Posted by KEB1 on April 07, 2009 at 20:49:36 from (97.124.132.167):
In Reply to: O/T stupid engineering posted by Nancy Howell on April 07, 2009 at 09:03:56:
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Auto design is driven by what sells, period. When new car buyers start selecting cars based on how easy they are to maintain, then the automakers will move ease of maintenance further up their list of priorities. Until then, ease of maintenance is low on the list of priorities.
The engineers have nothing to do with it. All designs, whether its a car, a toaster, an aircraft, or a spacecraft (which is what I do for a living) must stay within a set of design constraints. When things like styling, cost, fuel economy, etc., take precedence over ease of maintenance, of course design decisions will be made where maintenance will take a back seat.
Think about it. What percentage of new car buyers worry about how hard a car is to fix when making a purchasing decision. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that the majority of new car buyers could care less about repair costs, particularly with the popularity of extended warranties. I think most people who buy a new car never keep it long enough to really worry about fixing anything.
I've seen my share of overly hard things to fix, particularly since I do almost all of my own repairs, even major stuff (except for what's covered by the warranty). If you really want to point fingers, point them at the buying public who don't care how hard something is to fix. The automakers are simply responding to what the public wants.
No, I don't have anything to do with any of the auto companies. I just get tired of people constantly wanting to "blame the engineers" or "blame the auto companies" when its the buying public and the government regulators who actually drive the design decisions.
The idea that automakers deliberately make repairs difficult in order to make money for their dealers is patent nonsense. The whole idea is to arrive at the optimum point between production cost and product longevity. It wouldn't be hard to make a car that would last a million miles (over the road trucks do it all the time), but nobody would be willing to pay for it.
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