The gas we have today with Ethanol is OK for our cars that we drive everyday, but it's terrible for machines that we do not use all the time. The Ethanol attracts water and turns to varnish, gumming up the carbs, in just a few months.
Every Spring, we had machines that refused to start, fortunately we know a local guy who repairs engines for reasonable prices. Most of the time it's gummed-up carbs or fuel lines, so I took his advice and make sure to run our machines empty every late fall.
I don't use the old truck very much, but it is the vehicle I use to hitch up the trailer and head
on out to the county landfill to get all those free wood chips for the coop bedding.
Same here - I love my 1996 F-250, but it was ridiculous as a commuter vehicle, seeing as most places I go (including work) are 5-10 miles from my home. Last October my workplace installed free electric car chargers, so I pulled the switch and bought a Fiat 500e (all electric) with less than 10.000 miles on it, for less than $10,000. It's definitely not for everybody, but it works for me and I love it. Driving it is super fun, the way it's designed I sit up like I do in my truck (and I'm tall) and it handles like a little sports car rather than a tin can - its acceleration is better than any gas car of its size, since there's no hesitation and no shifting. It costs me nothing to drive it, if I time things right to charge it at work, and even if I have to charge it at home it costs like $3 for 100 miles. Maintenance consists of nothing more than tires, brake fluid and windshield fluid. The battery is expected to last for 1000 charges, which works out to 20 years for me, probably about the time I age out of being able to drive.
In the meantime, I get to prolong the life of my beloved F-250. It's still in great shape, and I use it for towing my horse trailer, my utility trailer, and going on longer trips.
My 30++ yo dishwasher did that two years ago. Now I dump in a gallon of water at the beginning of each of the 4 cycles. At first it was a PITA, but now I get all the kitchen clean up chores done while I'm waiting for the cycles. And if by some magic, there aren't any extra chores, I read. I'm in NO hurry to get a new dishwasher!
When we first moved here, we had a dishwasher from the 70's. It worked fine at first, then needed hot water dumped in, then other various coddling, then finally (thankfully) it caught on fire and filled the kitchen with smoke. Finally, Mr. Dog agreed to get a new one!