Mike,
OT
I have to jump in hear. My first car was a good old American built Mustang... piece of trash. I swore off American cars and started buying Japaneese. They all performed beautifully and require very little cash infusion to prop em up.
I just took the plunge back into the American market. I bought a Jeep Grand Cherokee. I drove all the SUV's and it was clearly the most comfortable and accessorized (is that a word?). It broke my heart not to buy the Nissan Pathfinder, which I assumed I'd get.
Well, I should have taken my own advice. I've had a front seal on the tranny go. AC compressor, drive shaft, power steering hose, thermostat (not a big, deal, but I never had the problem with foreign cars). I'm sure I'm leaving out other issues. I do most of the work myself as a hobby, and I can tell you American cars are poorly engineered. I find this both on mine and other peoples. I'm an engineer by schooling, and know something of the design process. Very poorly done.
I blame all of this on the UAW (unions are the downfall of capitalism). We invented robotics, which would give way to far fewer defects per thousand. This was in the 70's. The UAW says "no no no.... you aren't going to displace our workers with assembly line robotics. If you do, we'll strike and shut you down." So, the US takes a temporary pass, while Japan says "Robotics good!" The rest is history.
Teh last I heard, the US is catching up when measuring defects per thousand, but not yet even to Japan.
Sorry for the rambling.
Richard |
