Live data from Hacker News

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

jalopnik.com

261–270 of 475 posts

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

#261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah, I would've thought the same thing about their manufacturing & labor relations depts., and yet...here we are.

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

#262

Its not a direct comparison, but having owned cars from Japan, the US, and Germany, watching the videos of cars being made by the major manufacturers makes the difference somewhat obvious. I've linked them below, but just looking at the factory processes, the workers, and the methods used it seems the German process is just designed to build cars with tighter tolerances. The cars don't move down assembly lines with h…

German cars tend to be less reliable than Japanese ones, as in this survey, possibly due to those tolerance. My 2018 German car feels a lot nicer than a 2018 Toyota, but has already had more problems, too. :|

Sometimes I wonder if the US auto industry suffers a bit competitively vs Germany and Japan due to a higher amount of "brain drain" to other higher-paying forms of STEM jobs in tech.

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

#263
post #213

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.

Ive increasingly been disappointed that there arent better infotainment roundups, or some kind of constantly updating dashboard of comparison. To your point though, FCA might have something pretty similar to that 3rd party player. Their Uconnect 4 drops into a pretty wide variety of brands they own, I dont know if any car company still makes as many skus and variants as FCA does. Abarth, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge,…

VW are also rolling out the same "Virtual Cockpit" display, just skinned differently across Skoda, Seat, VW, Audi, Porsche, Lambourghini, Bentley, Bugatti :)

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

#264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I visited Portland a few years ago and the quantity and quality of street food being offered was amazing. There were entire squares packed with vendors. I enjoy the street food scene in London, but I'd choose Portland over it any day.

Over downtown near the waterfront during a farmers market, or food trucks?

food cart pods, spread throughout the city. less than there were, but still quite a few. typically, they range an entire city block.

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

#265
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…

I live in the middle of nowhere and rent a wonderful studio in a beautiful old building for next to nothing. The Bay Area is the armpit of America when it comes to value per dollar spent.

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

#266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It certainly takes something to look at a housing market where regulations enforce artificial scarcity and say that everything wrong with it is the result of capitalism...

Capitalism is the reason that regulations exist. Apartments cost less than single family homes. Makes total sense for developers to get regulations passed that prevent that sort of competition.

I mean, I suppose you could call regulatory capture 'capitalism'... But seeing as most people's response to 'capitalism failing' is to call for more regulation, I don't think that that's really fair.

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

#267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Words are cheap. They’re under investigation for possibly hiding recall and issuing OTA instead that surprised people with sudden range loss ( https://www.businessinsider.com/nhtsa-investigating-tesla-up... ) They force customers to go over arbitration to fix yellowing entertainment screen on cars as young as few months. They tell people it’s normal wear and tear due to using cat in the sun ( https://teslamotorsclub.…

GM knew of an issue with ignition key switches that killed 124 people and required a recall of over 30 million vehicles. Tesla definitely has fault, but legacy automakers have faired far worse in safety standards. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_ignition_switch... Ford has had to recall over a million trucks due to engine block heaters that would cause your engine block to catch fire. https://www.google.…

And TSLA (16 years old) is already well on their way to accumulating a similar track record as GM (111 years old) or Ford (116 years old).

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

#268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Words are cheap. They’re under investigation for possibly hiding recall and issuing OTA instead that surprised people with sudden range loss ( https://www.businessinsider.com/nhtsa-investigating-tesla-up... ) They force customers to go over arbitration to fix yellowing entertainment screen on cars as young as few months. They tell people it’s normal wear and tear due to using cat in the sun ( https://teslamotorsclub.…

GM knew of an issue with ignition key switches that killed 124 people and required a recall of over 30 million vehicles. Tesla definitely has fault, but legacy automakers have faired far worse in safety standards. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_ignition_switch... Ford has had to recall over a million trucks due to engine block heaters that would cause your engine block to catch fire. https://www.google.…

I don't think anyone is arguing that they're the absolute worst carmaker. A comparison to Toyota or Honda would have been a better choice.

I don't want a power plant that is advertised as "more earthquake resistant than Fukushima" in my backyard.

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

#269

Its not a direct comparison, but having owned cars from Japan, the US, and Germany, watching the videos of cars being made by the major manufacturers makes the difference somewhat obvious. I've linked them below, but just looking at the factory processes, the workers, and the methods used it seems the German process is just designed to build cars with tighter tolerances. The cars don't move down assembly lines with h…

German cars tend to be less reliable than Japanese ones, as in this survey, possibly due to those tolerance. My 2018 German car feels a lot nicer than a 2018 Toyota, but has already had more problems, too. :| Sometimes I wonder if the US auto industry suffers a bit competitively vs Germany and Japan due to a higher amount of "brain drain" to other higher-paying forms of STEM jobs in tech.

Japanese manufacturers have found a good balance between simplicity and modern tech (see Mazda, Suzuki).

German cars tend to be over-engineered; lots of modern tech in the vehicle + manufacturing, whereas American cars tend to be quite the opposite.

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

#270

I’m quite pleased with my 2017 Ford Fiesta SFE with its German engine and French gearbox and Mexican assembly. Unfortunately, Ford is eliminating the Fiesta in the US.

That's surprising considering that car has the worst transmission in car history. Unless the SFE is the one with a stick.
Post reply on HN