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A company outsourced work to…another supplier in another country…you don’t say?
have we landed on the moon yet too?
Just checking - how many views on Vital does it take to be considered viral?
I kept reading this thread in much the same way you can’t look away when see two trains playing chicken.
Lol
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So how many views or likes or whatever determines when it’s considered GOING VIRAL ?
American made cars caught up a long time ago.
I had a 1993 Ford Ranger that got 320k miles on one engine. It's quality was better than the Toyotas of the time.
My 94, 95, 97 and 01 Chevys were JUNK. ...and then the denied warranty put the final nail in the coffin.
Never again.
GM and Chrysler should be dead and buried...but no, they got their bailouts. I refuse to ever support the UAWs again.
❓ 😳 ❓
Whaaaaat?? You mean you don’t run your clutch lever backward too?! 😎 👍❗️
Are you paying Chinese prices or still European prices?
No they haven’t. Chrysler is as good as anything Italian. That isn’t saying a lot. Ford is as good as the Koreans, Subaru, probably not as good as Mazda. Ford interiors are nowhere as good as the Asians due to cost cutting. GMs are not good at all.
Nobody touches Toyota or Honda. They have had their problems but they are far and away the best. How many frames did Toyota replace? My Ford’s a/c failed just out of warranty because of poor components that Ford chose and Ford has said that I’m on my own.
America simply hasn’t caught up unless you mean to Italian reliability levels.
Bummer about the Chevys.
I agree about the bailout not being right.
I think it was good to keep the U.S. automakers in business, for many reasons, but the way it was done didn't make sense to me.
The unions deserved at least half the blame for the automakers' demise, yet Obama took the equity in the company away from the shareholders, who invested their hard earned money, and gave a great portion of it to the unions.
Unions have their place, but when they become too powerful, they cause more problems than good for their members, the companies they work for, and the customers of those companies.
If anyone disagrees, I'm open for a good debate on the subject.
Your experience must undoubtedly differ from mine. My wife’s Tesla was a piece of shit. Drivers seat motor failed, steering rack failed, poor fitting body panels, battery range varied with weather conditions but never got what we were told it would and it was not any better with your software update Trent, rear hatch would not open, recall over auto pilot, tires got half the life of my truck, front drivers side wheel bearing failed, and touchscreen failed and this was last straw for us. It was fun and fast as lightening off the line and in fairness to they Tesla they did repair or replace everything under warranty sometimes in my driveway and some the car had to be carried to the service center in Dallas, but dam it seems like it was broke more then operational. We sold it and she got a 2020 Shelby GT 350 which was not much better in my opinion but she loves it, happy wife = KTM 350 for me so I just smile and say yep I love it too. I “think” it was made in Michigan.
While I do agree with him on not buying from China when possible ( sometimes it’s not ) it’s nothing to do with xenophobia or whatever that encompasses, mainly because most things I get from china are just horribly made, case in point the Chinese atv I got my grandson. Dear god I did not realize something could be made so poorly. I’m thinking Honda motor must be at least ok, shit haha joke was on me. Biggest waste of $500 I ever spent in my life. Wrote it off and got him a Polaris Phoenix. The Chinese atv sits rusting to this day behind the barn. No idea where it was made but it has been solid.
I don’t subscribe to this completely. I think my KTM 350 was made in somewhere in Asia or at least owned by an Asian company, and it’s been a great motorcycle so far. My computer was built in Taiwan I believe and it’s very nice, but China specifically I have absolute proof of the shit they build in the Chinese atv I bought my grandson. I don’t think there has been a bigger piece of shit built in history. It ran a grand total of 3 days after buying it, and every time we fixed one thing something else broke. $500 down the drain. Now yes Im the stooge for buying it knowing going in what I was buying but I had no idea it was that bad. Got him a small Polaris and it’s been solid as a rock. I have no idea where the Polaris was built.
I may be a bit older than you. I remember in the 70's, early 80's when Lee Iacocca put a Toyota on the floor at the factory next to a Chrysler, and made everyone look at the quality difference. It was night and day. After that, he drove every aspect of the company to match the quality.
Flash forward a few years and Chrysler had the longest warranty around, 7 years/70k miles.
The Mustang from around 87 was a great car, and the best interior available on an older Tacoma was a joke compared to the Ranger.
The Ranger at that time, and for years to come was much plusher, and the gas mileage was better as well. My Rangers have been rock solid for 100s of 1000s of miles.
I admit though, I do have my eye on a 2005 or newer Tacoma. Style wise, Ford simply didn't update the body on the old Ranger before stopping production, and the 2005+ Tacoma interior is pretty nice. The 4.0L engine is better on the Ranger though, with much better gas mileage.
I've had Japanese and American cars, but mostly trucks, and in my experience, the gap closed a long time ago.
Being an ex-machinist with an eye for detail, I noticed the Tesla door panels didn't align very well in early models. I know how to fix that in the process, but it was definitely lacking. All of the other manufacturers seem to have that dialed. Teslas are better now, but not perfect yet. They'll get there.
Point is, automakers share tech, and parts, and some of the parts are made by the same vendors, including engines and transmissions. It's hard to have a lot of quality differences when they're using the same parts.
I'm only commenting based on my experience.
Lee's book "Iacocca: An Autobiography" is a good read BTW. Among other things, it goes through a lot of the turnaround of Chrysler, and there are a lot of lessons that can be carried into business today.
Does KTM make automobiles?
Yes.
https://www.ktm.com/en-int/models/x-bow.html
It's not the unions fault .Blame the bean counters ,they get the final say in everything automobile related. It's their choice to go with the cheapest materials or as many shortcuts as they need .
Pit Row
A bit much for a cylinder that isn’t even made in China but I see you figured it out. I actually am curious what gear you buy?
Look I’m all for buying domestic but only if it makes sense.
I thought it generally had to be a 10 page riot, like LazerGate, ClaimGate, Barcia cleaning someone's clock, some pervert cleaning boots, who is Travis Pastrana?, is Jett Generational?, etc
Leathers only, brother, then Japanese helmet and I-talian boots 👍
Don't forget pizza ,nap or rocket league at the car wash.
I think you mean cars the rest of the world can't afford. It isn't 1989 anymore.
I would guess that cheaping out on parts has to partially do with finding ways to cut costs when a union contract pays someone 35-40/hour plus benefits to install the same 5 bolts each day with automated machinery…
Yes, mfrs have adopted the philosophy that their cars only have to make it until end of warranty, but the unions play a role too.
The whole thing is a scam now.
car prices too high, affecting sales? No problem, here’s 4-year financing.
People are buying again.
Raise prices.
Heres 5-year.
oh, concerned about warranty running out on a car you’re still paying off? Here’s an extended warranty, we’ll even finance it.
Prices too high? Ok, 6 years.
Rinse, lather, and repeat. To the point we now have 10+ year financing and 120K+ trucks. Insane. And people keep paying it, which makes it “ok” and it continues…
Workers wages only account for 5 to 8 percent of the automakers cost. Logistics has probably been the biggest hurdle the manufacturers have faced lately. There's a reason a certain company stamps and builds the same exact car in 2 different places in the world . If you factor in tooling and press time to save money on shipping a vehicle around the world,logistics must be a significant expenditure.
100% truth. But with regard to the reason that company stamps the same car in multiple global locations: it is the gov't subsidies for the "made in" sticker.
Who in Asia or Europe buys an American car? I live in southern Germany and am often in Switzerland. We surely can afford American cars, but the only American cars I see here are Teslas (which are built in China and Germany for the Asian and European markets btw) and the occasional Mustang.
You will be seeing thousands of RAM trucks shortly.
Edit: The ever-listening algorithm just popped this into my feed.
The Chinese are buying Lincoln faster then they can supply them and at 4x msrp
Only on Vital can a thread about KTM using Kymco cylinders morph into an argument about whether or not American cars are any good .
Post a reply to: This KTM photo is going viral…. Not good.