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Who makes the most reliable new cars?

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Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#701

Post by pezezin »

resolutebat wrote: post #316
alasdair_ wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Japanese obsession with handwritten resumes and faxes come to mind.

For handwritten resumes, the pain is kind of the point: handwriting hundreds of copies, which must be perfect down to the last stroke, is how new grads demonstrate their diligence and commitment to future employers. (It's still an idiotic relic though.)

Things are changed though. I work for a Japanese company, and when I applied for my current job the whole process was fully online.

The website was crap though, as most Japanese web services are, but that is another topic...

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#702

Post by jimbob45 »

koliber wrote: post #695
vondur wrote: post #453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People drive horrible now. Running lights, crazy lane changes, excessive speeding etc. Here in the US is started during the pandemic and hasn’t improved.

I noticed that too, but I am questioning myself. I’m wondering how much other people’s driving has gotten worse, vs me getting older, more defensive and risk averse, and noticing such driving. If I look back to my 20s, I was not an exemplary driver.

Cell phones were a huge mistake. I was walking my dog and saw someone eyes fully down doing 20 in the street. It was late and empty but if anyone had been in the street, they’d have been dead.

That distraction didn’t exist 25 years ago on the scale it does today. I wish cell phone use penalties would be promoted closer to those of alcohol use while driving.

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#703

Post by happymellon »

PierceJoy wrote: post #685
mortify wrote: post #673

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People always drive, not to within certain parameters of the law, but to within their risk tolerance. As cars become more safe, the risk factor reduces which allow people to increase risky behavior. If you want people to drive better, don't put airbags in their steering wheel, put a 6" metal spike pointed at their chest.

Yep. Studies on helmet usage in skiing and snowboarding showed that as helmet usage became more common, brain injuries increased. People felt more protected and thus took more risks.

You see this on sports too.

You still get concussions, and plenty of blood in rugby, but more serious amounts of concussions in grid iron because of all the excess padding.

People are more likely to charge head first with a helmet, and the helmet doesn't protect your brain from rattling about.

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#704

Post by busterarm »

_yb2s wrote: post #394
SkyPuncher wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, the computers don’t tend to break. The things that do break are essentially the same as they were 20 years ago. The bells and whistles are mostly for creatures comfort. The mechanical components haven’t changed much. The only thing that I couldn’t fix on my own in my 2020 vs my 2006 was re-alignment of lane keep system after replacing the windshield.

As a car nerd, a popular opinion is to avoid cars with computers because they could fail anytime, and can't be macgyvered into a repair roadside.... but after ~50 years of computerized cars, it seems that simple solid state computers, ruggedized and often potted in epoxy essentially never fail. And moreover, they can both give early warnings before you're stranded, and diagnostic data that can be used to pinpoint and…

Beg to differ.

The reality is more like how Ford has victimized its customers with its EPAS system. That's Electronic Power Assist Steering.

They got rid of the old dead-simple power steering pump and replaced it with a flakey system based around an electronic sensor that is prone to shorting if you look at it funny and can only be replaced along with the entire steering rack that it's attached to...to the tune of thousands of dollars.

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#705

Post by tumdum_ »

Jensson wrote: post #636
tessierashpool wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

not the person you're replying to, but seemed pretty obvious they were rejecting the idea that Japanese programmers are somehow unique in being good in some cases and bad in other cases

Japanese organizations are different, and that makes the skills and behavior of their programmers different.

They reward tenure and respecting the hierarchy. Wonder what kind of positive (from western pov) skills and behaviours are fostered in that environment.

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#706

Post by Dah00n »

Syonyk wrote: post #196
Tactical45 wrote: post #53

I wonder if hybrid being more reliable than gasoline cars is simply a function of most of those being Toyota, versus any effect stemming from the car being Hybrid.

A standard hybrid (of the sort that a range of companies make, handwavingly a parallel hybrid with creep capability, which a PHEV is just a supersized version of) eliminates a huge swath of things that go wrong with ICEs. First and foremost, the transmission replaces the rather staggering pile of complexity of a modern automatic transmission, typically, with "a few motor/generators, some planetary gears, maybe a band…

Hmm, I don't have the numbers to compare and draw any conclusions, but aren't many (most?) Toyota hybrids using CVT transmissions? The newest Yaris doesn't have a "real" CVT (eCVT with planetary gears instead) but the old one does. Those are not used in the none hybrid Toyotas at all as far as I know. Also CVTs have huge reliability problems, at least in some cars (Honda comes to mind).

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#707

Post by pezezin »

pictureofabear wrote: post #374
gridder wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s thanks to their culture and mentality. You cannot replicate that.

Yes... a lot of people (Americans I guess since I'm American and that's where my anecdotal evidence comes from) think the Japanese are very efficient. They might be in somethings, but their true love is perfection. They love doing things right. Big things, little things... it's a country-wide obsession.

I live in Japan and let me tell you that the Japanese being perfectionists is also a myth. What Japanese people are really good at is following instructions and procedures, to the point that you see their minds crashing when something goes out of script. Now, whether the procedure makes sense and will result in a good outcome or not is a completely different matter...

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#708

Post by tayo42 »

ajmurmann wrote: post #681
hintymad wrote: post #672

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing that Japanese did really well is keeping their language identity. In particular, they don’t translate their words. They give us gyoza instead of dumplings. They give us ramen instead of some lame-ass noodle. They give us Sudoku instead of number puzzles. So much so that Japanese words have some kind of zen-like connotation to many people. In contrast, mainland Chinese always translate words to English. Iron…

Is this something that's happening because of something Japanese people are doing or because of the perception of Japanese culture where foreigners like Japanese words and thus don't translate it?

To me names of things are like pronouns, why would you change it? Feels weird to me.

Though I guess it's weird we didn't do that a lot of Chinese dishes. Soup dumplings instead of Xiao long bao. Idk how to even properly pronounce that.

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#709

Post by quacksilver »

stjohnswarts wrote: post #630
Mountain_Skies wrote: post #490

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Replacing old style headlight bulbs with LEDs in housings not designed for them is an increasing problem too, making driving at night often something that is best done with a pair of sunglasses.

I would pay for some moon glasses just for this, don't need to be as dark as sun glasses but something you can grab in an emergency with the super brights where the owner didn't know (or didn't care) to adjust the angle of the headlights to something sane. I'ver had to literally grab my rearview at times and angle it completely and the shit was still reflecting partially on the window and chrome components in my car…

i wonder if some adapted cheap 'automatic welding goggles' would work...

Re: Who makes the most reliable new cars?

#710

Post by [deleted] »

paiute wrote: post #676
mint2 wrote: post #616

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it’s true. People started driving like they were fleeing zombies during the pandemic, and the behaviors stuck. With the roads deserted people went faster and more carelessly. When things recovered and roads got crowded they didn’t tone their driving back down. I do insurance things. It’s well known in the field.

I suspect vision zero policy and phones are also major contributors. Traffic Engineers across the country are setting traffic lights to reduce the flow of traffic to 20mph without changing the actual speed limit. It’s making people crazy.

[deleted]
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