Build Quality

[Luxrage]

Post yesterday about Edmunds buying a 2027 Bolt, and it failed at mile 15.
https://www.slateforums.com/forum/t...per-than-a-slate-suv.15391/page-3#post-248838

That one is brutal, the one that was in my head as I was making that post was a Cybertruck owner that had a steering failure 6 miles in. One of the ominous posts fortelling the future plague of PCS failures on those trucks.

 

[TPL]

And the internet is not anarchy now?

Eternal September continues!

 

[E90400K]

Best description of the internet I've ever heard (circa 1994) was, "It's like the best library in the world, except all the books are scattered on the floor."

 

[FlyHappy]

Edit: For an example of bad engineering, if the window regulator goes out in rear of my Country Squire. Ford's recommended replacement steps involve drilling a hole in the tailgate outside of where the interior trim would cover it to get at one of the bolts.

Dad had a '79 Pontiac Grand Prix. First "fancy" car he had with power windows. Regulator went out at year 3. We had to take off the door panel trim, then drill holes through the interior structure to reach the bolts. Same thing.

we are so spoiled as auto consumers.
It was just a few decades ago that all cars sucked relative to todays quality expectations. American cars, European cars, Japanese cars. The only exceptions were the bespoke, craftsmen built, hand assembled Rolls, Bentley, Maybachs of the world - completely out of reach of the masses, and introducing their own ongoing maintenance nightmares.

which is where we really do need to thank the Japanese, because their early products, despite also being fairly shit QC wise, at least priortized engineering simplicity, breeding reliability, repairability, longevity. Even as their offerings became more sophisticated, they maintained the focus on simplicity, when possible.

call me crazy, but I think the real Slate magic, despite the messaging of "DIY", "open source" and colorful trinkets (things that I have some doubts about), is really channeling 70s/80s Japanese industrial culture.

Honestly, I won't have a problem if my Slate doesn't have perfect fit and finish, or if an electric door lock fails in 5 years. I'm banking on the belief that the vehicle is designed and built in such a fashion that diagnosis and repair will be logical and straightforward. I know my priorities aren't the same as the bulk of the buying public, and the effect of influencers is very real, but I hold out hope that the public can and will re-embrace the notion of what is important and what isn't. Personal transportation shouldn't be sucking up 25% of the middle class income.

 

[Johnologue]

call me crazy, but I think the real Slate magic, despite the messaging of "DIY", "open source" and colorful trinkets (things that I have some doubts about), is really channeling 70s/80s Japanese industrial culture.

Honestly, I won't have a problem if my Slate doesn't have perfect fit and finish, or if an electric door lock fails in 5 years. I'm banking on the belief that the vehicle is designed and built in such a fashion that diagnosis and repair will be logical and straightforward. I know my priorities aren't the same as the bulk of the buying public, and the effect of influencers is very real, but I hold out hope that the public can and will re-embrace the notion of what is important and what isn't.

I think that the DIY and "open source" talk is very much part of this.

It's how you explain the idea of simple, modular machines that you own to a world where using a hammer on a pack of frozen juice is some kind of piracy or "hacking" (Juicero - failed, but it's a silly example of ideas that otherwise took root), and where Apple successfully un-invented the industrial revolution by making parts not-interchangeable (parts pairing).