anyone here still own a Prius?
in [Aussie Drivers]
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From: Noddy on 9 Mar 2010 22:40 "Trevor Wilson" <trevor(a)rageaudio.com.au> wrote in message news:7voh4vFmt8U1(a)mid.individual.net... > **Yup. That's the way the system works. It surely is. > **Depends. When I think of the real Dollar price of my Mark I Escort, > compared to (say) a Ford Focus, I can see that manufacturing costs have > delivered far, far better value for money to today's motorists. I tend to agree, but then you have to take the overall picture into account. I expect most new cars offer far better value for money in terms of how affordable they are to the average punter and what you get for the money. However on the other had while your Mk.I Escort may appear spartan and expensive in dollar terms compared to a Focus it'll be around *long* after the Focus is dead and buried. > It seems to me that the business of building and selling cars is VERY > competitive today. That should mean that the purchaser will win (as long > as not too many little guys get gobbled up by a small number of big guys). Sadly they do all the time. > [ASIDE] I read about this engineer working for Nissan. He was awarded the > Yen equivalent of US$50,000.00 for working out how to reduce the number of > spot welds (from 7 down to 5) on the front pillar of a Nissan model, yet > still maintaining the same strength. Wanna speculate on how much a spot > weld costs? On the assembly line as part of the manufacturing process? Probably about 18 cents. Not much in the grand scheme, but spread over a hundred thousand units it'd add up. Still, they'd have to make a fair few cars before they were in front after paying the engineer his 50 large :) > It just goes to show the lengths that manufacturers have to go to, in > order to keep costs down. Lucky for us, we have mandated government safety > standards. There's no doubt in my mind that cars are safer now than they ever have been. However we (or the manufacturers) have created problems in other areas in their desire to chase the car buying dollar and offer more and more for less money, and those problems are in the area of reliability. Cars of yesterday might not have offered much in terms of creature comforts and refinement, but for the most part they were *reliable* and easily maintained. Today's cars can suffer from all kinds of strange and bizarre ailments, and it could be any number of components that's thrown a wobbly that will prevent one from running. I mean, don't get me wrong, when they're running they're great. But then they stop, they're a *huge* headache that isn't easily worked around and they seem to be pretty fragile. I'll give you an example. You might recall recently I posted about the problems my neighbour was having with my old Jeep Cherokee with it's immobiliser unit playing up and how it took the dealer around 10 days to fix the thing. In the end it was repaired and they were back in business until it split a tank on the radiator a few weeks later and cooked the engine. The thing eventually went to a wreckers and they bought an *immaculate* early 90's Nissan Maxima to replace it. A really lovely car in outstanding condition and a credit to the bloke who owned it previously. Last week his wife took it to work and parked it where she normally does only to come out after the massive storm we had here to find it partially submerged in about 2 feet of water. The interior of the car was flooded up to the gear shifter and the thing is now a write off after they've owned it for 5 weeks. The point I'm making here is that as lovely a car as that Maxima is/was, if it'd been your old Escort or something similar all that would have been required would be to drive it out of the puddle, open the doors to let the water out and then drive it home. That's the price of progress I guess. -- Regards, Noddy.
From: hippo on 9 Mar 2010 23:28 Noddy wrote: > > > "Trevor Wilson" <trevor(a)rageaudio.com.au> wrote in message > news:7voh4vFmt8U1(a)mid.individual.net... > > > **Yup. That's the way the system works. > > It surely is. > > > **Depends. When I think of the real Dollar price of my Mark I Escort, > > compared to (say) a Ford Focus, I can see that manufacturing costs have > > delivered far, far better value for money to today's motorists. > > I tend to agree, but then you have to take the overall picture into account. > I expect most new cars offer far better value for money in terms of how > affordable they are to the average punter and what you get for the money. > However on the other had while your Mk.I Escort may appear spartan and > expensive in dollar terms compared to a Focus it'll be around *long* after > the Focus is dead and buried. > > > It seems to me that the business of building and selling cars is VERY > > competitive today. That should mean that the purchaser will win (as long > > as not too many little guys get gobbled up by a small number of big guys). > > Sadly they do all the time. > > > [ASIDE] I read about this engineer working for Nissan. He was awarded the > > Yen equivalent of US$50,000.00 for working out how to reduce the number of > > spot welds (from 7 down to 5) on the front pillar of a Nissan model, yet > > still maintaining the same strength. Wanna speculate on how much a spot > > weld costs? > > On the assembly line as part of the manufacturing process? Probably about 18 > cents. Not much in the grand scheme, but spread over a hundred thousand > units it'd add up. Still, they'd have to make a fair few cars before they > were in front after paying the engineer his 50 large :) > > > It just goes to show the lengths that manufacturers have to go to, in > > order to keep costs down. Lucky for us, we have mandated government safety > > standards. > > There's no doubt in my mind that cars are safer now than they ever have > been. However we (or the manufacturers) have created problems in other areas > in their desire to chase the car buying dollar and offer more and more for > less money, and those problems are in the area of reliability. > > Cars of yesterday might not have offered much in terms of creature comforts > and refinement, but for the most part they were *reliable* and easily > maintained. Today's cars can suffer from all kinds of strange and bizarre > ailments, and it could be any number of components that's thrown a wobbly > that will prevent one from running. I mean, don't get me wrong, when they're > running they're great. But then they stop, they're a *huge* headache that > isn't easily worked around and they seem to be pretty fragile. > > I'll give you an example. > > You might recall recently I posted about the problems my neighbour was > having with my old Jeep Cherokee with it's immobiliser unit playing up and > how it took the dealer around 10 days to fix the thing. In the end it was > repaired and they were back in business until it split a tank on the > radiator a few weeks later and cooked the engine. The thing eventually went > to a wreckers and they bought an *immaculate* early 90's Nissan Maxima to > replace it. A really lovely car in outstanding condition and a credit to the > bloke who owned it previously. Last week his wife took it to work and parked > it where she normally does only to come out after the massive storm we had > here to find it partially submerged in about 2 feet of water. The interior > of the car was flooded up to the gear shifter and the thing is now a write > off after they've owned it for 5 weeks. > > The point I'm making here is that as lovely a car as that Maxima is/was, if > it'd been your old Escort or something similar all that would have been > required would be to drive it out of the puddle, open the doors to let the > water out and then drive it home. > > That's the price of progress I guess. > > -- > Regards, > Noddy. > > > > There's nothing for it. They need to get one of these. Not only is it 4WD & water resistant, there's probably not much chance the electronics failing either! Cheers http://fat.ly/m5fdk -- Posted at www.usenet.com.au
From: tipsy on 10 Mar 2010 00:05 On Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:24:47 +1100, "Trevor Wilson" <trevor(a)rageaudio.com.au> wrote: > **I own a 1992 Commodore. It uses rather a lot of electronics in various > areas of the vehicle. It is subject to horrendous climatic changes, sits > parked in full Sun most of the time, has been driven over roads that should > be the province of 4WDs and is generally mistreated. Not once, has the > electronics missed a beat. Everything else has failed. Gearbox, heating > system, air con, water pump, brakes, etc. Find a VCR that has worked that > long. I'm betting that car manufacturers (well, GM, anyway) used premium > quality components and quality construction techniques nearly 20 years ago. > Dunno about today. In 1989 I purchased a new Sharp HiFi VCR. It is still functioning today.
From: gazza on 10 Mar 2010 00:45 isnt that the previous model ???
From: Noddy on 10 Mar 2010 02:21
"hippo" <am9obmhAc2hvYWwubmV0LmF1(a)REGISTERED_USER_usenet.com.au> wrote in message news:hn775b$5ct$1(a)news.eternal-september.org... > There's nothing for it. They need to get one of these. Not only is it 4WD > & water resistant, there's probably not much chance the electronics > failing either! Cheers > > http://fat.ly/m5fdk Lol :) Nice :) -- Regards, Noddy. |