I got this by e-mail this morning and send it as somewhat of a rebuttle to
Frank's bashing of the oriental products. I don't disagree with him about the
lack of quality in some of the repro parts, etc., but the high quality cars
from Japan are tough to beat. Of course, most of the "Japanese" cars sold in
America are made here in American plants, by American workers...
I also totally agree about the problems of cost of repair and maintenance, but
this is not limited to Japanese cars. Frank, you like BMWs, but I suspect
you've never had to deal with a BMW dealer or service department...I
quote.."Mr. Houston, we expect anyone that can afford a BMW to be able to
afford our maintenance." My BMW experience was in the 80's and thankfully the
ex-wife took the car with her, but in '85...$9 for an oil filter, and an
addition al $4-5 for the O-ring! $12 for the oil pan plug, and $4 for the
washer for it! "we always replace the plug and washer with every oil
change"!!!!!!!
But then, my experience with my F-150 isn't a whole lot better. Almost $500
to replace the heater core, but they did replace the replacement twice for
nothing! (sheepish grin "yeah, we've had a little problem with those...").
Sorry, but I haven't rambled in a while...
Robert Houston
JAPANESES STANDARDS
This speaks a lot about the quality of Japanese products and their
standards:
They're still laughing about this at IBM. Apparently the computer
giant decided to have some parts manufactured in Japan as a trial
project. In the specifications, they stated that they will only
accept three defective parts per 10,000.
When the delivery came in there was an accompanying letter.
It said, "We Japanese had a hard time understanding North American
business practices. But the three defective parts per 10,000 have
been separately manufactured and have been included in the consignment.
Hope this pleases you."
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/// (If they are dupes, this trailer may also catch them.)
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