Cool story bro. Literally have a friend here who has just recently sold a still running, original engine and transmission 04 Honda Accord with 432k miles, and they have a second 07 with 330k miles. Other than ball joints, brakes, oil changes, tires, one or two CV axles, spark plugs, and some O2 sensors they worked fine for all that time. I doubt you can run your car for under 15 cents per mile in fuel let alone fuel + maintenance but okay.
I have an 04 Colorado that I have owned for 14 years, if you exclude tires and oil changes, I have put a thermostat, 2 O2 sensors, and a water pump in that truck. So I've spent $500 in repairs in 14 years. I only paid $13k for it to begin with and its still worth $5k. And it gets over 20 MPG. It's done everything, drag passes, autocross, trailer towing, winter driving, driving in heat, long trips, overloaded, you name it. My uncle uses an 09 Chevy 2500 HD for his business and its running at 230k miles on the original engine and transmission despite hauling a trailer at 22k lb GVWR often and plowing snow. Only now is the transmission getting tired. It significantly more reliable than his mechanical diesel lower mileage mack dump truck even. The truck has to work to make money.
It's undeniable EFI made cars last longer, use less fuel, will probably make you live longer and heathier due to lower emissions, and the cars in general last longer. Wait until gas is $4.00 a gallon again and that 5 mpg you lost is going to eat a hole in your pocket.
The irony about the connectors is the pins are usually easy to get, they just make the bodies different because the people assembling the car will mess it up if you can physically plug it together.
I also grew up with EFI cars and we quite literally had $1000 cars that worked perfectly fine with EFI and didn't have EFI related failures, it was usually the water pumps and alternators if anything, and wear items like ball joints and brakes.
These old cars are way less reliable, good ones or not. That doesn't mean I don't like them but if I made out the list of all the original style mopar parts that have failed on me that have since been replaced by stuff that hasn't, it would be quite amazing. Worst parts on these cars being the alternators and voltage regulators.
You couldn't be more wrong, you quite literally have no idea how little EFI components cost today for someone buying in bulk like an auto manufacturer. They're not even paying more than $4 per any sensor and $5 per port fuel injector and the computer is under $50. A coil pack system for a 4 cyl is under $25. Precision machining costs money and is needed to make carbs. Then there is adjusting for variation, warranty costs, etc that all factor in.
The market demands better fuel economy, emissions, and it just flat out working in any condition. You'll flat out save the money in fuel directly in the first year of ownership if there was any additional cost to the EFI system vs a carb.
Even Mopar had roller lifter carb 318s. They make more power on a dyno because you can ramp the valves open faster and still have it last.
I actually live in the real world. This is the world you live in, you just don't have your eyes open. Carbs are antiquated items that were necessary in the past, you want to run one on an old car, sweet, but don't tell me that it's the best solution. They can go to the same dust bin the purple shaft cams and BFG Radial T/As need to go in. This sounds like another case of "I don't understand it, so I don't like it so it's crap". I know both types of fuel systems.
Over time things get better and less expensive. What CAFE does now is force car companies to make every vehicle an SUV with flex fuel because that's the way the formula is made. Every time a new technology comes out it takes time to get it right but that always happens if it's going to sustain. Been 35+ years of basic MPFI systems and a lot of those cars still run fine and have most if not all of their original fuel system components in the vehicle, including the computers.
