RustyJC wrote:
Globalization, emissions regulations, CAFE standards, etc. are moving technology toward the smaller displacement turbocharged engines we see today almost solely because they produce better numbers in government test cycles.
Total nonsense promoted by a 'blame the government' mentality. GM vice president for drive train development described those technologies first developed here - including variable valve timing - over 30 years ago. But business school types (in the industry called bean counters) replaced product people (in the business called car guys). Whereas the 1950s and 1960 saw phenomenal new innovation, all that stopped starting in the 1970s. Because so many top auto industry executives did not even know how to drive a car. Did not need to know anything about the product - as taught in business schools.
A four cylinder engine designed in Germany was phenomenal back then. When Henry Ford starting making it in America, he even removed oil holes around an overhead cam to cut costs. That car was famous for requiring a new overhead cam every 20,000 miles. That (and not government requirement myths promoted to cast blame elsewhere) is why Americans still needed obsolete technology V-8s. Engineers were not allowed to develop new products. Car guys could only use what was already existing (and obsolete). Therefore low quality persisted or increased. An attitude even apparent with increased drug use.
Only reason for innovation in GM products is government regulation. Because innovation is so routinely stifled by bean counters, then engineers are no longer allowed to innovate until a government regulation eventually required it.
To cut costs, American bean counters even stopped painting the inside of fenders. Cars would have rust holes in two or three years. Then they told the most easily brainwashed that America was using more salt on roads. Total nonsense that was widely believed. This is low quality only created when management (not government) is the enemy of the nation, its citizens, and consumers.
Radial tire. Developed in 1948. All over the world by early 1970s - except in America. Radial did double the mileage of obsolete technology bias belted tires. Kept out of America by American tire companies until Michelin (secretly) built factories in North America in the late 1970s.
Another example of innovation kept from American consumers by bean counters - the greatest source of low quality products. Same reasons for so many vehicles with obsolete 1960 technology V-8s.
Again, why does low quality exist? This answer applies to all products and industries. Is it bad management? Or consumers that believe bad management lies blindly and completely?
Innovation (new designs) cost money. So bean counters cost control innovation to maximize profits (this year). As a result, profits (and markets) no longer exist in ten years. As Willian Clay Ford discovered when he replaced bean counter Jack Nasser in 2000. As Gil Amelio discovered when he replaced bean counters Sculley and Spindler in Apple. To increase profits, these companies had no new products in development.
So bean counters even blame unions. Still produce obsolete technology V-8s. And successfully brainwash many consumers with complete lies - such as blame the government or V-8s are better. They aren't. V-8s are trophies to what now harms America. And what explains low quality.
In the 50s and 60s, innovators (car guys) designed all cars. After the 70s, there has not been a GM product designed by an engineer except products made in America but designed in Europe.
In some American industries, quality is inferior due to who top management is. You are now beginning to see that in diminished quality of white appliances. In order to pay for expensive finance games, they even sold an innovation (Neptune series) to S Koreans. Why are so many white appliances coming from S Korea? Their's are designed by product people.
A massive merger of all white appliance manufacturers (Maytag, Hotpoint, Frigidair, KitchAid, etc) into a few companies is bean counters cutting costs to enrich themselves - at the expense of quality, the economy, and consumers. Just another example of how an industry known for high quality is beginning to show quality problems.
If not obvious, this is all about why low quality exists. Including consumers who encourage it by buying V-8s.
