RocketMouse

Or like the famous Office Space (the all time IT cult classic) line... "If I work my a** off and Intertech ships a few more units, I don't see another dime"..."So where's the motivation? Well there's getting fired, but you know what Bob, that'll make someone work just hard enough not to get fired"

wizardpc

About twenty years ago I heard a guy say something along these lines when someone said they wanted to buy an American car:

"Well, now, what do you mean by that? Do you want to buy a car made in Mexico or Canada from a company with a headquarters in Detroit? Or do you want to buy a car made in Tennessee from a company with a headquarters in Japan or Germany?"

You just reminded me of that is all

Bugout4x4

It is a very good question that exposes misconceptions and hits the nail on the head about the reality of it. lol

investinwaffles

New cars scare the crap out of me.

Dad's first diesel Jetta TDI (2009), the turbo blew up at 80+ MPH and sent shrapnel into the engine, grenaded the engine. Out of warranty (150k miles), he put in a reman'd motor and sold it.

Bought another one in 2013, and the turbo also blew (this time at 90K miles), but luckily the intercooler caught most of the shrapnel this time. Car was under warranty, it took them over a month and a half to replace the turbo, headers, intercooler, other throttle components, and some other random stuff. They only gave him a rental for a month, so for a few weeks he had to drive my XJ.

My mom's base model V6 Cayenne had to have it's entire transfer case replaced at 18K miles! Though, to their credit they worked with me to get the parts ordered ahead of time, never doubted my diagnosis, gave her a brand new Porsche Cayman 718 as a loaner for 2 days, AND threw in a free service (which is like $250 on a Cayenne, even though it is a VW VR6 engine).

Similar experience with other Luxury car brands, as long as they are in warranty. They break often but the dealer will take good care of you. Their Mercedes CLS was actually really reliable though (drivetrain), but had chronic air suspension issues, and random electical component issues. Heated seats went out, one ventilated seat blower went out, window regulators, sunroof motor, the headlight relay failed while they were on a roadtrip, etc.


I just prefer vehicles with less electronics. Sure, all the bells and whistles are really nice to have until they break and stick you with a $1000 repair for something stupid like a window regulator, or air suspension component (which always break). Even if you buy a vehicle with "well known" reliability like a Jetta TDI, there is no guarantee it will last forever.

And on that subject, that is why I like the Jeep 4.0 I6 so much (and AX-15/AW4 transmissions too). Tough as nails, as reliable as the sun rising, will run just fine with low compression or oil pressure, and it makes OK power for what it is too. Damn shame it was retired, GM has been developing the small block chevy (SBC) platform for so long, and it too is a great engine. New cars kind of suck, but they are much more comfortable than my XJ, lol

RocketMouse

Yeah... that is true. There are a lot of foreign manufacturers that now have plants in the US. It helps on overhead costs of shipping/importing them from their original country of origin too.

I find it completely disheartening because as Americans, this example shows that we are very capable of producing great designs, but the execution of them is often 2nd rate. And there-by shooting themselves in the foot. (figuratively speaking of course)
And examples like what I shared, I did so to help demonstrate that we can do it, but because of the nature of our culture in the US, we often times choose not to really care.

I am very familiar with Eastern cultures like Japan. They are 100% different than us...and that's why they kick our a** when it comes to industry.
They take very serious pride and honor in producing the absolute best quality and designs they can, because they put their names on it. If they were to come into work and just do a half-a**ed job..... in their culture, it would bring shame onto themselves and their family name for doing so. And that is very important to them.

RocketMouse

^^^ Amen to that.... what you said are a lot of the reasons why I personally make the choice to drive an older vehicle like our XJ's. Not that I couldn't afford a newer vehicle, but for some of those same reasons you mentioned is exactly why I don't.
My whole family is German actually...even speak it too... and I've always been a massive fan of old school VW's. I like some of the newer ones too...but with the changing of the upper management several years back... the problem with them is that VW knows how to make a quality vehicle, hands down, but the problems they've been plagued with ever since the changing of that management is the CONSISTENT build quality across their range. (not mentioning the lies that got them in huge trouble)...
So they shot themselves in the foot...because again, it comes back to their processes are where their issues are.

andrewmp6

Every ford super duty from 1999 to today in north america was made in louisville ky.

Bugout4x4

There was a time when it was the same way here, My Dad is like this and implanted this pride in me. Many times I have heard "hey... ease up, you are making the rest of us look bad." So what... get on the ball then...

RocketMouse

I have another truthful story that I could share that would really show that it didn't start with the US auto manufacturers, it was actually the US consumer for that industry that dropped the ball.

andrewmp6

Sometime in the 60s we lifted the trade embargo with china,And the money hungry workers union's in the usa slowly pushed things to be made in china and now anywhere in the world.And today we want everything as cheaply as we can and we want it now.We live in a throw it away age,No one repairs anything anymore when its cheaper to just replace it.I swear they are making cars to only last 10 years or less anymore.Its like they want your car to fall a apart so you have to replace it

Bugout4x4

Absolutely... It takes two to tango.

Bugout4x4

I was reminded about this situation yesterday when I saw the manager from the McDonalds across the street eating a $3.49 two cheeseburger meal deal at Burger King. lol

Rambler65

This was not always the case. The old 3-speed Torqueflite was the gold standard in automatic transmissions. It's not unusual to get decades of service out of a Torqueflite with nothing more than minimal maintenance required.

Bugout4x4

Actually I agree, that trans was designed to last and dependable. But since they have had lots of problems. I'm not even going to go into the minivans. They either couldn't figure out how to make those work or they didn't want to make them work for years in a row.

RocketMouse

well what I was referring to happened around the mid 1980s. When the Japanese vehicles were really coming into their own, especially here in the US.
This is where the American public as a "whole" were basically approached by the US automakers with a "proposition" of sorts.
They knew Japan was producing superior quality cars to the ones in the US at the time.... so here's the shot in the foot.
They stated to the American public, We are perfectly capable of producing vehicles of the same level of quality as the Japanese competition, but it comes at a cost, as higher quality costs more to produce.
So..... would you rather have us build vehicles that are right on par with the quality Japan is producing, will cost more, but you can hold on to the vehicle longer....
OR.... would you rather have a vehicle that may not be quite as good as a Japanese vehicle, but the price will be less and would allow you to be able to afford to have a new vehicle every few years instead?
Well folks... guess what the overwhelming decision was from the public at the time? Yep... so that's why we're still in the same mess we are today.
It didn't help that in the mid-late 80s was pretty much a decade of decadence...and certainly not caring about holding on to things for very long. Kinda sounds like the world today too. lol. (unfortunately)