Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2002 07:25:01 -0400 (EDT)
From: Richard Welty <rwelty@domain.elided>
Subject: Re[2]: Beating the dead horse: Alfa's non-return to the US, and...
On Fri, 20 Sep 2002 07:07:18 -0400 Brian Shorey <bshorey@domain.elided> wrote:
Audi faced one of the most difficult situations any automobile
manufacturer has ever been able to recover from in this country. The
cars weren't unreliable, they didn't rust out early, they were CONFIRMED
KILLERS!
in the minds of the public and the safety lobby. i've written long essays
about this in the past, and will refrain from doing so now, where it's off
topic. perhaps i'll send one to offtopic, to generate some traffic over
there.
I think Brian was referring to public perceptio; I doubt he believes
in that nonsense. > I believe (I could be wrong) that Jag was doing ok here prior to Ford
buying them out, they've always had the reputation of being unreliable
but prestigious enough to be worth the trouble. Now Ford has fixed the
reliability problems, and stuck a lot of Ford parts into the Jag,
the quality fixes began with Sir Peter Eagan, (i bet i spelled that last
name wrong), who introduced a very simple concept -- he started testing the
parts from Lucas and Smiths before installing them in the cars, and sent
back the ones that arrived broken. it had never occured to anyone at Jag to
do that before he got there. Ford may well have improved quality even more,
but it began when Jag was privatized and Eagan came in.
I'm glad somebody besides myself finally pointed this out!!! I'm not
sure why, but it drives me nuts when people write off some of
history's finest cars because they think it was Ford's 1989 takeover
that fixed Jaguar's quality problems. As much as I hate driving a
4200lb sedan that begs to be driven (dangerously) fast, my dad's '87
XJ6 is just a fantastic car. I wish the engine's power output were a
little closer to it's pre-smog days and the 3-speed automatic didn't
totally suck, but that car, in addition to being 100% reliable, just
exudes quality. The level of refinement is incredible. Not to
mention that it looks and handles better than just about anything
else from the '80s--despite being a 20+yr old design. (I'm sure that
if it had a 5-speed and lost about half a ton it's give a Verde a run
for its money--i.e. if they'd made some sort of '80s S-type, I'd own
one!)