Has car manufacturing quality gone downhill or is it just me?

sigma said:
Surely it's all down to cost? What's the thinnest layer of paint they can get away with.

In fact loads of cars are sold just in crappy primer! Although not seen as many recently, has the fashion changed?
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I think the "everything you own must be grey" fad is finally over.
 
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Nasher said:
I think the "everything you own must be grey" fad is finally over.
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I remember when my mum got a KA back in 06 and the stock list of colours was essentially "Anything not metalic you can have with your car without cost"

Meanwhile last year when my brother in law and Grandma went to get there cars they had a choice of white or grey or get hit with a £600 - £1000 extra cost for requesting a different colour. Granted those were Cupras and on my Audi I had that choice of red, yellow, black, grey, grey (Other) and white (I picked grey, don't judge) :D
 
TechMinerUK said:
I remember when my mum got a KA back in 06 and the stock list of colours was essentially "Anything not metalic you can have with your car without cost"

Meanwhile last year when my brother in law and Grandma went to get there cars they had a choice of white or grey or get hit with a £600 - £1000 extra cost for requesting a different colour. Granted those were Cupras and on my Audi I had that choice of red, yellow, black, grey, grey (Other) and white (I picked grey, don't judge) :D
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I hate how that's a thing. Like spending thousands on a car is not enough profit, you get charged to pick a different colour ffs.
 
A little bit is ok. But some people made their whole house look monochrome with various shades of grey, which isn't going to age well lol
 
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TechMinerUK said:
I remember when my mum got a KA back in 06 and the stock list of colours was essentially "Anything not metalic you can have with your car without cost"

Meanwhile last year when my brother in law and Grandma went to get there cars they had a choice of white or grey or get hit with a £600 - £1000 extra cost for requesting a different colour. Granted those were Cupras and on my Audi I had that choice of red, yellow, black, grey, grey (Other) and white (I picked grey, don't judge) :D
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Strange because Seat will give you any colour you like including metallic/pearl for nothing.
 
tom_e said:
Strange because Seat will give you any colour you like including metallic/pearl for nothing.
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Could be the third party they bought/leased them through potentially then? I'll be honest I've never dealt with leases so not sure if they have more restrictions on etc. Would make sense if they did because I'm guessing a hot-pink car is a lot harder to resell then a grey one :D
 
proliferation of sensors&diagnostics along with proprietary obd reading all help the manufacturers bottom lifetime line, another area where Chinese cars maybe costly.
- need a right to repair
 
adam cool dude said:
Saab were just nuts on so many levels. Name me one high end manufacturer that developed their own proprietary ECU in house.

Some of the stuff they did from a bean counters perspective just made zero sense.
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Rover MEMS Next question?

jaybee said:
Is the problem with paintwork down to regulations as to the materials and substances they are now stricter with in terms of the make up of the actual paint and laquers? You know a bit like how white gloss paint used to be oil based and never yellowed for interior wood work etc, but over the years there has been a big push to water based paint and some of them had issues with yellowing. I think Dulux had a load of claims against them for some of their paint years ago. I wonder if there have been similar things in the car industry where durability has suffered from being "cleaner" and "greener" etc?
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Have you ever used gloss? Its the oil based stuff that yellows!

Nasher said:
Yes but it has also led to some ridiculous thing.

Like mandatory lane assist (seems to actually make things more dangerous on some cars) or reversing cameras. Or whole roads being closed off because there is a "flood", which is actually a large puddle. Which is what happened near me during the heavy rain we had :/
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FMVSS regulations is the only place where parking cameras are regulated due to the high number of children ran over on american driveways - hard to argue with that, but you do. Flood often lift drains and manholes so the hidden danger is the concern they are trying to avoid. Plus the water height is a constant changing variable. I told you im gonna make this a sport his year and flood you with counter packages (special delivery) sometimes before 1pm, sometimes tracked.
 
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Scania said:
I've remembered why my truck has electrical issues..

It was assembled in France. :p :D
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My near 20 year old French car has been massively more reliable than the Fords and Vauxhalls I used to own. The Ford was especially a heap of junk that rusted into oblivion by age 12. Total rubbish that Ford was.
 
dave28 said:
My near 20 year old French car has been massively more reliable than the Fords and Vauxhalls I used to own. The Ford was especially a heap of junk that rusted into oblivion by age 12. Total rubbish that Ford was.
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Vauxhall are attrocious for quality now, my sister has a Adam and the paintwork on that is appalling to the point where you can see through to the undercoat where the bumper meets the the bonet.

My step-dad had a Insignia and that was no better as well considering it's meant to be an answer to the Mondeo, the engine decided to see gods garage 6 years in with mainly motorway miles
 
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