That’s more or less the summary of J.D. Power’s 2023 U.S. Initial Quality Study (IQS), which highlighted quality declines in eight out of nine key categories. Driving…
I am working in the auto industry in R&D. I can tell you that the big trendy thing, next to autonomous driving, is “Software Defined Vehicle”. Essentially, how to lock-up feature via Software while all the necessary hardware is present and functional in the vehicle.
This isn’t a good time to be dependent on a car. I am glad I leave in an area with top-notch public transports.
Is this like the BMW heated seats thing from a couple years ago?
Typically yes. Although SDV could also be use for more legitimate purpose, like tuning some parameters based on the country the vehicle is sold in (e.g: adapt Lane-assistance to the specific road markings of each country).
I work in marketing with car manufacturers. What I’ve got from working in the industry is that all the techbro shit has coopted the way of thinking in the industry in a desperate bid to differentiate the offering by any means necessary - whether it works or not.
What engineers say in meetings about the “tech” is quite frankly scary.
One of the companies I work with just straight up admitted that their lane keeping assist doesn’t work in real life situations but they will sell it anyways with “disclaimers”. Their fine print is 10 pages long.
A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don’t do one.
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This is why I think I’ll stick with Subaru for a while yet. The important knobs are still manual! Heat, volume, etc. I don’t want to be fiddling with a touch screen while driving down the freeway.
Had a 90s Honda, was awesome. Had a 00s Subaru, was awesome except on fuel consumption and power. Have a late 10s Honda. Is awesome on power and fuel consumption. And has important buttons for the most part. One button for AC unless it’s specifically changing parts. Will probably be a plugin hybrid next, depending on when Subaru release one, if ever.
I have a 2016 VW Group car, I think its ideal. A useful screen, with 3 knobs for AC, a volume knob, another general knob, and proper buttons to navigate the screen.
i feel like my cmax is a great middle ground. all the important bits are physical but theres plenty i can do on the screen as well if needed. while id like android auto or apple car play to be able to be controlled from the steering wheel controls or whatever, to make it easier to keep your hands on the wheel, itd need to be wired in and i dont know if automakers would like that. most new cars have all the buttons already so thats not an issue. back, home, select, and four directions is all you need.
What’s sad, transitioning from hardware knobs did no service to the drivers. Except the price but that has been going upwards, too.
Car quality is suffering as automakers shift focus to
technologyprofitYes ofc, their focus used to be fun and balloon animals
But they’re getting more and more expensive.
All depends on where you set your focus for “quality”. If more technology will finally bring autonomous driving cars, then I’ll happily accept some quality loss in other segments.
Always the UP-selling… pushing luxury and convenience and car culture. It’s worse in the USA than most countries, but in the UK people measure your penis in a pub by asking what car you drive.
Our house has 2 vehicles
- PCX-150 that costs less to run than a skateboard.
- 1.2L Yaris with CVT that costs about the same to run as a skateboard. Is comfortable enough and fairly quiet cruising up to 110 km/h (with gentle feet, the needle hovers from 1000 to 2000rpm).
After a lifetime of driving manual cars, superbikes, this dramatic shift was huge as I wanted to shave expenditure when we bought our house.
However, we have no intention to ‘upgrade’ to anything with more power or features… rather we only intend to ‘upgrade’ to something that is more economical.
