What happened to quality?

[NMNeil]

Whatever happened to the luxury car brands, such as Mercedes. They used to be the benchmark for quality?
https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/f...

[eAyeAddio]

i just can't take that chart seriously - it's printed upside down.

[John Locke]

These surveys are meaningless; a blown bulb is recorded as a fault, as is a blown engine or gearbox. More telling about quality is the likelihood of being stranded at the roadside, and vehicle survival rates at 15 years.

[NMNeil]

And what about if it comes from the horses mouth so to speak?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3jA55TJboA

[GroundZero]

Do manufacturers need to place importance on quality when people these days only rent new cars for about 3 years before chucking them on to the 2nd hand market?

[fredd1e]

Quality these days = Good enough to get through the warranty period with a financially acceptable (to the business) failure rate.

[Ambleton]

The only way to assure quality is if the manufacturers never sell a car.

Think about it...

Currently a car manufacturer makes money by selling a car, building in a failure or wear out time that means that in X number of years people will either get bored or fed up of recurring costs and the customer comes back to buy another car. The manufacturer is essentially being rewarded for consumption of resource, this is even more so on the early adopters of battery cars as after X number of years the range falls.

If a company never ever sells a car, but instead sells a "usage" of a car for a number of years then the manufacturer owns the car and has to ensure quality, ease of service and replacement wear parts are really up to scratch. It also means that the manufacturer is rewarded for longevity rather than consumption. The longer they can keep the car going then the more money they make per investment.

Seems crazy doesn't it?!

[anonymous-user]

I tend to agree with you, but we supplied cranes to the N Sea on that basis in the early 90's, day rate for 10 years, had to guarantee available for 350 days a year, to meet that we had to take total responsibility including suppling the driver/operator, we have that in the car industry, their called Taxi's.

[egomeister]

Berw said:

I tend to agree with you, but we supplied cranes to the N Sea on that basis in the early 90's, day rate for 10 years, had to guarantee available for 350 days a year, to meet that we had to take total responsibility including suppling the driver/operator, we have that in the car industry, their called Taxi's.

Taxis aren't really the same as they offer redundancy across an industry, with individual operators bearing the downside risk of poor quality cars. In your example it would be more like having a bunch of other people with cranes standing by, and the rig operator picking whatever one he wanted to use that day when he got up in the morning.

[kev b]

The drop in quality or if you prefer, durability is because they must be made ever lighter, using a good proportion of recycled plastic, but still be packed with equipment which is heavy, ie window motors, air con, dmf clutches or auto-boxes, seat motors, huge heavy wheels and brakes.

We now have plastic intake manifolds, bonnet crossmembers, body panels, cam covers, door check straps, etc which mostly last the projected life span but also can-bus wiring looms with dozens of control modules which can write a car off when they go wrong due to needing dealer grade hardware to repair.

This is why cars no longer carry a spare wheel or even a jack and have smaller door glass where small children cannot see outside but have massively heavy electrically adjustable seats.

Cars are relatively cheap nowadays and premium marques aren't as expensive as they were as everything needs to sell in volume to make a profit.

Also a number of plastics are banned now, certain vinyls and foams leading to brittle looking hard trim where before there was soft, foam backed fake leather.