G. David Felt

There is logic, you just do not want to read or dig into the details to understand. Logic is a multi year plan for clean water, air and quality of life. Nothing is free, unlike the only care in some areas in the midwest and especially east coast is making a dollar at the expense of human life. Especially the ground water pollution and air quality destruction of the coal states. Eventually we will get everyone educated.

Gold

Might is the key and so far the Fiat's that new out of college coworkers bought, they quickly traded in within the same year of buying as the interiors sucked due to cheapness and quality problems. Mini, has a fan base, but unless your part of that hard core fan base, they really are over rated attempts by BMW to sell a cheap subcompact at luxury prices with nothing but garbage interiors to small people. The Seattle area has seen the independent Mini dealers all go away as they were sold and merged into the BMW dealerships and are now just a side foot note for that small crowd of people who have European Fantasy about their summer trip with a rental Mini in Europe. Honestly, I think Mini as well as Fiat will be gone by 2030 if not 2025 in the US.

I also wonder how a change to EVs will change this as less moving parts, less maintenance should drive higher quality. Also those new Auto companies that are starting out as Pure EV companies like Rivian. Will be interesting to see where it ends up on this chart. Tesla, has lived way too long on the BS of Musk and some bizarre fascination with the company while quality has still not improved and sucks when Tesla sell's returned leased auto's to 3rd party sellars who sell it based on how it was sold to them only to have Tesla turn off feature functions. Totally a scam company. I am as you and everyone knows will be buying full size truck/SUV EVs once there is stuff out that I and more importantly the Wife likes. Yet, based on what I am seeing out of GM, I do wonder if it will be a GM EV, Could be a Ford or Rivian once I can sit in one and check it out.

Executive compensation plans always have places for increased profits, lower costs, etc. I know in some gone companies I had worked at in the early 90's it was common to hear upper management ask lower management, how can we make it cheaper and yet sell it at the same price for bigger profits? Yes, I think many Executive compensation plans focus on the 1% getting richer at the expense of everyone else. I honestly think the human self interest at the expense of others happens many times in those extreme Alpha's. Digital Computer corporation would still be here if not for the last CEO Palmer who got a contract focused on profits to himself and the board as well as big bonuses if he could sell the company. Many Alpha type leaders look to themselves first. This would be no different in an auto company that ends up killing quality products.

I agree with you that this is NOT a management only problem. I remember my families Olds Station wagon and it had a clunk noise in the drivers side door. Dad took it in many times and they could never fix it, they were not willing to replace the door as it did not affect the function of the door or window or locks. As such my Dad after the 3rd attempt tore the door open to inspect himself and could not find anything. Came back to the open door after doing some other stuff and decided to compare it to the passenger front door. Discovered there was a section that has a plate welded over what was an open area on the passenger door. My dad cut it open and inside found a wrench with a note that said "I bet this was a bitch to find" The auto was built during one of the stikes and things like this were common on the assembly line. Humans can and will do things that reduce the quality even on assembly. So this is truly not only a Management / Bean counters issue, but it does point to the fact that Many cheap corner cuts are done by the management for the sake of executive pay / bonus packages.

Great read about living with a Chevrolet Bolt for 3yrs and they guy wanted to buy it, yet GM failed at holding onto a customer. He points out the failures of the dealerships and the reason Dealerships offer no value to the buying experience on top of the incompetent ignorant sales people. Such a shame that GM is failing already with their EV product line. I tetesting to read what he says about the Cadillac and Hummer by GMC. Exciting EVs that are good looking with excellent interiors, but equal to what is already out. Sad. https://electrek.co/2020/06/25/chevy-bolt-retrospective/

Cadillac has started to let folks know the EV reveal is coming. Date set, outline shown with this Instagram message today.

To me a Cadillac with Black Chrome is Luxury!

Inspired by Planes (AUTO'S)

Queen

I totally agree and one reason my own computers at home last so long. I buy enterprise type hardware rather than retail based products. Yes more expensive, but built to last much longer than retail. Sadly this is very common in all aspects of business. Many companies have engineers that build long life superior products and then Management and the bean counters keep asking how can we get extra money out of the product. Can we use cheaper hardware in various places which leads to dissatisfied customers. Detroit 3 has hurt themselves due to the bean counter affect of cheapening to fatten Executives wallets at the cost of customer loyalty. I am seeing more coworkers that have been burned in the last decade by Toyota which has done some of the same cheapness that cost GM the worlds biggest company. Lately unlike GM, Toyota is changing things to rebuild their image of quality long life. This is an area where Ford and GM especially need to change attitude on.

Weird, I would love to know what they mean by new regulations as like many I have not seen any new regulations about the subcompact market. I think due to the price difference, most people can easily justify the extra couple dollars a month for the bigger Corolla over the Yaris. I do think due to the safety equipment required on all auto's, it makes less sense in the US and Europe where this safety gear is required to build subcompact auto's or smaller. I would not be surprised to see old horse and buggy type streets become pedestrian / bike only roads in the future. Here in Seattle they have changed the few remaining old roads like this to just pedestrian / Bike roads only and we have been told they will not go back to allowing auto's of any size on them. Yaris was an Fugly subcompact that to me failed in way too many ways. Makes sense to kill it off.

Yes, Escalade parts are more expensive as they are NOT the same as a Suburban/Tahoe or Yukon / Yukon XL. Perfect example is in the bearing packs in the wheels. They use a higher quality pack that is actually smoother and glides better than what is put into the Chevrolet or GMC version. Yes the Platform basics are the same in regards to the frame and basic simple electronics like window switches, etc. But in regards to other areas especially in the power train / suspension / brakes area there are actual differences. Yes some is just electronic programming. This is no different than certain differences in your MB product line up where they use a number of identical parts but also do have specific parts that are different. This is one of the best I have seen so far showing the difference between the 2020 Escalade ESV and 2020 Suburban on Cargurus. Realized that this does not open as big to be visually easy to read on smaller screens. Here is the Spec.

Organic

I would have just removed the whole thing for reinstall later if I was the owner.

Cream Cheese

Over air updates CAN repair electronic problems where stated electronic is controlled by an electronic module. As has been proven with current updates at Tesla in their brakes and Ford and GM are also doing this with their brakes in regards to modulation, the various pressure of applying brakes, software updates can change the performance of how a certain electronic part works. In regards to @ccap41 stated about his friends Aviator CUV and the electronic issues. I suspect much is poorly written software code. When a company does not have strong software development / testing methods in place, once can have a very buggy electronic problem be it drive by wire, brake by wire, etc. Many times the code freezes with just the right order of how things are applied, a software patch can usually fix the issues. We have seen this with electronic transmissions that better software settings make it smoother, more efficient. Those in the computer industry will understand this very much due to addressing software bugs.

Muffins

Bummer that really sucks to hear. It does make one wonder about their old drive by wire setup. I hear the new F-150 will be based on their answer to GM's all new electrical nervous system that will allow over the air updates, etc. Supposed to be better and the starting point of replacing their old patchwork drive by wire system. Yes, Lincoln should buy it back as to me that is a Lemon, MAJOR SAFETY LEMON. Thank you for the update! So what is everyone's thoughts ahead of the major release of the new F-150 with Hybrid and EV version? https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/24/new-ford-f-150-to-feature-integrated-generator-over-the-air-updates.html Interesting as these are the key take aways from the story. Ford is introducing a new F-150 pickup truck Thursday night. The automaker needs its highly profitable flagship product to drive a global restructuring plan and pay off debt related to the coronavirus pandemic. Full-size pickups accounted for 37% of the automaker’s 2.4 million vehicles sold last year in the U.S.

This morning did a Garlic test Harvest. So decided to harvest tonight. Almost 200 garlic in the harvest. All laid out to dry in my little green house. Final thing was to harvest the Garlic Greens. Great at being frozen so you can use them year round for making Broth, in pasta, salads, soups, you name it including meat marinades. Cannot go wrong with Garlic, so easy to grow.

Between work and when the rain stops been working on my garden. Should be a good year.

Good Question, Suprising to see, Honda has some of the most American Content than many American brand auto's. Honda used to advertise just how American their cars were at one time.

Green Eggs and Ham

Not impressed, I swear you could ALMOST swap the badge and it would be an Audi. YAWN.... interior is weird and maybe it is the pictures, but there seem to be so many off set lines that should line up from dash to door but do not. It really seems cheap to me. Plus if your not going to offer performance and at least the Hybrid, then DOUBLE YAWN. High HP, weak Torque, another BLAH German Sedan. Sad, you would think SOMEONE at VW would remember the marketing of Fahrvergnügen