Leaderboard

From my experience as an engineer, in most cases (not always) bad engineering like you describe is a result of a bad management and unreasonable constrains management and accounting put on engineer. Most engineers I know rather to overengineer thing than underengineer.

I totally agree and one reason my own computers at home last so long. I buy enterprise type hardware rather than retail based products. Yes more expensive, but built to last much longer than retail. Sadly this is very common in all aspects of business. Many companies have engineers that build long life superior products and then Management and the bean counters keep asking how can we get extra money out of the product. Can we use cheaper hardware in various places which leads to dissatisfied customers. Detroit 3 has hurt themselves due to the bean counter affect of cheapening to fatten Executives wallets at the cost of customer loyalty. I am seeing more coworkers that have been burned in the last decade by Toyota which has done some of the same cheapness that cost GM the worlds biggest company. Lately unlike GM, Toyota is changing things to rebuild their image of quality long life. This is an area where Ford and GM especially need to change attitude on.

Maybe... ? While the University of Michigan is in Ann Arbor- ( I almost refer to it as a baby brother) is Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti. Rob and I where miles apart for a few years and didn’t even know it!

Build quality is NOT a labor issue (union or nonunion). It is a management issue. Management makes those decisions period. GM/Ford/FCA for a long time had quality control issues of various sorts going back to at least the mid-1970s. The Japanese (Nissan aside) largely decided that quality does matter and actually execute on that. (Yes Toyota is coasting now, but I digress.) The Germans: do not even start with their supremely expensive repair bills after 5 years or so. Anyone remember when Hyundai and KIA were awful in the quality department? What did they do? The 10 year warranty. Since 2001, that warranty put the onus on them (not the customer) to dramatically improve vehicle quality. If you think the UAW is militant, drop by South Korea and deal with their unions. The real issue is simple: the Detroit three decided that cheapening product fed their bottom line and basically told their customers that they did not matter. In 1968, the D3 could get away with that. By 1988, that was no longer the case. I think that it matters MORE that the car in question is of high quality and can last a long time (with routine maintenance). Where it is assembled and where the OEM parts come from do NOT matter to most customers. You build quality; you get repeat and new customers. You build junk; your market share completely disappears eventually. Americans have no loyalty to Detroit because a lot of them have been burned in the past and carry that baggage to their next car purchase. Address that and the rest will follow.

Remember when GM had head gasket problems in the Northstar engines some years back? Management. I remember having the transmission on my (former) 1999 Park Avenue Ultra rebuilt after 75000 miles. My current Lucerne never needed a rebuilt transmission. Engineering may have played a role, but GM Bean counters and Management are the real source of cheap poor quality. Management's answer to everything: make it cheaper and make it common. That is the biggest reason for the fall of GM especially. These days are a lot better than it was pre-BK.

Yes, Escalade parts are more expensive as they are NOT the same as a Suburban/Tahoe or Yukon / Yukon XL. Perfect example is in the bearing packs in the wheels. They use a higher quality pack that is actually smoother and glides better than what is put into the Chevrolet or GMC version. Yes the Platform basics are the same in regards to the frame and basic simple electronics like window switches, etc. But in regards to other areas especially in the power train / suspension / brakes area there are actual differences. Yes some is just electronic programming. This is no different than certain differences in your MB product line up where they use a number of identical parts but also do have specific parts that are different. This is one of the best I have seen so far showing the difference between the 2020 Escalade ESV and 2020 Suburban on Cargurus. Realized that this does not open as big to be visually easy to read on smaller screens. Here is the Spec.

There was a neat lil museum, I think it was the ‘Detroit Historical Museum’- the had the Ford Cougar concept, one of the ‘54 Bonneville Specials... and I got to sit in #18 of the ‘63 Chrysler Turbines there.

^ Sure, they were copying Pontiacs! ?

^ 1967 was a good looking year for the big Fords.

Yep, been to that Meijer’s a few times as well. ? Favorite Memory of that location was watching a bunch of hot college girls lather each other with suntan lotion in the parking lot...lol. I’ve seen quite a bit of crazy driving over the years on Carpenter Rd over the years...had people nearly miss both my Cavalier and my S10 over the years- I think only state street gets crazier! Loved those back roads though....fun driving on country roads..... Yep, and the Henry Ford too.... ? Don’t live too far from there....family loves the place!!!

Yaris sales fell off a cliff, compared to Corolla and especially the RAV-4 and the CH-R. Nobody buys new subcompact cars because they can buy a used compact for the same price. I doubt there will be any subcompacts in the US market after a couple of years. NOBODY will miss the Yaris at all.

I'll do this in YouTube - the first two cars I went bonkers over were different animals ... the Pontiac Firebird and the Cutlass Supreme coupe, of roughly the same period. I'd sketch them an awful lot. I found a couple of these on YouTube ... beautiful. 1.) '75 Cutlass Supreme coupe - great color that year - swivel out buckets - crank windows (fine with me) misses: no dual body color sport mirrors, no gauge package when there's a console, black seat belts (didn't pop for the upcharge), whitewalls would have looked better, and these metallic rust ones looked better with white vinyl landau roofs the price was way too much IMO (see windshield) but someone went for it 1.) '75 Cutlass Salon coupe (top of the line) - great color combo but landau roof should have been burgundy or silver, not black - crank windows (fine with me), gauge package comes with this trim level misses: black seat belts (would have expected color ones with this trim level), didn't like the exhaust note since that's not what a stock one with an intact exhaust system should sound like sold ... price unknown ... this thing is a dream, a true icon of Americana at its best circa the bicentennial Those were the days.

Ypsilanti : birthplace of the Tucker.

Same wheelbase, 5 inches longer, only 3 inches shorter than the A6. It's a sharp car..saw it at the auto show this year, haven't seen any in the wild.

Sounds like it's a "yes" to Eastern Michigan University.

Q: What do you call a dog that can tell time? . . . A: A watchdog

I would have just removed the whole thing for reinstall later if I was the owner.

Its a good looking sedan. Stately. The exterior is very elegant but also conservative somewhat, but that is what makes it good looking and stately. In my eyes at least. The interior is very very conservative. And boring. But it befits the exterior. The Arteon looks to be a nice, plush, posh sedan to drive in to and fro from work. It has a nice air of elegance to it despite the "for the people" badge it wears. For Audi A4 money, and the A4 being a smaller vehicle, I would choose the Arteon over the A4. Its more stately and its bigger and therefore more comfortable. And I think THAT is the Arteon's selling point... And if I was a VW/Audi fanboi, I wouldnt be looking to snub VW just because of the badge so I could 'upgrade' to the Audi. I would be owning and driving the Arteon with pride...

One that scale, and by what we've heard, I would've thought Tesla would be down around 450.

Latest JD Powers Initial Quality Study Contrary to a popular believe when manufacturer deserves recognition it gets it. GM is above average and much higher than Toyota and Honda. Koreans are killing and Tesla needs to get their sh@t together.

This morning did a Garlic test Harvest. So decided to harvest tonight. Almost 200 garlic in the harvest. All laid out to dry in my little green house. Final thing was to harvest the Garlic Greens. Great at being frozen so you can use them year round for making Broth, in pasta, salads, soups, you name it including meat marinades. Cannot go wrong with Garlic, so easy to grow.

Georgia plates! If I recall, Georgia has something like 148 counties. California definitely only has 58. The Atlanta metro area is counted so many different ways, with some far flung hick and unpopulated counties sometimes thrown into the expanded equation. As far as I'm concerned, the bulk of Metro Atlanta lies in the counties of Fulton (city of Atlanta is within it), DeKalk, Cobb, Gwinnett, and Clayton (where the airport is). The others are more tentative. Still ... 148 counties seems wasteful. Even Florida has nowhere near that many. Also, this sled ^ makes more sense in Florida than it does in Georgia.

Happy Post Father's day to all the dads out there. Mine was great with my kids. In regards to auto's, Plymouth I see no lose in the auto line not being around. AMC, I miss as they were the first true CUV company of off road auto's that stood out. Quirky and cool before everyone wanted one today.

Not a fan of chrome, whether on plastic or metal. I prefer real aluminum or brushed metal. Most manufacturers are pretty conservative with colour choices now on mainstream vehicles. Lincoln and Genesis are offering some choice.

This pretty lady took Best in Show at the Allegheny Rockets Oldsmobile Club 2016 Spring Show today

With some of his solo songs, Peter Gabriel fits the bill when you WANT to be depressed. Now this here (^) is what you want to listen to when you are on a road trip and want to be put in a good mood. Epic Pointer Sisters lyrics: "Someone stole my brand new Chevrolet And the rent is due I've got no place to stay" - - - - - I looked around with the title and actually found this one. People I knew who also studied French would laugh at this, which is a different spin on a "Lady Marmalade" type song. It's a unique hybrid of disco - vaudeville - New Orleans jazz. Here is "Cherchez La Femme," which could mean "look for (a) wife" or "look for (the) woman." Compared to the bigger disco classics, this one is an underdog. Not only that, these songs took a lot of coordination to merge vocals and instrumentals and, more so than any other genre of music, its performers appeared to have the most fun while performing them.

Are you going into establishments as states begin to open and wonder what is going to be different? I am, to some degree. We can anticipate the paper menus and disposable utensils. Then, as I embarked on my first meal INSIDE an Arby's, I was thinking that one additional thing would be different. I just knew it! I often ring the bell upon leaving. I couldn't ring the damn bell!