Mercedes still may profit from Chrysler

That has certainly been my experience.

Indeed.

 

All that has to be done to finish off the Japanese reputation for high
quality is to have all their cars driven, maintained, and the CR
surveys filled out by current Ford owners.

 

All I remember is that the early Honda engines self destructed
(somewhere shy of 100k mile IIRC?) in normal use, though that can't be
said of their engines today.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

The window sticker spells out the names of countries (lots of people
would probably think "DE" means Delaware). Look at some on real cars
-- they say "Mexico" not "MX." So your example is bogus.

 

Yeah, professional testers are so biased compared to you.

Yes, 3 models came in below par for reliability. How many does
Chrysler have that are subpar in reliability?

 

I must have missed where they ranked cars for reliability, fun to
drive, etc. If you can tell me which issue that's in...

 

But there's no evidence the bias affects different makes of cars
differently.

First, CR has never claimed it's a rigid statistical test. But if you
think it's biased against one make or for another make, where is your
evidence?

 

You wouldn't even accept engineering journals on ABS and stability system
design prefering consumer reports and car and driver.

But hey, you could use a similiar argument you just made for getting
'science' from the NYTimes, popular science, and national review. The
scientific journals lacking the consumer, everyman, type things. But you
bash people for that, you deserve it back when you get your ideas of ABS
system design from consumer reports.

 

But with Ford/Dodge/GM, that is a matter of how they are *optioned* by
the buyer, and all are at their core work vehicles and can be bought as
low-optioned rubber-floor-mat vehicles.

They're pretty comparable *empty*, but loaded there's a huge difference.
The Big 3 all have diesels for highly fuel-efficient heavy duty work.
The Tundra does not. If you want to tow a big trailer with a Tundra,
you're stuck with a sub-10 mpg gasoline v8 combination just like back in
the days of the V10 gasoline Ram or a 454 Chevy. Admittedly the bigger
Toyota v8 has the power to handle a load like that very well, but its
going to suck down gas at a prodigious rate. OTOH, the diesels can give
mid teens economy with a loaded trailer. Even the very early diesel
Dodge Ram (non-intercooled 1990 12-valve Cummins and 3-speed non-lockup
automatic!) would give 14 mpg with a fully loaded 5th wheel cattle
trailer. Been there, seen that, had to pick my jaw up off the floor. The
difference between gas and diesel is that the thermodynamic efficiency
of a turbo-diesel goes up with increasing load, so the net result is
that fuel mileage decreases less with increasing load on the
turbo-diesel than it does on a normally-aspirated gasoline engine.

 

Wrong. Japanese cars rebranded as American makes get consistently
lower reliability ratings.

See above.

E.P.

 

They can be but it's not the typical market as it was years ago. In the
70's and 80's pickups were cheap dependable transportation and could do
some work. The upper end fully loaded ones still were rather plain.
Todays trucks are optioned the same as cars with all the bells and
whistles. They are no longer the bargain transportation vehicle they
once were. Thats especially true for mini trucks which back then were
considerably lower priced than a full sized. Not any more.

 

Really? Where I was, they all the Hondas were rusted in half before
anyone could drive them that far.

 

First, there are really none anymore -- I guess the Pontiac Vibe, but
that's it. And it rates highly in owner surveys too. Secondly,
perhaps those people were reporting dissatisfaction with the way the
dealer prepped the car, handled problems, etc.

 

The very fact that it happened in the first place, never mind "then"
or "now", blows up your argument.

And if dealer prep somehow makes its way into reliability ratings,
then the surveys are WORSE than even I think they are. Again,
destroying your contention that the CR rating have some sort of value.

E.P.

 

The bit about Chrysler being silent is an OLD joke....

Of course German Daimler is pronounced "dimelur". "Ai" is a diphthong
pronounced as in "I" or "eye".

The English Daimler is pronounced "damelur", however. Once a subsidiary of
German Daimler it separated long ago.
http://www.vea.qc.ca/vea/marques1/daimlergb.htm

http://www.marktechlimited.co.uk/classiccars/webpage2.0.htm

DAS

For direct replies replace nospam with schmetterling

 

OK, prove it happened.

How so? Why wouldn't a buyer of a Pontiac Vibe want to know what
current Vibe owners say about it? Can you think of any other group
which would be better to ask about a prospective vehicle?