Morning all,
This thread is an interesting read. I maintain 40 and 50 year old machinery for a living. Parts and information and manufacturer support is there and so it's quite do-able. In fact in my game is very cost effective compared to the cost an equivalent new machine.
That leads me to my two cents on this one. Assuming we get 'right to repair' the single biggest issue will be the cost of labour. I too have old household appliances and spend my own time keeping them alive. Doing this is cost effective as we all know but if we have to pay for the labour at say, $100 an hour (which is a good rough figure) suddenly it's marginal, or often not worth repairing. This ,of course, is the battle small motor and appliance repair places have every day. And it's what killed the TV repair game. Sure over the top parts pricing and data access made it more difficult but fundamentally it's about the money gap between the cost of repair (labour included) and the cost of new.
P.S. Got visions in my head of gml getting around with a baguette stuffed behind his back as a temporary fix for the lumbar support, waving a cheery 'bonjour' to passers by
