Where is everybody?

[marti]

Im still here and tinkering but only service stuff, oil filters etc, brake discs an pads on the car, injectors on me van.....if you think this forum is quiet its not really compared to The 7 series register where Im an Admin, over the last 3yrs its got quieter and quieter nearly down to a full stop, we use to have 30 to 40 plus members a day posting now lucky to see one a fortnight, we had regular meetings all over the country with attendance in high figures now there's one or two meetings with maybe 3 vehicles if your lucky, I cant see it lasting much longer which is a shame as there's so much information there that will be lost

[sapphireblack]

All valid points in the contributions here.

Something else i reminded myself of, having moved home countless times over the years, i always located the local car accessory shop. These have all gone now and we've ended up with Halfrauds. My nearest employs some totally inept staff, one who looks like a cross dresser. Colleagues of said person have lime green hair or bright pink hair. Call me whatever you like, but i struggle to take such staff seriously.

I had never thought of it before, but maybe the demise of independent accessory shops was just because tinkerers had stopped tinkering

As a non social media participant their part in the demise of these kind of forums is lamentable if thats the case, but is probably considered progress

Ultimately its evolution i suppose.

[marti]

Still got an Aladdins cave where I am...great little shop

https://disscarparts.co.uk/

Plus 2 motor factors in the town 10 minutes away.

[StuBeeDoo]

I noticed the other day that traffic on Xoutpost is also getting steadily older with some threads not being updated in years, so it’s not just us here.

It's not limited to car forums, either. A US-based hobby forum with a worldwide member-base I'm on is dying, and a UK-based forum dedicated to the same hobby - with many of the same members - is very quiet. There is one particular UK member on the US-based forum who regularly starts threads with similar titles to this one, bemoaning that;- a) no-one is posting (they are, but not the sort of posts that interest him!)
and b) there aren't enough new members joining-up creating interesting content (same applies).
To be fair, the US-based forum doesn't have the volume of traffic that it did 15 years ago, when I joined - at which point it had already been going for probably nearly 10 years. The UK-based one has many threads which are duplicates of ones posted on the US-based one. If it was reliant on unique threads it would be as quiet - maybe quieter - than Xseries-forum.

Due to my wife's love of Citroens, and the family's ownership of multiple examples of the French rubbish, I'm also on forums dedicated to Citroen C3 and C4. They aren't exactly buzzing either.................

I think it's a sign of the times. Online forums have had their day. As IanP posted, above, Facebook and Instagram seem to be the go-tos for everything these days.

From a car point-of-view, if someone is after knowledge related to a problem with his/her car, and that car is less than 15 years old, the answer is invariably "you need to scan it with [insert name of applicable diagnostic system here] or take it to a garage".

People aren't likely to hang around for the banter when they already have plenty of friends - real or perceived - on socials. For example, my step-son started an Instagram page for his new daughter when she was born last year. She already has over 500 "friends", the vast majority of whom she is never likely to meet. I think it's very sad.

[Leslie]

Got my airbags replaced under recall on the e70 today , waited 6 hours so it was a long day Ordered an oil filter while I was there and they didn't have any in stock , £23 now for a genuine filter ! , saw a 218 for like 37k , an x5 3.0 was 75k and an m3 competition 108k Cars are expensive now

[sapphireblack]

Airbags while you waited? Perhaps the fitters are more adept at it now. My E71 was an overhight guest of the dealership.

[X5Sport]

Airbags while you waited? Perhaps the fitters are more adept at it now. My E71 was an overhight guest of the dealership.

Mine was the same.

[X5Sport]

Cars are expensive now

The i4 M50 I ordered back in 2021 was £68k. Today the same spec is £82k. An increase of over 20%!!! Suffice to say I wouldn’t be ordering one today.

[Leslie]

Yes while I waited for the airbags as its 35 mile away for me , they said about 3 hours but was twice that A drivers airbag can be swapped in about 5 mins , the passenger one will be a lot harder to access but I'm sure they are will practiced now as the first letter was last year for the recall but I ignored it .

[Leslie]

Cars are expensive now

The i4 M50 I ordered back in 2021 was £68k. Today the same spec is £82k. An increase of over 20%!!! Suffice to say I wouldn’t be ordering one today.

The cost of the 218 surprised me most 37k for a fairly "cheap " car I guess most pay monthly but with high interest rates now sales have to be struggling a bit , I'm not sure how much these big rises can continue till cars are just too expensive

[cooa99]

This forum has helped me out a lot since buying my E53 back in 2008.

Issue is we are all getting older and so little time to spend fixing cars. I can't be bothered to do anything that involved spending to much time on my knees. Young people nowadays buy cars on lease/pcp and change them before issues arise so no incentive to tinker

[X5Sport]

Not just ‘young’ people. It’s the way I’ve done it for the last ten years or so. I’m due to retire in three years (well that’s the plan) and lying upside down on cold concrete is getting a little tiresome. Still happy to do oil/brake fluid changes and wheels/brake updates, but crawling around underneath…..not so much.

I wish I had space for a proper lift.

[cooa99]

I wish I had space for a proper lift.

space, thats one thing we are not blessed with in the UK. Every time I go to the States and visit old friends, I always marvel at the size of their garages, big enough for 4 cars and oversized laundry machines. You have to be a footballer leaving in the sticks to get that type of square footage in the UK

[sapphireblack]

As a (very) much younger man, i was always envious of the pit in my Father's garage . A previous owner of the property must have had it dug out. It was tile lined and had power. Id like that now, though an X6 or similar doesnt fit in the average Noddy car sized garage.
There's quite a lot of housing development in these parts, options seem to be car barns or BA. Garages are approaching extinction it seems.

[X5Sport]

It (almost) surprises me that despite decades of steadily increasing car sizes, building regs have failed to keep up. In my Close of 14 houses, only 3 houses actually have cars in their garages. Everyone else has either converted it to another room or it’s just storage because their cars won’t fit.