Confessions from quality control - The Frontera factory

[carinaman]

unsprung said:

The Crack Fox said:

I can't find a publisher for my children's book*

*"A lovely story, very funny, but it's a bit sexist for our readers" - Penguin Books.

Has it been made into a film called Zootropolis?

[Cfnteabag]

I heard a rumour that the sussex police MG estate had gone back to the factory for a supercharger/turbocharger/other tuning as it wasn't quick enough but MG Rover went under while it was there and they never got it back. I dont know how true that is but it did diappear around the same time

[dumfriesdave]

fireturk said:

I had a Frontera with the 2.8Tdi Isuzu engine, other than the dual mass flywheel disintegrating and costing around £1500 to sort, I don't remember it being too bad, that was until it went up in flames while parked up outside our local corner shop!!!

Ironic username

[sheepman]

Pothole said:

Morale is dreadful at Solihull from what I saw, albeit only for a few months on the XE line (BiW) and they employ gormless idiots...at most levels, given their stated policy of promoting from within. Their policy of indirect employment through Manpower (and other agencies for the dirty, menial jobs) creates a heirarchical, us and them atmosphere which hs toxic to any idea of real team work...("you can't sit there, that's a JLR seat and you're agency" in the break room etc) the way middle managers treated line workers was disgusting, frankly, so it was hardly surprise to find that most of those line workers were not interested in doing a great job, just getting away with the bare minimum to survive.

interesting view but certainly not something I've experienced. Regarding the seats in the rest rooms i'd say its more the last thing you want after working flat out for 3 hours is to find somebody in "your" seat when you're starving and breaks are only 15 mins long, doesn't matter if they're JLR, agency or a contractor. You just want to sit and get as much food down your neck as you can!

I can only agree on the managers point, I've seen first hand and heard of some horrendous stories.

Edited by sheepman on Friday 25th March 17:17

[m444ttb]

kev b said:

There was a story years ago that VW Golfs were being delivered with chromed door handles on one side and black on the other, does anyone know if this was true?

Not quite the same but my Dad's new mkV Golf arrived with leather door cards front and rear on the left side with the rest of the interior in cloth. We didn't even notice straight away.

[Dave_ST220]

Excellent, will get reading later today Love these stories....

ETA, sod lunch this is more important, I'm loving it already, Tefal, pmsl!!

[Seek]

Oh - this looks quite relevant to this thread:
Link

[Swampy1982]

thats some expensive ginger hair dye

another great write up, love these storys

[gforceg]

The Crack Fox said:

Thanks, I appreciate the kind words. Bob Fossil was a fascinating creature. Tefal still works at Ford, apparently!

I'm not sure which thought is more disturbing; that Tefal might, by dint of being there so long, have been kicked upstairs to occupy a positon at the pinnacle of his own incompetence, or that he might still be trapped where he was and even more angry and frustrated by life but just 20 years closer to death.

Great stories, ta!

[jayemm89]

I've only just discovered these. What awesome stories!

I don't have anything from inside the plant, but my dad told me a great story of when he was a boy. Must have been late 60s/early 70s. At the time he was living at home in Luton. He came home one day to find that his dad's car had suddenly become about two years newer than it was that morning. My Grandad quickly told him that if anyone came asking, they'd had the car for ages. Turns out he'd got friendly with someone who worked at the plant and they basically "lost" a car for cash!

Unthinkable in this day and age, but I guess that was probably easily done before computerised asset tracking.

[AW111]

They aren't all like that

I did some work for Toyota (Australia) QA in the 90's, and a school friend was an engineer there. He did things like statistical analysis of tool wear, so they could replace machine tools just before the parts they made went out of tolerance.

I was working on QA's engine dyno - one visit they were doing the full 120 hour durability test cycle, because they slightly changed the intake manifold machining process.

[tiffx19]

East German production, Trabant style...

https://youtu.be/zBsPFI--muo

Edited by tiffx19 on Wednesday 6th April 01:22

[Downward]

Can't view the you tube video

[baldy1926]

tiffx19 said:

East German production, Trabant style...

https://youtu.be/zBsPFI--muo

Edited by tiffx19 on Wednesday 6th April 01:22

Some quality work going on there, there seems to be a problem with the front grills not fitting along with doors,bonnets etc

[Gad-Westy]

tiffx19 said:

East German production, Trabant style...

https://youtu.be/zBsPFI--muo

Edited by tiffx19 on Wednesday 6th April 01:22

Utterly superb for the hairstyles alone.

[Cliftonite]

The Crack Fox said:

There have been stories of cars being made from the theft of parts, but I'm not sure I believe them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWHniL8MyMM

[robinessex]

I heard a rumour in the old MKIII Cortina days, a car was 'extracted' from Dagenham piece by piece. It was 'discovered' when, upon assembly, it didn't exactly correspond to any model that was available from the catalogue. A hybrid XL/GXL/GHIA/GT combination I believe !!!!

[Fast Bug]

How do you get a back seat out of the gates? Or an engine? Or a bodyshell?

I've heard stories about factory staff ordering a new car as a base model and it rolls off the lines with all the toys on. 'Oh look here's Dave's Capri, chuck them Recaro's in it' kind of thing. But I can't see how you'd smuggle a whole car out piece by piece

Edited by Fast Bug on Saturday 16th April 14:49

[Flooble]

Maybe in the back of a suppliers lorry that would otherwise be leaving empty?

Perhaps wait until there was some scrap or rejected parts to go out and conceal the stolen items in the middle.

Does seem like a very difficult thing to do though.

[jogger1976]

I know a couple of blokes from the Ford AVO Club.
They went on a tour of the old plant at Aveley and some of the bodges, corner cutting and cock ups they got told about were unreal.

My own favourite was the fact that Ford thought it was a good idea to bring MK1 body shells down from Halewood on uncovered carriages in the middle of winter and then leave them in the yard for days on end to get rusty

Also, due to an ongoing supply issue, many of the Escorts had the wrong specs as the factory fitted them with what ever was available, so some Mexico's had bits meant for the RS1600, which had bits meant for the RS2000 and so on.