Ferrari Mailing List: Talking about cars

[Britt2Asa (Britt2Asa]

And to add to that, American cars sold here are mostly the Jeep range,  
Chrysler Minivan, Sebring, odge Caliber (and before that the Neon). A 
smattering  
of Corvettes and Caddys where the former is considered a "sunny day" car and 
the  latter a poorly designed and suspended, overly thirsty, crudely built 
oddity.  You see NONE of the other American cars are sold here in any numbers 
(a 
few  personal imports come in but they are left-hand drive) and when you 
condier 
what  you can buy that's German (Audi/BMW/MERC) for the same price as the 
Caddy it  doesn't makes sense.
 
BTW For most of my career I have dealt with huge fleets of new cars and so  
have an opinion on build quaility based on first year and I can tell you the  
worst of the Germans is VW (major major electrical problems on new cars)  
followed buy the last generation Mercs (upto about 2004). Fiats were pretty 
poor  
as well but the real problem was getting parts to fix them (this was 4+ years  
ago); ironically people with Fiats seem to EXPECT problems so don't get so 
upset  when they break!
 
I have toured the RR factory down at Goodwood, the Jag Plant at Browns  lane, 
the DAF assembly plant in the North and the former Peugoet plant at Ryton,  
Coventry. All of these are/were ultra modern assembly plants and in this day 
and  age do you really get a "bad" car anymore? You might get cheap workmanship 
on a  cheap car but I think the only place you will really get disappointed is 
on  super premium, hugely expensive cars where the price you pay DOES NOT 
mean you  get better quality.
 
Case in point: Friend down south, active in the FOC and hugely into  Ferraris 
ordered two F430's early, got the first one last summer and sold  it within 4 
months. He was incredibly disappointed with the cars fit and finish  (and 
this is a guy with multiple Ferraris in his past) plus the attitude towards  
fixing it. The paint work was so poor you could see the orange peel in the pain 
 
from every angle and even things like the wheels were evident of poor  
castings, unfinished paint work and overall just crappy workmanship. Ok on  a 
TATA 
(maybe expected) but not ok on a new Ferrari. 
 
So yes John, I do get the ironic part of what I wrote but when in the  states 
the best car I ever owned was a Triumph Spitfire for 7 years (best does  not 
mean reliable but it was easy to fix and never left me stranded), and as it  
was 15 years old when I got it that can be forgiven. 
 
BTW in 12 years I have never seen a Lucas Fridge! (Know it was a joke but  
still had to mention that!
 
Britt
 

John

You might just like to know that Nissan stated that the  Nissans built  
in UK are of a higher quality than those from the  Japanese plants.

Nissan, Honda and Toyota maybe Japanese owned, but  they are still  
built here in UK. Not a lot different from the  Vauxhalls (GM) and  
Fords we have been building here since the  20s.

Peugeot design many of their cars here in UK as do  others.

I think you are talking about 30-40 years  ago

Francis


On 15 Jan 2008, at 23:53, JAshburne [at] aol.com  wrote:

>
> In a message dated 1/15/2008 3:11:27 P.M. Central  Standard Time,
> Britt2Asa [at] aol.com writes:
>
> (BTW as   an American living in England I can
> tell you NOBODY in the UK  looks  upto American car manufacturing  
> when they
>  want
> quality).
>
>
>
> Hi  Britt:
>
> I know that as an American in Blighty, you must find  that comment  
> ironic,  if
> not hilarious.   Don't get me wrong, I love British sports cars, my  
> first   car
> ever was a Triumph TR250 and I vintage race a 1959 Turner.   And I  
> would
> never argue that the Brits (one t) haven't  made many more  
> interesting cars  than
> the  U.S.  The current Bentleys and Aston Martins are among the  best   
> cars
> anywhere in the world today, even if a  lot of their technology and  
> build  quality
> is  imported.
>
> And while I would never argue that many U.S. made  cars were better   
> drivers
> and performers than the  best of the U.K., I don't think anyone  
> outside  of
>  England would ever consider a British designed and built car, pre    
> BMW Rolls Royce
> excepted, as superior in build  quality!!!!  Handling,  styling, wood  
> and
>  leather interiors, panache, fun to drive, all yes.   Better  build  
> quality, HAH!
>
> Don't forget that there are  many more manufacturers in the U.S. than  
> the
> puny 3 of  Ford, GM and Chrysler, including Toyota, Honda, Nissan,  
> BMW  and
> Mercedes, all of which are built to standards as good as their  home   
> countries.
>
> Just three of the famous  British sayings about their cars are "All  
> of the
> parts  falling off of this car are of the highest quality British    
> manufacture!"
> "The British love warm beer because they have  Lucas  refrigerators."  
> and of
> course we all know  that Lucas headlight switches have  three  
> positions:   Off,
> Dim and Flicker.
>
> Sorry for the thread hi-jack, we  now return you to your regularly  
> scheduled
>  programming.
>
> John
>
>





BR in the  UK
1986 328GTS (LHD 89,940km) Died August 19, 2006 Shrewsbury UK
1980 400i  (RHD 72,000 miles)
Searching for the right 512TR
2003 BMW 530d
1991  Alfa Spider S4