That is a reflection of direction from the top of their respective companies.

The upper management of European and Japanese based companies come from Technical and Engineering backgrounds. A math, science, and/or technology oriented way of thinking that is ingrained into the culture.

The upper management of U.S companies come from Marketing, Business and Finance backgrounds. The “How can we make things as cheaply as possible for maximum profit” philosophy eventually trickles down to the workers on the ground – and, unfortunately, it shows.

Now, I hear that UAW folks are getting mad because Toyota is slowly moving production back to Japan after their rep has been trashed when left in American hands…not factory line workers, I’m talking about product development, engineering standards, and quality standards. Americans just don’t get it when it comes to the small details that workers can’t be taught but rather imbred in them via their home culture. I wouldn’t shed a single tear for American workers, both white and blue collar if Toyota moved their production back to Japan…only a “good for them”. Who knows, Toyotas may gain a bit of sport for a change. After all, the sporty Honda Fit has just replaced the Toyota Corrola as the best selling car in Japan. The cachet of the good ol’ days would build brand rep, despite lowering profits.

A few Cliff Notes of recent purchases…

1987 Volvo 240 Wagon: Bought for $500. It was my third 240 wagon this year and as with the two others, it was absolutely perfect. The folks who bought it from me let me know this weekend that they spent ‘two and a half hours’ detailing it. It’s an absolute tank and yet, it feels surprisingly agile and safe on the road. Diligent maintenance and a good CD player is all that it truly needed to remain a well loved cult classic.

1992 Buick Roadmaster Estate Wagon: Bought for $1100 last Friday. It’s an absolutely beautiful highway riding car with rpm’s that hover only at around 1600 in crusing speed. The leather is still in great shape, the stereo system is awesome, and it has what can only described as a partial glass roof which helps give it a surprisingly open and airy feel. It was owned by a church in Tennessee. A perfect vehicle for long distance cruising or towing.

1995 Nissan 240SX: This one set me back a bit for $1900 but it has all the options that could be had for that time. Leather, Sunroof, ABS, Rear Wheel Drive, and a 4-banger that is simply a helluva lot of fun to drive. The only thing holding it back is the auto tranny (tuners always want a stick) which is fine with me because I’d rather sell it to someone who will take care of it for the long haul.

Most vehicles of contemporary times offer a lot less company specific DNA than in times past. The Ford Five Hundred to me should have been a Volvo 260, the 2003 Saab 9-3 that was on my driveway yesterday could have easily been a next gen Cadillac Catera, and the new Chrysler minivan seems to have virtually no lineage whatsoever to the prior generations. It could be sold as a GMC, a Saturn, or a Ford and I honestly wouldn’t have noticed any brand disconnect.

Talk to me about an Integra, a Crown Vic, or a 1st gen Passat TDI wagon and you’ll have my undivided attention. Tell me about a Freestyle, an Xd or a C-class and I probably will be thinking about the weather instead.

Oil, no. Gas, maybe. Rotaries burn oil by design, and even the naturally aspirated rotary engines with less than stellar horsepower numbers had poor fuel economy compared to piston engines of equivalent displacement.

HEATHROI:
Mostly just the 13B-REWs. I’ve seen many a 3 and 4 rotor with a turbo or two (or in one case four) that was pushing out well over the 1400 mark at the crank. Of course, they were running on race gas (needed for that level of power), so I doub’t miliage was all that much of a concern.

Katie, have you hitting the romance novels again?

I suspect if you managed to coax the same amount of horsepower from a reciprocating 1.3 engine it would suck through oil & gas too.

They all sound like euphemisms for a Lady’s…..you know what! Which makes the sentence “Yeah, but you have to admit, there is something fun about an oval, a few holes, and two very angry triangles” sound extremely obvious from a man’s point of view!

Sorry, I’m not normally this naughty! :O)

Yeah, but you have to admit, there is something fun about an oval, a few holes, and two very angry triangles.

Manufacturers have begun to understand that, so when we complain about a Camry or Corolla with no character, it’s merely a backhanded compliment to Toyota that they’ve engineered a flaw-free vehicle that can be tolerated (even accepted) by the general population. It’s the new automotive world order.

Balls

some british car were great: your jaguars and to a lesser exstent your Rover was ok and Bristols, when you could get your hands on one

but most were 80% cars, even at the time, hamstrung by costcutting, badge engineering,styling and/or mechanical ineptitude years past use by date, shoddy workmanship Etc. Think GM at its worst
Normally you could expect the brillant step forward to be balanced by 2 steps of stupidity backwards.

but a small percentage were crap ladies and gentlemen i give you the Austin bloody Princess,
http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/uploads/new/13958.jpg

the Austin Allegro ( the all agro – Short for aggravation)
http://www.austin-rover.co.uk/images/ado67story_02.jpg

Likewise,apropos of the title of the article, humans share 98% of their DNA with apes.

So, today I want a car with some Germanic taughtness, some Swedish safety, Japanese reliability, and an American ride.

True enough, but do the same exercise comparing an Ohio built Accord with a Japanese made one and you will have to search long and hard to spot any differences. These things mostly are due to management and only secondarily due to local culture where the thing is built.

That said, I much preferred the situation when many companies built cars which reflected a unique point of view. We have an old Volvo 240 as well as newer Acura and Honda models. Guess what, that old 240 is as interesting an entertaining to drive as anything we have. Sure you have to plan your acceleration runs carefully, but that is all part of the fun! After having owned several Volvos, in 2003 it was time for a new sedan. I test drove scores of vehicles (yes, including a number of ‘merican ones). In the end I couldn’t see any reason to pay $10k more for a new Volvo S60 than it cost for a fully loaded Accord EX-L w/navigation. The differences between the two vehicles were so minimal that I wonder how Volvo sells any S60s!

Now if Volvo had a robust rear wheel drive station wagon with a slick shifting 5 speed and 150hp under the hood I might have gone for the extra cash. But, when the Volvo is just another front wheel drive sedan with a too-small back seat there is very little reason to buy it. I couldn’t even bring myself to look in a BMW showroom because so many of the BMW drivers around here are obnoxious twits. Sure that is the wrong reason not to buy a car, but I am not alone. I seriously considered a Passat, but the horrible reliability problems VW was having at that time turned me off. Sometimes I wish I had lived with the problems and gone for that ‘03 Passat because it certainly has more unique character than an Accord. Now, however, the latest Passat redesign managed to cheapen the interior and add gimmicks like an electric push button operated parking brake. Hmmm, I wonder how often that will need fixing! The prior generation Passats all had a clearly Germanic design aesthetic to them while the current one is a mish-mash of stuff from all over the place.

The manufacturers need to make products which are reliable AND have compelling character. Few are doing both.

He has a point. I have a ‘99 Accord 4cyl with a clutch. I recently considered buying a 2002 325 that a neighbor was selling for a reasonable price. I drove it, and the engine was incredibly sweet. That was the biggest difference between that car and my accord, and I’m talking about how smooth the engine was, rather than how powerful. Yeah, it could blow the Honda away, but I’m not that into power, beyond a certain point. I do enjoy tossing my Honda around sharp curves, and in the end, I decided that the incremental marginal gain I would get in driving fun with the BWM was not worth the 11 grand I’d be out in order to own it. I still want a Boxster though.

I will say that as an Accord owner, I do look down on people who drive Camrys. And my best friend, one of those people, is slightly jealous of me. But his passion in life is astronomy, not cars, and that’s where his extra dough goes.

The problem with the American cars is that they don’t do a good job of chasing after style and personality, except in a few cases–the Corvette, the Camaro prototype, the first generation Saturn (I drove one the other night for the first time in several years, and remembered why I bought one in ‘93), and arguably the Chrysler 300. The rest of the Americans have, for the most part, very superficial personality, or stupid personality (the Caliber–what the hell is that???!) over very appliance-like innards.

Regarding personality, I’m surprised at the failure to mention the French. From the Citroen DS-19s and Deux Cheveaux of 50 years ago to the modern Citroen Cactus, and the Renault Megane, there is personality galore. Of course, this trend towards appliance-dom has afflicted to the French, though to a much smaller degree than most of the rest of the world.

In a word, yes. Why? Because the people demand it. If any of their vehicles have less than stellar reliability, they’re lambasted mercilessly for it. The Malibu and it’s transmission woes. The Mk V Golf/Jetta and reputation of past models hanging like a millstone around their neck. The list goes on.

Consider ‘quirkiness’ and ‘brand management’ a thing of the past, like carburetors, and the endangered manual transmission. These days, such an idea like brand management turns you into a one-trick pony that has limited applicability and even more limited appeal.

Welcome to the new world of Globalization.

Just do like me and get rid of the friends. ;-) Problem solved.

If you’re arguing that Honda and Toyota got it right…you’re right. Their mundane sedans are simple transportation devices, yet at the same time can be optioned to be as amenity-stuffed as a Lexus. But as that straightforward “get me to work, get me to the kids’ game, and get me homer,” they’re trying to do what they were conceived to do. They come from a history of making sensible cars, (albeit more primitive in the past). No one said that evolution could only exist without initial passion.

You’re all uncovering the premise for branding: “we build sports cars”, “we build practical family vehicles”, “we build affordable German cars”. (And as all have demonstraighted there’s a demand for all segments.) There’s no sense in coming into any field or market with the exact same mission and philosophy as a preexisting company, and that’s what’s breaking down: the boundaries between the “appliances” and the inception.

Surprise, surprise, there are differences of interests between enthusiasts and non-enthusiasts. Whether it be age, gender, occupation or whatever demographic that creates the divide it doesn’t matter; both extremes will have their respected cars. However it doesn’t mean that either’s culture should be lost in rendering.

In my world is your world, and likewise; there is nothing that says the creature of humdrum automobiles, which are common-sensible and practical, and the earthly passions of a historic car company cannot co-exist. There are 60, (or so) mainstream car manufacturers in the world, why wouldn’t it?

I’m willing to bet that VW has put forth the effort in teaching production techniques and providing technology but they have taken hold with the Brazilian work force. I’ve seen the exact same thing occur due to transient labor at a tractor plant. If you think of training your own staff or co-workers, it’s just very difficult to gain traction when they all turnover every 4 to 6 months. You should see all the incentives of subsidized housing, home loans that are forgiven if employed for X years, meals, etc that US companies dangle in latin america to keep the work force going.

From Andrew’s article it sounds like VW has begun to withdraw some production to protect the brand as you suggest.

Yes the decision to replace domestic production with foreign production is usually for cost cutting, but additional production doesn’t always mean cost cutting. Sometimes it allows you to rationalize the process with a blank slate. Such was the case at a former emplyer where an existing plant in Boston produced by far worse quality parts then the new plant in Mexico.

One thing that I’ve noticed about manufacturing in Mexico over the years is that the gender roles are very important. The women are responsible for steady employment and providing for the family. Among the men, turnover is staggering and workforces are not that stable. Light manufacturing is predominantly an all women work force, while the men are in the heavy industries. For electronic components, Mexico has been great. For cars, maybe not so good. You can draw your own conclusions.