[Greywolf Unlimited]

* Older vehicles are traded in a logical sequence from the most capable person/people of taking care of it, to the most pathetic clowns on the face of the planet. The process is simple, and works rather like this:

ORIGINAL owner A) has a problem that will either repeat itself and/or which they don't wish to deal with and the now second hand machine initially finds it's way to the used market.

Subsequently owner B) finds out it is available, who could not afford the car/truck/bike when it was new. The hidden flaw may or may not be remarked upon. This second owner will then one day find a problem with it that they are uncomfortable with. In due course, the vehicle is eventually sold to someone willing to have it regardless of what problems it may have so long as it is driveable...
By this stage serious neglect has probably entered the picture.

Additional owners will perform lesser and lesser degrees of repair until one day the machine grinds to a (literally) smoking halt.

At this stage, many go to scrap yards. Some surface at police or county auctions. Some gather spiderwebs behind or alongside buildings or garages, or out in fields according to the present owners preferences and means.

These will either be found by collectors or hack-mechanics.
It is the business of the hack-mech to cobble together a complete working "something" no matter how many shortcuts and automotive crimes against engineering must be committed in order to achieve the final product:

A rolling pile of feces soon destined to become the next lucky owners private, personal nightmare come true. Used car sales operations are among the chief offenders in this, which I have termed the "Second Loop". During this phase, a machine which was fundamentally unsound to begin with will make the same rounds as already described exactly as if it were a new vehicle; except for varying differences in the rate of demise. On some machines at this point - they have been successfully de-bugged at last, and will run for an amazingly long while. It is the general rule however that such concatenations of Automotive Degradation are swiftly bound for the THIRD loop (Via the wrecking yard, more than likely).

At this point vehicles which have passed over the threshold age will be continually regurgitated to the delight and dismay of everyone involved - all depending of course on whether the individual in question is:
A) Buying a new toy!
B) Finally getting rid of that (censored) pile of crap!
or
C) In the middle of a cross country road trip when nature sides with the hidden flaw once again...

And the whole process continues, until ultimately there is nothing left but iron oxide. This final state is called "Vehicular Entropy".

There is one and only one way out of this vicious cycle, and that is to become the kind of mechanic who knows what the hell they are doing in the first place - I suppose that is why I have always had good luck with my transportation.

And similarly, there is only a single reason why I have written about this: It is because I forever keep the above in mind when buying project vehicles. It is liberating indeed to realise right from the start that one is dealing with a bumper to bumper pile of junk