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Every American Car Brand Is on the Bottom Half of CR's Reliability Rankings

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Re: Every American Car Brand Is on the Bottom Half of CR's Reliability Rankings

#241

Post by P_I_Staker »

repsilat wrote: post #72
tim333 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US the power of large corporations seems to have run amok a bit allowing them to foist crappy bread, chocolate etc. In Europe things are more regulated and it seems easier for local producers to not be wiped out by the large corporates. I think the US need some political reform so it's less easy to buy political influence.

> foist crappy bread A more charitable interpretation is "American consumers care more about price than quality." Or perhaps it's a market for lemons. American consumers don't know which products are of good quality, and don't want to pay extra for the same quality, so they buy cheap to not be taken advantage of. There is nothing stopping people from making good bread and chocolate in the US, and many do. They would/…

This is it. Americans by and large care about price and quantity. Next comes basic taste sensations (sweet, salty, ect). We'll eat things others would turn their nose up to, as long as it has sugar, or is loaded with cheese. Boxed cardboard with frosting. Freshness, delicate taste/texture, simplicity of ingredients, buying local, ect. all take a back seat to price, quantity, and being "tasty" (but not as in well put together and balanced, just in terms of the comfort/dopamine hit).

I've had others from overseas comment on this. The nice restaurants with the freshest, highest quality foods, and really talented chefs take a back seat to cheap lowest common denominator choices. The "mexican" place with $1 tacos and $2 margaritas is packed, and the great spanish restaurant next door is empty.

Re: Every American Car Brand Is on the Bottom Half of CR's Reliability Rankings

#242

Post by kiba »

linksnapzz wrote: post #236
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps the grandparent comment was actually talking about the quality of Tesla’s Public Relations department. Otherwise it would strike me as odd that someone would boost a vehicle manufacturer that doesn’t sell spare parts, in a thread on vehicle reliability. Edited a few words to better express my point.

The difference is, the other automakers have decades of experience tailoring public pronouncements so as not to provide fodder for trial lawyers. Hence the vaporous noncommunication. Tesla hasn't been sued as much yet, but they'll get there eventually.

The PR department may have learned the wrong lesson from their environment.

Re: Every American Car Brand Is on the Bottom Half of CR's Reliability Rankings

#243

Post by smnrchrds »

linksnapzz wrote: post #236
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps the grandparent comment was actually talking about the quality of Tesla’s Public Relations department. Otherwise it would strike me as odd that someone would boost a vehicle manufacturer that doesn’t sell spare parts, in a thread on vehicle reliability. Edited a few words to better express my point.

The difference is, the other automakers have decades of experience tailoring public pronouncements so as not to provide fodder for trial lawyers. Hence the vaporous noncommunication. Tesla hasn't been sued as much yet, but they'll get there eventually.

Unless their PR and legal department are exclusively staffed by recent graduates with zero work or real-world experience, it shouldn't matter whether or not they have been sued. It's not like every corporation starts figuring everything out by trial and error, never referring to literature or hiring experienced professionals.

Re: Every American Car Brand Is on the Bottom Half of CR's Reliability Rankings

#244

Post by anpat »

patrickk wrote: post #37
rtpg wrote: post #5

This is a bit flame bait-y but I really feel like America is getting a super Galapagos effect compared to the rest of the world. Everything is super different and weird and kinda bad, and nobody seems to notice. I go to peoples houses in the US sometimes. Some of these houses are multimillion dollar homes. The doors are all terrible. The plumbing is crap. The furniture just feels bad. The cheapest studio apartment in…

One of the small, but significant things I noticed about German apartments was the lipped 'bezel'[1], where the door and the frame fit snugly into each other and there is a rubber/plastic seal between the door and the frame. This is a big deal in an apartment, because it reduces noise, reduces drafts, and eliminates the need to heat more than one room at a time. Also, the door itself seems to be very solid, you'd hav…

Thank you for linking this, I noticed this in every apartment I lived in Germany and was wondering what is it called. The door frame had rubber/plastic dampener that would literally create a vaccum like effect when closing (i.e the room door would slam if I closed the balcony door).

They really made a difference in terms of inside temperature.

Also the ability to tilt windows and even doors (vertically) was an amazing feature.

Re: Every American Car Brand Is on the Bottom Half of CR's Reliability Rankings

#246

Post by draw_down »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #73
tim333 wrote: post #44

A lot of the issues may come down to whether management prioritize financial engineering / making huge bonuses / pleasing wall street vs making good vehicles. The same with Boeing - they used to be run by engineers who wanted to make great planes and then the shifted control to finance guys in Chicago who wanted to make big profits. You see the effect a bit with Tesla where I'm sure Musk would love to focus on qualit…

I worked for years as an engineer and manager at a legendary Japanese corporation, known for their quality. It was a frustrating experience. Their obsession with quality made even the smallest tasks difficult and tedious. 3,000-line testing spreadsheets, where even one failure pooched the whole deal. But you can’t argue with the results. Good quality is difficult and tedious. I like to think that the work I do is of…

> Their obsession with quality made even the smallest tasks difficult and tedious. 3,000-line testing spreadsheets, where even one failure pooched the whole deal.

Sounds good to me.

Re: Every American Car Brand Is on the Bottom Half of CR's Reliability Rankings

#247

Post by exhilaration »

mcny wrote: post #99
EdwardDiego wrote: post #18

Yeah, as a Kiwi, I'm entirely unsurprised. I've owned Japanese cars from various manufacturers, but the absolute worst I owned was a Toyota Cavalier - a rebadged Chevrolet as part of some trade deal between the US and Japan - that the Japanese steered well clear of and immediately exported to NZ and Aus. It had a great wee 4 cylinder 2.4L engine, a hell of a lot of fun to drive, but it was of notorious build quality…

My 2007 Toyota Camry was made in the US and has a known problem of burning oil because the sealing between the piston and the cylinder rent desire all the oil back or something. My next car will not be made in the US, regardless of manufacturer.

I'm in the US and Toyota fixed my 2007 Toyota Camry's oil burning problem in 2015 for free!!! The dealership had quoted me something like $8000 to fix it (more than the car was worth) so I'd given up. Then one day I got a letter from Toyota corporate telling me my car was covered by this warranty extension. That made me a Toyota customer for life -- my next car was a Toyota Sienna, I won't buy another brand at this point.

My sister is still driving that 2007 Camry.

You should contact your local dealer and ask them about this. You are most likely covered. If they don't help, find a way to contact Toyota corporate.

Re: Every American Car Brand Is on the Bottom Half of CR's Reliability Rankings

#248

Post by ranger207 »

blaser-waffle wrote: post #209
xchaotic wrote: post #203

Looks like a lot of discussion here is about housing, but the CR report suggests that most of the issues are with the infotainment systems in cars. And that includes Tesla. I assume that the ecosystem is big enough to create a 3rd player that’s better than android auto or iOS and better suited for cars specifically.

Maybe it's just me but the infotainment systems in cars, despite being more complex, aren't really better in any meaningful way compared to my 2007 Mazda 3 (RIP). I've got a new car with a touchscreen but it's more of a PITA then hooking up an MP3 player via the aux audio.

I have an older car. I replaced the head unit with one that supports Bluetooth, and it stays on Bluetooth 24/7. I have a suction cup mount for my phone which runs GPS. That's all I need. I dread having to buy a car made in the past decade or so, purely because of way-too-intrusive infotainment systems.

Re: Every American Car Brand Is on the Bottom Half of CR's Reliability Rankings

#249

Post by [deleted] »

thedaemon wrote: post #233
freeflight wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny story about that, the US is actually metric [0] Still doesn't stop the nutters from opposing it because it's supposedly a tool by the NWO to take over the world, with the US remaining as sole resistance [1] [0] https://youtu.be/SmSJXC6_qQ8 [1] https://youtu.be/8jl5epgqHac

Funny story? Not a funny story. We are not metric. We would be metric if you bought items in metric. We do not. Doesn't matter what the scientist use. It matters what milk and bread is sold in. We buy drinks in liters and gallons. Those are not metric.

[deleted]

Re: Every American Car Brand Is on the Bottom Half of CR's Reliability Rankings

#250

Post by JPKab »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #73
tim333 wrote: post #44

A lot of the issues may come down to whether management prioritize financial engineering / making huge bonuses / pleasing wall street vs making good vehicles. The same with Boeing - they used to be run by engineers who wanted to make great planes and then the shifted control to finance guys in Chicago who wanted to make big profits. You see the effect a bit with Tesla where I'm sure Musk would love to focus on qualit…

I worked for years as an engineer and manager at a legendary Japanese corporation, known for their quality. It was a frustrating experience. Their obsession with quality made even the smallest tasks difficult and tedious. 3,000-line testing spreadsheets, where even one failure pooched the whole deal. But you can’t argue with the results. Good quality is difficult and tedious. I like to think that the work I do is of…

It's funny, because this is the kind of philosophy that makes software engineering in Japan so difficult, but is very ideal for automotive mass production.
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