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Long time ago German cars were kinda perfection of how car could be build. But recently this company was gasing apes… How low could VW fall!? https://www.thegua
by lnsru 5y ago
Long time ago German cars were kinda perfection of how car could be build. But recently this company was gasing apes… How low could VW fall!? https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jan/29/vw-condemned-for-testing-diesel-fumes-on-humans-and-monkeys https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jan/29/vw-condemne...
- baybal2 5y agoThe word Gaswagen getting a whole new meaning
- mtmail 5y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_van https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_van already means systematically and at large scale murdering people.
- analog31 5y agoThat must have been quite a long time ago, because the German car makers experienced the same rude awakening as their American counterparts did, when Honda and Toyota showed up in force, back in the 80s. And they took as long if not longer to catch up. I don't think the VW Rabbit was actually a higher quality car in terms of reliability than the Ford Escort, and both were light years behind the Toyota Corolla.
- h2odragon 5y agoThe VW Rabbit, imo, was better built than a ford escort (excepting electrical); but much worse design. They didnt do thinks like "oops we forgot to bolt in the transmission" (my favorite ford trick); they did things like "when the clutch needs adjusting the entire car has to come apart to reach a retaining screw" and iirc there was something about a crankshaft that was destined to break in half at 30k miles...
- jsight 5y agoI agree. I'm baffled as to why German cars are held in such high regard with some people. Long term reliability doesn't match assembly quality and initial impressions.
- hef19898 5y agoIn the case of VW and Audi? Marketing and build tolerances. Especially those customers see, famously those between skin panels.
- analog31 5y agoI remember reading a book about the auto industry in the late 80s, and it described the typical German car factory: There was a large re-work area at the end of the assembly line, where skilled technicians discovered and repaired defects. This was better than sending out defective cars, but it did not catch latent defects or correct those defects through better design. I think different countries acquired their own stereotypes early in the industrial age: German perfectionism, Swiss precision, Italian style, American ingenuity, etc. Those ideas continue to be marketed after they have ceased to be relevant, at least to the original degree. And granted, I know nothing about luxury / sports cars.
- mzs 5y agoOne of my sons just bought an '88 Celica GT and I am impressed with how much better it is than same year VW Cabrio and my first car a Caprice from same time frame.
- hef19898 5y agoNice one, the Celica!
- lotsofpulp 5y agoI’m mid 30s in the US, and I always had the impression that Japanese cars were the best quality:price ratio, American cars were cheaper quality, but also cheaper overall, and German cars were for showing off that you could spend money.
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- aitchnyu 5y agoI read a profound observation that I can barely recall. Can anybody find it? Its that German cars use a design that assumes tight tolerance parts, which drives up cost. But Japanese cars use looser tolerance parts which still make up a strong "whole" which is robust to bad parts and wear.
- HeyLaughingBoy 5y agoI don't know much about the design of German cars, but typically in the Japanese ones, you will find that they are designed to work with loose tolerances, but manufactured with actual dimensions very close to the "blueprint" and very little manufacturing variation. As a result, you get very robust construction since everything is basically working exactly in the region it's designed for.