Mercedes cars - what a disappointment!

[Drago]

That's plausible at face value, but seeing as the bulk of "Japanese" cars aren't actually made in Japan I don't think the idea holds water.

 

[gavroche]

That's plausible at face value, but seeing as the bulk of "Japanese" cars aren't actually made in Japan I don't think the idea holds water.

But they are made using Japanese manufacturing processes and quality control.

 

[vickster]

But they are made using Japanese manufacturing processes and quality control.

QC? They do seem to have a fair number of recalls though on Toyotas, Hondas

 

[colly]

Slightly off the point, Mrs Colly bought another car about 15 months ago and while we were looking round I came across a big Merc that was a 6 seater. It was too big for us but even though it wasn't that old the price was very reasonable for a car that would have been £50000 plus when it was new, possibly more.
Mentioning this to a guy I do work for who it in the motor trade he said that yes used Mercs are cheap because they have a habit of rusting. I'm not sure if that's right and it surprised me tbh but maybe that's true.

 

[Pumpkin the robot]

QC? They do seem to have a fair number of recalls though on Toyotas, Hondas

Maybe that is because the Japanese find a fault and fix it, whereas everyone else just ignores it?

 

[Drago]

Maybe that is because the Japanese find a fault and fix it, whereas everyone else just ignores it?

And when they do break the Japanese brands are more likely to take their warranties seriously. Mrs D's recently departed Kia was a good example of a manufacturer giving a 7 year warranty, then giving every excuse in the book to try not to honour it.

 

[screenman]

But they are made using Japanese manufacturing processes and quality control.

You may not have seen as many nearly new Mazda engines in bits as I have. As for recalls, let's just say enough for the Mazda garage I do work for had to employ a full time tech just for recall work.

 

[CharlesF]

If you go anywhere in Africa, where people will run a car until it actually breaks apart and where the terrible roads and lack of maintenance destroy everything, there's only one name: Toyota. Many trucks are very old Bedfords because they can be fixed by the roadside by a bush mechanic.

And Peugeot 404 in my day, a brilliant car.

 

[vickster]

Maybe that is because the Japanese find a fault and fix it, whereas everyone else just ignores it?

But surely if the cars are so well designed and QCd before they leave the test track and factory, a fault leading to the recall of hundreds of thousands of cars already on the road shouldn’t happen...and certainly not time and time again and major faults at that

@cyberknight builds cars for Toyota, maybe he can illuminate how it still happens

 

[Drago]

This is, I'm afraid, rot.

The biggest recall of recent years for Toyota was to do with faulty airbags originating from a subcontractor. Unless every Toyota was crashed at speed into a tree while on its factory test drive they would have no manner by which the problem could be identified in advance. A quick lap of a track, 2 minutes on the rollers, and a close squint by a man in white gloves will not discover such faults.

Toyota were actually pretty reasonable in replacing millions worldwide and at great cost to themselves - the airbag manufacturer went to the wall so Toyota had no one to extract compensation from. Compare this with, say, Hotpoint, who were happy to let peoples houses burn down and still didn't issue a recall for 4 or 5 years, and who still have failed to comprehensively refund or replace affected units.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

One reason post war German cars got a reputation for build quality was they had excellent quality control procedures - developed during the war when they had to monitor work done by slave labour and possibly sabotaged.

 

[gavroche]

In his trade ( installing wind farms offshore) , my son has worked with many German engineers and is always amazed to see that they are completely lost and don't know what to do when a fault doesn't fall within the procedure they have been told to follow.

 

[vickster]

This is, I'm afraid, rot.

The biggest recall of recent years for Toyota was to do with faulty airbags originating from a subcontractor. Unless every Toyota was crashed at speed into a tree while on its factory test drive they would have no manner by which the problem could be identified in advance. A quick lap of a track, 2 minutes on the rollers, and a close squint by a man in white gloves will not discover such faults.

Toyota were actually pretty reasonable in replacing millions worldwide and at great cost to themselves - the airbag manufacturer went to the wall so Toyota had no one to extract compensation from. Compare this with, say, Hotpoint, who were happy to let peoples houses burn down and still didn't issue a recall for 4 or 5 years, and who still have failed to comprehensively refund or replace affected units.

What about all the other ones?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009–11_Toyota_vehicle_recalls

 

[DCBassman]

As someone who has an older Merc, 2004, and has delivered many newer ones up to 2016, I do prefer mine to the newer ones. And mine has the last German built MB engine**. They're all MB/Renault/Peugeot etc combines these days. Mine certainly has its problems, but I paid 4k for a car that I've had for over 6 years and covered 100,000 miles in, to a total for the car of 270,000. That's not too pricey in my eyes, and at 3.2l and 2 tonnes, it's relatively economical to boot, although the later versions improved on this considerably.

**Not the Actual Last One...

 

[skudupnorth]

I worked for a Merc and Brabus dealer and can definitely say the new cars were total crap compared to the likes of the 190’s, W124’s and of course the un-chaved G-Wagons ! What shocked me more were the aweful add on Brabus kits which really made the original cars look like over priced Halfords special’s