Re: What is Chrysler thinking?


"harry" <harry_liuNOSPAM@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:hy3tf.38258$QW2.20139@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Whoever owns a Chrysler/Dodge minivan knows there are tons of troubles on
> these vehicles.

I do, I own two.

But tons of troubles? I don't think so. Both my vans were bought used and
with the exception of the transmission, any "troubles" they had were pretty
clearly caused by the previous owners neglect. And the transmission in the
late 80's early 90's vans that used the electronic 4 speed was a known
common
failure point and I knew that before buying either of them.

>
> So many years into making similar type of vehicles like minivan--don't
they
> learn how to do some basic things right?
> For example, the suspension, rack and pinion, sway bar link.....Those are
> not super new high tech stuffs and I believe a company specifically making
> the same thing for 20 years should at least know what to do and what to
> avoid. Radiator, battery, headlight, captain seats, airbag, heater seats,
> and transmission, none of the above is brand new idea or invention
happened
> in the past 10 years.
>

Your lumping the transmission in there and that's quite wrong, the
transmission is
ten times more complex than any radiator, battery, headlight, seat, heater,
or
airbag. And as for heated seats, that's a gimmick - wear a coat for God's
sake.
In any case heated seats are pointless unless you have a remote starter in
the
car and you start it 10 minutes before going out of the house to it.

And as for the other stuff, well here is the problem, and it's a problem
that
all the automakers have. Simply put, new car buyers are very price
sensitive
and the automakers are under a lot of pressure to keep their products cheap.
That translates to pressure on the suppliers of these components.

So what happens is for year after year the suppliers don't get a cent more
for whatever assembly they were making the year before, yet their raw
materials
costs go up, so they have to keep cost-cutting. And people are very
inventive
about finding ways of making something cheaper. Sometimes that works OK but
other times it doesen't.

If the average new car purchaser wanted to buy a car that was made the
same way as it was made 20 years ago, with the same parts, (except for
updated versions of parts that had proved out to be bad) then it is likely
that new vehicles could last 500K miles, barring accident. And it is also
likely they would be even cheaper since the automakers could fire an
entire useless 3/4 of the "automotive stylists" and marketing people that
work for them, yet who don't contribute a single thing to the actual
manufacture
of the vehicle, everything they do is contributions to selling the vehicle.

There have been vehicles in the past (like the Volkswagen Beetle) where
this has been the case and the later versions of those vehicles have
developed phenominal reputations for durability.

But, the average new car purchaser today doesen't want this, they want
a car that looks totally different than last year's model so they can drive
over to impress their friends with it. The average new car purchaser
views buying a car as making a personal statement about themselves,
or some other emotional claptrap. That is what sells cars, and because of
that, the automakers have to keep changing things around.

>
> DC--you suck, you never learned and you will never get my business after I
> was fooled twice in ten years. Same compliment to Ford here.
>

Youll be giving the same compliment to the imports once you have owned a
couple of those for a number of years.

Ted


.

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