and infotainment etc that requires the internet to work and wondering will any of that still be functional or supported 10 years down the road, let alone 20. Mechanically I don’t think there is an issue.

 

@AJT123 my mom got so mad that modern washing machines suck. She bought a heavy duty industrial unit. It is basic. Controls are light on/off or hi/low. It’s very well built. Made in USA

anyways. Back to cars

this simple Corolla has full time 4WD



D

 

My mother did the exact same thing after a crappy "fancy" Whirlpool. I forget what brand it is but the washer and dryer themselves look like they could go in a dry cleaners. What she got you won't find at Lowe's, not sure where she got them actually.

 

I have 15/20 vision and I could literally see the bulb cockeyed and in contact with a brown/melted section of the house still lit up.

I've also replaced so many of them it's crazy that they still haven't fixed it even after 4 recalls for the same thing. The way to fix it is an LED bulb from a high end maker like Phillips/Osram etc


EDIT: as far as appliances and stuff goes I love my German dishwasher, works better than anything else I've ever seen/used and it's never given me issues and I don't expect it to for at least 10 more years.

Water heaters though have been horrible here, my parent never got more than 4 years and one actually blew the side seam once. I resolved it like 10 years ago by ordering a rental/apartment unit from an industrial supply store and it's been issue free ever since. I keep a stock of 3 anode rods for it and swap it yearly to make sure it stays that way.....it's amazing since it's so massively over spec I can keep it on the lowest setting and it uses next to no gas.

 

I almost got in a wreck today turning into a 4 lane.

Nissan Altima comes out of nowhere and must be been doing 80 mph.

And yes, donut spare on driver side rear.

 

It’s probably a Speed Queen.

Always an Altima!

 

It really shook me up bad.
I looked both ways before I pulled out.

Also embarrassing, if the driver or the Altima didn't swerve I would've hit him.

I never saw it coming!
Came out of nowhere hauling ***.

 

Happens to everybody at some point, at least it was just a near miss…