Originally Posted by 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)

Originally Posted by Bugout4x4

Yep... I remember this. The kicker is they lied. Japan had to import metal from us at a great cost to make these. The Big three could have competed in price as far as the actual material costs were concerned, maybe be even at less cost. And engineering cost the same no matter how they engineered them. It would have not cost a dime more to build them to last, they had already been successfully doing this here before. But the Corporate officers and the unions were not going to tighten their belts and produce the same quality vehicles for the same price. They decided to enter the "throw away" culture and economy just like electronics was doing. Then they started building inferior products that would fail on purpose. And the public was dumb enough to fall for it hook line and sinker.

Originally Posted by RocketMouse

Yeah...that "throw away" culture just bugs the crap out of me. I'm in IT, but for some reason, I've always refused to get new cell phones until my current one dies beyond repair. lol. I stay current with everything else IT, we have to...but guess I was just brought up on different values..

Originally Posted by Bugout4x4

I don't know why but Chrysler has always had transmission problems off and on. I know for sure the engineers intentionally sabotaged the transmission in my 3500 dually.

But if it is not related to a real safety issue, and be proven to have caused numerous deaths, they won't do anything about it. None of them will.

Originally Posted by Caish

Got that right,
even in the 70's couldn't get a good Dodge Tranny.
Don't remember how many 904's i replaced behind 318's.
My old Wagoneer 360/727, hated the tranny, never did seem right, not like it ever locked good at highway speed.
Look at the ZJ the most common issue is tranny.
I think thats the saving grace of the XJ is chrysler used the asin that AMC speced for it.
Now to your diesel issues, I blame the EPA they've made them horrible with things like DPF Diesel Particulate filters, and DEF just for the reason the government does not want diesel engines.
Look what they did to VW, one of the most wonderful diesels ever built.

Originally Posted by andrewmp6

As a diesel pickup junkie even the auto trans in them no matter the brand truck is the weakest trans option stock.But most auto trans can be upgraded if you got the cash.And speaking of vw i believe they dropped the diesel option in the newer cars last time i looked.Or mazda who has had a diesel in the rest of the world has yet to bring it over to the usa and i don't know why.

Originally Posted by 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

Originally Posted by andrewmp6

Even the steel they use is a cheaper and thinner grade metal,I can drag a car from the 50s or older from a field where its sat 30 years,And it has a lot less rust holes in it then most 10 year old cars i see on the road today.

Originally Posted by TheGeneralLee125

The main issue with my Jeep XJ 2000 is that the previous owner barely took care of it. Now Ive run into issue like: Crankshaft sensor (fixed), Brakes (fixed), Hood latch broke (WIP), then Im currently saving up money to buy a new heating core that goes under the dash. That'll be an 8-9 hour job because antifreeze wants to leak from the dash and fog up the windshield, it tends to leave a film of the substance. Other than those issues my jeep starts just fine. Its just little problems I have.