what about Telsa?
Every American Car Brand Is on the Bottom Half of CR's Reliability Rankings
291–300 of 475 posts
Re: Every American Car Brand Is on the Bottom Half of CR's Reliability Rankings
#292> CR says Chrysler’s Pacifica was one that contributed to the drop in rankings thanks to the minivan’s infotainment and transmission issues. Every single "downgrade" I read about is either infotainment or transmission or both. Except Honda, which apparently has shit locks on it's kid hauler. I'm a bit skeptical of consumer reports after actually reading it. My car, a Subaru WRX is given low marks for "stiff ride and…
I dig the WRX, but I would love if the engine were quieter. IMO a quieter engine is always desirable - akin to how I always want my computers to have quieter fans for any given level of performance.
>I dig the WRX, but I would love if the engine were quieter.
As far as the WRX goes I would say you're in the minority. There was quite an uproar when Subaru ditched the unequal length headers on the WRX, eliminating the famous boxer rumble. That unique exhaust note is one of the reasons people love the WRX.
>IMO a quieter engine is always desirable - akin to how I always want my computers to have quieter fans for any given level of performance.
Aftermarket exhaust systems are quite popular, but I can't say that I've ever seen a computer fan noise amplification system. I understand not everyone wants a loud car, but there are plenty of cars coming out with factory valved exhaust so you can make the car scream when appropriate, and not just on high end sports cars either.
Re: Every American Car Brand Is on the Bottom Half of CR's Reliability Rankings
#293This 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…
American bread is particularly problematic as someone that moved from Europe. Until I found bread I liked I'd often joke that it was suitable for storage in a bomb shelter since it has an unnatural shelf-life and tastes like it. After a tedious search, we wound up buying $2.60 "Sara Lee Artesano Style Bread" which is still less good than a 70c loaf of Hovis in the UK, and certainly less good than fresh made French br…
You say this like you don't trip over bagged bread in every supermarket in Europe. Including some places that have essentially crustless white bread slices in a bag.
(Source, traveling around Europe now, with recent experience of French, Portuguese, and Spanish grocery stores)
Re: Every American Car Brand Is on the Bottom Half of CR's Reliability Rankings
#294Earlier quoted context omitted.
So Musk is saying their finished cars have problems because they get bad parts and they have to put those bad parts on their cars? I would have tough you did some quality assurance on all parts you put in the car, and not use the bad ones.
I really don't believe Tesla gets any worse parts than other manufacturers. Those parts come from the same production line. They are the same parts. Almost all of the automotive industry uses the same parts, chosen from a fairly limited variety of models, produced in great numbers. The design of a car has a great impact on how long those parts last. It's easy to blame a parts supplier for faults that are because of y…
Is there somewhere to learn about this type of engineering without going though education?
Just found your example a really interesting read and would like to read more!
Re: Every American Car Brand Is on the Bottom Half of CR's Reliability Rankings
#295Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not to enthusiasts, who are driving for the experience of driving, including the feel, sound, etc
I consider myself an enthusiast, and still consider engine noise to be undesirable. Among various other car things, I'm very enthusiastic for in-car noise cancelling: https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/9/18175748/bose-noise-cancel...
>Among various other car things, I'm very enthusiastic for in-car noise cancelling:
This is one of the biggest gripes of automotive reviewers when it comes to cabin noise and I agree. My GT-R has it (that exact Bose technology you linked) and I find it quite obnoxious. It neuters the sound of engine and all I'm left with is more road and wind noise. Save that for an S-Class, it has no place in sports cars.
Re: Every American Car Brand Is on the Bottom Half of CR's Reliability Rankings
#296Its 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…
If anybody thinks the difference between major brands is due a difference in factory processes they would be very wrong. The reality is every large manufacturer now has a culture built around Six Sigma/Lean/6S/Continuous Improvement/etc. Vehicles aren't manufactured in underground hideouts of secret societies. If a process if found to work well in one corner of the industry it absolutely permeates to other parts.
Here is video of a Mercedes C-lass production line moving as workers assemble by the way: https://youtu.be/z6c_Zs5DG0s?t=531
Re: Every American Car Brand Is on the Bottom Half of CR's Reliability Rankings
#297Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Can you compare Tesla to a manufacturer who innovates very little (Toyota or Honda) and simply churns out the same internal combustion engine 10 million times a year? I don't think so. All depends on what you're optimizing for. I can't get an EV from Toyota or Honda (at least not one that competes with our S and X), so I deal with some fit and finish and reliability issues. Powertrain has been rock solid. Charging ne…
Toyota and Honda brought the first two mass-market hybrids to market (the Prius in 1997 and Insight in 1999, respectively). I don't think it's fair to say they innovate very little or that they churn out the same internal combustion engine 10 million times a year. A bunch of my friends have plug-in Priuses (Prii?) that are effectively EVs, since if you're commuting you never need to run off gas.
Re: Every American Car Brand Is on the Bottom Half of CR's Reliability Rankings
#298Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you compare Tesla to a manufacturer who innovates very little (Toyota or Honda) and simply churns out the same internal combustion engine 10 million times a year? I don't think so. All depends on what you're optimizing for. I can't get an EV from Toyota or Honda (at least not one that competes with our S and X), so I deal with some fit and finish and reliability issues. Powertrain has been rock solid. Charging ne…
Toyota and Honda brought the first two mass-market hybrids to market (the Prius in 1997 and Insight in 1999, respectively). I don't think it's fair to say they innovate very little or that they churn out the same internal combustion engine 10 million times a year. A bunch of my friends have plug-in Priuses (Prii?) that are effectively EVs, since if you're commuting you never need to run off gas.
Still no pure BEV from them, only hybrids and fuel cell. No charging network either. Owned two Toyotas and a Lexus before we sold them all for Teslas, really a shame as I liked the reliability of the brand, but buying EVs was more important to us. Personally, I want to support innovation, not the status quo.
Re: Every American Car Brand Is on the Bottom Half of CR's Reliability Rankings
#299I hate it when a vendor replies, as appeared in this article, that the problem was "a supplier-related issue". I purchased the product from you, not the supplier. You're responsible for what you shipped me.
By contrast: there are many reasons to criticize pharma companies but they don't take suppliers' word for any materials. Dell doesn't blame Delta when they ship bad power supplies, they take responsibility. But some industries (cars, aircraft, et al) are perfectly happy to blame someone else.
Note: it's OK if you say "we got some bad products and we failed to detect it..." That's defect analysis. But own it.
Re: Every American Car Brand Is on the Bottom Half of CR's Reliability Rankings
#300> CR says Chrysler’s Pacifica was one that contributed to the drop in rankings thanks to the minivan’s infotainment and transmission issues. Every single "downgrade" I read about is either infotainment or transmission or both. Except Honda, which apparently has shit locks on it's kid hauler. I'm a bit skeptical of consumer reports after actually reading it. My car, a Subaru WRX is given low marks for "stiff ride and…
CR reviews cars as appliances. Their target market is the mainstream buyer. If you're looking for a enthusiast review, they're the wrong publication. What they do, they do well. Their reviews are consistently: "what my mom would say if she drove it". Consumer Reports is not Car and Driver.
I haven't subscribed to CR for a long time but I found that was their approach to pretty much everything. Which is fine if you're buying an appliance. And, for me, isn't all that far off if I'm buying a car. Certainly, reliability stats are good to have at least. And, to the degree they're weighting criteria differently than I would, I can adjust for that.
Where CR really starts to diverge from my needs is when you are, as you say, an enthusiast or a prosumer type user of something like a camera, about which you have a lot of definite opinions. To the degree that CR lines up with what's important to you, it's mostly a coincidence.