On Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:57:35 -0800, Smitty Two
wrote:

In article ,
Swingman wrote:

Jules wrote:

They'll build what they're paid to build, no more and no less. There are
talented folk there, same as anywhere else

They are excellent copy cats, but there is NOTHING like European
engineering for built-in quality, from handsaws and screwdrivers, to
spaceships.

The Europeans have yet to make a reliable car.

Au Contraire - they make VERY reliable cars. You can rely on them to
make trouble when they are most needed.

That said, one of the least troublesome cars I ever owned - and the
price was definitely right on top of it all, was a 1972 Vauxhaul Viva
HC - sold in Canada as the Pontiac Firenza. I bought it for $250 in
1979 when it was traded for a new Lada
It took the typical British "fondling it's nuts" on a semi-regular
basis, but the only breakdown I suffered with it was when the timing
belt broke heading south out of Sydney Nova Scotia - fixed at the side
of the road - and the regulator died the next day just North of
Halifax.