“This is still a really good tractor,” said Folland, who owns two other tractors built before 1982. “They cost a fraction of the price, and then the operating costs are much less because they’re so much easier to fix,” he said. Tractors manufactured in the late 1970s and 1980s are some of the hottest items in farm auctions across the Midwest these days — and it’s not because they’re antiques.
Cost-conscious farmers are looking for bargains, and tractors from that era are well-built and totally functional, and aren’t as complicated or expensive to repair as more recent models that run on sophisticated software.
Ironically too:
1. Older safety razors are way cheaper to operate and better for the skin.
2. Plain old cooking real food is way better than processed food which has contributed to obesity.
3. Old printed photos and documents survive 200+ years and can still be found and read.
4. Older electric cars (pre-dating petrol and diesel) now make a come back as a "new" thing.
I’m not saying everything retro without fail is better but there is a distinct marketing pattern emerging today with industry wanting us to buy the next "best" thing except its not always better. In the interests of "modernisation" we just stumble along blindly and spend. Digital is convenient but does not always triumph analogue (even ham radio has lots of different digital modes vs the trusty all accessible analogue modes).
#technology #retro
#^For tech-weary Midwest farmers, 40-year-old tractors now a hot commodity
Tractors built in 1980 or earlier cause bidding wars at auctions.