Subaru at Top in Quality Survey
Subaru at Top in Quality Survey
03-05-2005, 12:17 PM
#4
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Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Posts: 2,023
Car Info: Subaru Impreza WRX 2002
Certainly this article is great news for Subaru fans, but there are also some very interesting angles to it. Subaru's top-selling and most reliable car, the OBS, is built in Indiana -- essentially a domestic! Detroit can't blame their car problems on the assembly-line; clearly good engineering conquers human error on the line.
The slide of the European cars is a sad reality; as a long-time Bimmer and VW fan, I am further away than ever from actually owning one. My brother stubbornly sticks by Volkswagen even though he has been through three in five years (he traded in a Bug in less than a year because it had so many problems; he then got a Passat, which he hated, and now he is nursing a Jetta GLI). My father's year-old Audi Quattro has been to the shop every three months, like clockwork.
Just wondering aloud -- I wonder how many problems in the Euro cars stem from adapting them to US emissions and fuels? Also, I wonder how much the Euro cars are affected by how much (and how far) Americans drive vs. Europeans. A friend of mine in the UK puts less than 8k miles a year on his car, and he drives every day; in Europe, having a 30-mile commute is unheard-of, and many cars are driven only on the weekend (people take the train to work). Tough to work out the bugs in a car's design when the drivers of the car never drive it!
I also find it really interesting that too few Mitsubishi owners responded to the survey for them to be counted in the tally; same goes for Mini. My friend who sells BMWs and Minis for a living says that they see a LOT of those back at the dealer, often due to factory customization packages which are dealer-installed.
The slide of the European cars is a sad reality; as a long-time Bimmer and VW fan, I am further away than ever from actually owning one. My brother stubbornly sticks by Volkswagen even though he has been through three in five years (he traded in a Bug in less than a year because it had so many problems; he then got a Passat, which he hated, and now he is nursing a Jetta GLI). My father's year-old Audi Quattro has been to the shop every three months, like clockwork.
Just wondering aloud -- I wonder how many problems in the Euro cars stem from adapting them to US emissions and fuels? Also, I wonder how much the Euro cars are affected by how much (and how far) Americans drive vs. Europeans. A friend of mine in the UK puts less than 8k miles a year on his car, and he drives every day; in Europe, having a 30-mile commute is unheard-of, and many cars are driven only on the weekend (people take the train to work). Tough to work out the bugs in a car's design when the drivers of the car never drive it!
I also find it really interesting that too few Mitsubishi owners responded to the survey for them to be counted in the tally; same goes for Mini. My friend who sells BMWs and Minis for a living says that they see a LOT of those back at the dealer, often due to factory customization packages which are dealer-installed.
Last edited by meilers; 03-05-2005 at 12:19 PM.
03-10-2005, 04:08 PM
#8
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Location: San Francisco, CA
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Car Info: 2012 Mazda 3 Hatch
You could say the same for Japanese cars... they drive their cars MUCH shorter distances in japan, and tune down their emmissions to conform to the same strict standards that europeans must in order to import here... yet the reliability is much better for the subies and hondas.
If I had to guess, I'd say that european cars are starting to be over-engineered.... that is, they stick so many wizz-bang features and electronics in there that the slightest glitch will cause expensive and troublesome problems. For example, have you seen the cupholders in Mercedes these days? They're almost an art exhibit in the way they deploy and move and are different in each model... cool to see, but really, so many parts to go wrong in that thing... and it's just a frickin cupholder for gosh sakes.
If I had to guess, I'd say that european cars are starting to be over-engineered.... that is, they stick so many wizz-bang features and electronics in there that the slightest glitch will cause expensive and troublesome problems. For example, have you seen the cupholders in Mercedes these days? They're almost an art exhibit in the way they deploy and move and are different in each model... cool to see, but really, so many parts to go wrong in that thing... and it's just a frickin cupholder for gosh sakes.
Originally Posted by meilers
Just wondering aloud -- I wonder how many problems in the Euro cars stem from adapting them to US emissions and fuels? Also, I wonder how much the Euro cars are affected by how much (and how far) Americans drive vs. Europeans. A friend of mine in the UK puts less than 8k miles a year on his car, and he drives every day; in Europe, having a 30-mile commute is unheard-of, and many cars are driven only on the weekend (people take the train to work). Tough to work out the bugs in a car's design when the drivers of the car never drive it!
03-12-2005, 12:47 PM
#9
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Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: CT
Posts: 177
Car Info: 2004 Impreza Outback Sport
Just a correction to a previous post, the Outback Sport is not built in Indiana. The Outback Sport is an Impreza and is built in Japan. The Legacy based Outbacks are built in Indiana though.
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