Why Some Cars Don't Survive, I Can't Find The Original Post Options

[windforfun]

Porsche has always used the highest quality materials. Also, the 914 design was in a class by itself. The British & Italian cars in a similar price range were really pieces of junk (no offense intended), but they were. Brand new Jags at the dealership would have drip pans under them. They may have been faster, but they haven't stood the test of time. This is where material science & reliability statistics have come into play. The Japanese auto industry have the statistician Deming, who trained Taguchi at the end of WWII, to thank for their success. We sent Deming over to Japan at the end of WWII to help them get their shit together. I took many statistics & probability theory courses in college & grad school. One such course was taught by Prof. Bonus who used to work on the reliability of Cadillac engines. I would typically attend his classes while tripping on LSD. His course was lots of fun. I think my final grade was a B. FYI. Cheers.

[gereed75]

As an ex Navy helo driver, don’t get me started. Let’s just say lots of moving parts flying in close formation, all of which have to keep working or you are in deep doodoo

Later involved in making parts in the aerospace supply chain with a descent familiarity with Boeing, Rockwell, McD, gE, Pratt Whitney, Airbus and others. Got to watch first hand the disassembly of that industry and deconstruction/adaptation of their disparate quality programs as they transitioned from “makers” to “assemblers”. All in all an interesting look into what was once the incredible manufacturing might of America.

With the experience of all our members here might be an interesting topic for discussion in the sandbox.

In the mean time, my take on cars was:

American best mass produced quality with cost and sales and volume the over riding drivers

Italian elegant engineering, worst materials

British just quirky, one step above cottage industry

Japanese very fast learners driven by high standards of design and engineering and materials

German really good engineering and the absolute best materials. Hard combo to beat

I think what you always have to consider is the volume of the market that these industries were serving at the time ( I assume we are talking 70’s 914 contemporary era)

[wonkipop]

As an ex Navy helo driver, don’t get me started. Let’s just say lots of moving parts flying in close formation, all of which have to keep working or you are in deep doodoo

Later involved in making parts in the aerospace supply chain with a descent familiarity with Boeing, Rockwell, McD, gE, Pratt Whitney, Airbus and others. Got to watch first hand the disassembly of that industry and deconstruction/adaptation of their disparate quality programs as they transitioned from “makers” to “assemblers”. All in all an interesting look into what was once the incredible manufacturing might of America.

With the experience of all our members here might be an interesting topic for discussion in the sandbox.

In the mean time, my take on cars was:

American best mass produced quality with cost and sales and volume the over riding drivers

Italian elegant engineering, worst materials

British just quirky, one step above cottage industry

Japanese very fast learners driven by high standards of design and engineering and materials

German really good engineering and the absolute best materials. Hard combo to beat

I think what you always have to consider is the volume of the market that these industries were serving at the time ( I assume we are talking 70’s 914 contemporary era)

yes - american mass produced quality survived best on australian roads and conditions during the late 50s 60s and 70s. and it was affordable. particularly ford once they overcame shortcomings with the ford falcon front end in the early 60s. australian roads killed cars in that era. the only other cars that could compete in terms of rugged simple engineering were vw beetles. even today, i would rather drive a late 80s ford falcon ute, or a well sorted beetle or type 3 out into the desert than a modern SUV. you can always fix the ford and the volkswagen with a elastic band or a bit of string. even now.

i have excluded holden (gm) but thats because i was born into a ford family.
the gm stuff was as dependable as the ford for the same reasons.

the japanese (toyota particularly) inherited that mantle from ford and vw in the late 70s and early 80s.
as noted, they are perfectionists. like americans and germans they also understand metal, innately. i put that down to their thousands of years making swords.

italian cars probably survived the longest anywhere down here as the rust went in slow motion (but they still rusted) there is a new problem emerging in the ones still left. stress cracking and structural failures.
i have seem some front ends (body shell front ends) that would make you think twice about whether its a good idea to continue to drive them, even after repairs.
thats lancias, alfas and fiats. i don't think they really understand steel and metals properly.

french engineering found acceptance down here. french cars are designed to run in hot conditions and have suspension that can suck up any kind of road.
there are still a lot of surviving french relics here kept alive by enthusiasts.
the french do great engines. easily as good as the italians. and they are much better suspension engineers.
but these were eccentric cars and never became mainstream like the fords, holdens, vws and toyotas.

in the end though there are less and less carmakers.
in the last 5 years both ford and gm have left australia.
gm drastically so since it has abandoned all rhd markets - we still get ford imports.
so many have disappeared in the last decade or so.
i was very sad about the fate of SAAB.

i never shed a tear when leyland collapsed in the 70s.

the chinese are coming. god help us.