Vehicle build quality shift

[idealcopy]

Hello all:

Just came cross this pretty seminal post on grassrootsmotorsports.com:

‘In many ways CAD/CAM was the death blow to quality. While things could be fitted tighter than ever before and it allowed the engineers to know exactly how much material each part needed.. it also allowed the accountants to know that information too.
That was what killed the era of overbuilding.. compare a BMW E30 interior to that of the E36's. The E30 was what an engineer thought was good.. the E36 was built to what an accountant thought was perfect.’

It's been a long time since reading something on the internet has provoked furious agreement amongst friends and family, but this is it!

[tractorman]

That may or may not be true, but another reason for the "lack of quality" is due to the need to reduce weight. A look inside my Golf Bluemotion is something I would avoid - it's all cheap plastic that looks like something I would have made when I was seventeen or eighteen - smooth satin finish on HIPS with no sense of style, very thin seat backs and a fixed base for the back seat - all to save weight and, theoretically, make the car more economical. I say theoretically because the Mk4 Golf (with an optional, higher spec, interior trim) had an interior that was much nicer to look at and the car was more economical than the Bluemotion!

[kstrutt1]

Bear in mind though this is subjective quality which we tradiatioanly assosciate with weight and stiffness, the light weight parts driven by Co2 legislation and safety requirements may well be just as durrable as the older heavier alternatives.
If I remember correctly the target is an average of 100g co2 by 2020 which is pretty much what the best cars achieve today (if you ignore the polution shifting electrics / plug in hybrids) that will certainly be a chalenge for VW Audi with there curent sales tending towards large luxury cars.

[idealcopy]

All very true chaps.

Tractorman - yes indeed, the pitifully cheap plasticky nature of these contemporary interiors is truly depressing. Seriously weighing up getting shot of the R230 for an old W124 Coupe for that very same reason.

Kstrut - you're right, a very good point indeed. Us older types have to accept the passing of time and understand these tank-like structures of yore are no longer environmentally or economically acceptable.

Having said that, two seismic shifts in the automotive 'umwelt' in the last twenty years have led to a herd-like design mentality going quite unchecked:

1. stringent crash test legislation requiring fundamental design constraints that didn't exist previously - factor 1 on homogenity street
2. the internet, the end of distinct national identity - resulting in a big sludge of a world, where a Korean designer heads up a Mercedes-Benz (German company) design studio based in Los Angeles - factor 2

Can't help wondering why some maverick multi-billionaire out there can't point to a 1950s to 1990s line-up of any major manufacturer and say to a designer: 'right, design me a model range as distinctive as that in 2014'. Somewhere useful and interesting to direct those useless billions...

I mean, did anyone see that Jaguar XE launch at Earls Court on Youtube? Rolling in the aisles with laughter here - the emperor's new clothes on four wheels; but the way they were talking about it you would think it was ushering in a second age of enlightenment.