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)

[Beach914]

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)

I began my engineering career making the five gearboxes for each Kaman SH2F Seasprite in the eighties in SoCal at Western Gear Corp. . Actually had lunch with the test pilots who said the same thing about 40,000 part numbers flying in close formation. It was incredible experience for me and I learned precision measurement and manufacturing most can’t even imagine. Deming, Duran and statistical process control techniques were instrumental in my career and still are in my life. When you learn these techniques it’s kinda hard not to see how they factor in your everyday life and it changes the way you see things.

It has been great to see the global improvement of automobile manufacturing and the control of manufacturing variation since the 80’s. Some had a few decades head start.....