Automotive

ThomasM
[PuristS]
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you've raised some very interesting and salient points, BDLJ.

Hi, Ben,

I personally feel there are no universal "truths" (and find it offensive when some try to make statements as if there were, like "cheap Chinese knockoffs" or "prison slave labour" (in China, Mexico, TurkUzKazhakstan, etc) - as if all products from China or Mexico or Kazhakstan were of inferior quality, because Chinese or Mexicans or... are only genetically capable of making inferior product. Can you say, racism? Bigotry?

Clothes, cars, watches...I love it when Italian bike or car snobs, or American, or German...dismiss "Jap bikes" or "Chinese crap"...of course, there are the other side, who laugh and point at the Italian bikes "just waiting for it to break down or not start")

but of course there are trends and generalizations based on collective facts / historical data points.

Your last sentence is a particularly interesting one - "the brand"=management decisions? and the gap between what is intended and hoped for (lower labour costs, skilled and experienced labour; infrastructure and ambient conditions which are assumed to be comparable or can be accommodated?) and what is actually experienced / achieved.

Institutional limits (and advantages) like goverment subsidies and "official" strategic markets in command economies vs "laissez faire let the market forces decide" dynamics, which all figure into final product quality, as much or more so than "rational management decisions" like building to a price.

This being a PuristS community, we tend to shuffle the deck versus "most people" and place a higher priority on "quality" (whatever that means) than absolute (relative) price - ie, we tend to be more willing to pay price that is highly impacted by the law of diminishing returns (in quality, in measurable performance)

abrasion resistence in a jacket and pants? how well the stitching holds up? "well, for the price..."

But I'm a little uncomfortable with the very broad generalizations of Le Bim in the lower thread in his Japanese versus Italian / European makers. Again, maybe it is just an artifact of his (limited) examples - Honda and Yamaha versus Ducati and Bimota.

I remember back in the day, audiophiles used to exalt the cottage brands from America like Threshold (Nelson Pass) and Mark Levinson (Tom Colangelo) as "the unreined genius of individual fanatics" versus the "design by committee" corporate brands and products like Denon, Technics, Yamaha (which were misleading comparisons if I ever heard one, apples and oranges)

Ferrari under Fiat and Montezemolo?

Lamborghini under Audi?

Aprilia and Moto Guzzi under Piaggio?

Agusta MV, Cagiva, Ducati, et al?

Lange und Sohne under Richemont, or Breguet under Swatch?

hmmm...

(straying a bit from my original point, but oh well)

Back to my original point, which you and Ed addressed, even given "specs" it is interesting that production tolerances can vary so much.

Cheers,

TM