XPost: comp.mobile.android, misc.phone.mobile.iphone   
   From: spam@nospam.com   
      
   sms wrote:   
      
   > Decades ago I replace the brake pads on a VW Rabbit (Golf in other   
   > regions) with pads that I ordered online from JC Whitney, a mail-order   
   > parts house. Descending a steep hill, in San Francisco, the pads glazed   
   > over from the heat. The rotors were fine. Did another brake job   
   > immediately, using high-quality pads from an import car parts store.   
      
   High quality?   
   How did you know?   
   By the advertising?   
      
   HINT: What's the cold/hot friction rating (coefficient) of those pads?   
   DOUBLEHINT: It's printed on every passenger vehicle pad sold in the USA.   
      
   > Unfortunately, in the U.S., not a lot of vehicle owners still do their   
   > own car maintenance so the number of auto parts stores is greatly   
   > reduced.   
      
   Is that true?   
      
   Do people do less of their maintenance now that it's easier than ever   
   before to do typical maintenance on a car for a whole bunch of reasons:   
   a. Cars require less maintenance nowadays (e.g., no points)   
   b. Videos abound on YouTube for how to do all sorts of maintenance   
   c. Cars are simpler now than they have ever been (IMHO)   
   d. The Internet makes finding & buying the correct parts super easy   
   etc.   
      
   Were auto parts stores more prevalent in the past than they are now?   
      
   > In my town of 60,000 people we've lost all three of our auto   
   > parts stores as well as a fourth that's just across the city boundary. I   
   > now buy my oil at Costco or Walmart and I order my oil filters from a   
   > dealer that sells OEM parts on eBay.   
      
   Maybe that (and Internet shopping) is why you lost your auto parts stores?   
   Why do you think that loss is only due to a presumed lack of home DIY?   
      
   > Two of our vehicles are hybrids and because of regenerative braking the   
   > brakes last a very long time, easily more than 100K miles. On my old VWs   
   > I had to do brake jobs every 25K-30K miles.   
      
   I still have a RWD vehicle with drum brakes, whose shoes lasted, oh, about   
   180K miles (and which were still meaty when I replaced them), and, let's be   
   clear, I live on the top of a mountain which is clearly tough on them.   
      
   The fronts go more frequently of course...   
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)