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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

#351

Post by thedaemon »

kube-system wrote: post #271
thedaemon wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>It matters what milk and bread is sold in. The FPLA requires metric units to be included on labeling. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Packaging_and_Labeling_Ac... https://www.nist.gov/standardsgov/compliance-faqs-packaging-...

Yeah, we all see metric on the items we buy. None of us understand what that means. We understand 1 Gallon, not 3.785411784 L.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_customary_units

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

#353

Post by jccalhoun »

Doubleslash wrote: post #28
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…

German citizen here. I travel to the US quite often - I find that the quality of the Grocery stores is on average one level up. The quality of the goods sold there is another story. But mid-and southern Europe likes it cheap when it comes to these things. There is a reason why we call them "discounters". I really do hear you on the housing quality - it's ridiculous what people are willing to put up with over there. W…

From my experience of living in a college town where there seems to be a new "luxury apartment" building being built every week, "luxury apartment" is code for overpriced crap aimed at young people who are spending mom and dad's money

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

#354

Post by gumby »

AceJohnny2 wrote: post #329
gumby wrote: post #299

I 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 so…

> there are many reasons to criticize pharma companies but they don't take suppliers' word for any materials There's reason to doubt that (from 3 days ago): https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/a-tiny-pharmacy-is-id...

Umm, I read that article three days ago and again due to your posting it. The branded products didn't have the problem.

Sandoz and GSK are pulling their products anyway which you could take either way.

I am somewhat surprised to find myself defending big pharma and this event is only recently reported so we'll see how it turns out. But for now I think my example holds.

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

#355

Post by nostrademons »

oblio wrote: post #128
Luc wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there is something to this, but in my experience they just don't care. Their stuff is optimized for their own cultural values, which you perhaps expect to be more like your own than they are. I have had American visitors marvel at the (German built) windows in my French home, calling them something you'd see on a space station. On the other hand they think I must be having money problems for not having a tumb…

Could be. I find it amusing that from a climate change point of view, both their comments are basically negative: * good windows provide better insulation and reduce the need to heat/cool down a building, plus their reduce dampness since they keep moisture out * while a tumble dryer uses electricity for something which is not much of a chore (it takes like, 5 minutes, to hang the laundry and 5 more minutes to pick it…

A lot of Americans consider hanging clothes to be unsightly (it's even become an idiom: "Don't air your dirty laundry in public"). Some apartment managers will even get mad at you and ask you to stop or hang them indoors if you do.

There's also an issue with general social cohesion, inequality, and safety in American urban environments: many people are afraid people will steal their clothes if they just hang them up for a while. This is less of an issue in small rural towns, and indeed, hanging your clothes out to dry in your yard is considered more socially acceptable in small towns.

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

#356

Post by kube-system »

thedaemon wrote: post #351
kube-system wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It matters what milk and bread is sold in. The FPLA requires metric units to be included on labeling. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Packaging_and_Labeling_Ac... https://www.nist.gov/standardsgov/compliance-faqs-packaging-...

Yeah, we all see metric on the items we buy. None of us understand what that means. We understand 1 Gallon, not 3.785411784 L. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_customary_units

To the contrary, I've seen 3.8L or 3.78L written on every gallon jug for my entire lifetime. I know that conversion off the top of my head... even before I had mandatory science classes where I formally learned the same.

But even if you haven't read any of the text on a milk jug over the past half-century, surely you've seen one of these before?:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71x5rVYbJUL...

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

#357

Post by gumby »

j8014 wrote: post #350
gumby wrote: post #305

Not really a surprise. US manufacturing is optimized for the extrema (i.e. it's a saddle curve): inexpensive stuff to heavy to be worth shipping (e.g. paper) and inexpensive low-labor commodity product (e.g. grain) and at the other extreme: super high value, difficult to produce items (e.g. ultra-high precision bearings, cruise missiles).

That is total nonsense. I buy nearly everything either made in the US or Europe. Kitchenware, tools, outdoor equipment, clothing, furniture and just about everything else except my phone, tv and computers. It's always excellent, durable and unfortunately, expensive.

I agree about many European products (the appliances in my house are all 20 year old European ones that still work perfectly).

But inexpensive "made in USA" stuff I tend to find (folding outdoor chairs and the like) seems to pretty much last a short time or even single use, and as has been lamented publicly, is rarely exported. Most of the everyday product purchases seem to come from SE Asia.

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

#359

Post by briandear »

BeetleB wrote: post #302
ckastner wrote: post #155

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.

Most food carts in Portland charge about the same amount as non-food carts. For most people, if it's not cheaper, it aint street food.

Street food has a price threshold?

In China, street food might cost 20 yuan for a dish of something. The median income for all of China’s is 18,000 yuan.

In Portland, the median income is $53,230. A street dish might cost $10.

In China, street food is actually a lot more expensive than Portland, adjusting for median income levels. Even if you bought a dish for 10¥ it is still more than twice as expensive as Portland.

Are we to say that China’s street food ain’t street food? Because that’s what you are suggesting which basically means that no street food is street food.

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

#360

Post by hnick »

taurath wrote: post #343
gumby wrote: post #299

I 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 so…

Lots of software companies tend to do this too. You had an outage? Oh that was just the vendor. Or failed software projects being blamed on a contractor.

We chose the cheap option but don't blame us! This was entirely unexpected!
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