On Sun, 02 Nov 2014 02:09:15 -0800, pyotr filipivich
wrote:

--snip--
My suspicion is that they're doing it right. Nostalgia for fixing and
adjusting my S.U. carburetors (carburettors, I guess) on my mother's
kitchen table isn't enough to overcome the fact that I had to do
*something* with my old cars almost every week.

It's that aspect of old cars which I do NOT miss at all. I'm very
happy today without any grease under my fingernails, TYVM. I would,
however, like to be able to maintain my vehicles if necessary. I'm not
sure I'd be happy doing a valve job on the Tundra's 4-valve-per-cyl
heads, though. It keeps me conservative in my maintenance schedule,
both time- and mileage-wise.


There is the one side which says "make it good, and get it to
last". There is the other side which wants it "soon" to last "long
enough". I recall reports of a determination by various War
Department Planners which determined that the "life expectancy" of
combat aircraft was limited to N hours. Ergo, it was not "cost
effective" to build aircraft which would "last" for 2N hours, if half
the useful life was not going to be used.

The problem with that is that in reality, the service lifetime is
almost always exceeded, causing greater-than-necessary maintenance
costs and labor.


And there is the story of Henry Ford, who sent Engineers out to
the junk yards to find the parts which weren't breaking on his
automobiles. Those parts were "over built", so they could be less
"well made", and saving the Company money in the process.

Ol' Henry wasn't perfect, by any means, but I'm sure that little story
was put out by competitors. If you look at the history of GM vehicles
in the Consumer Reports User Satisfaction charts for many decades,
you'll find them to be nearly the worst of the bunch. Japanese cars
joined them in the late '60s and '70s, then they swapped ends of the
spectrum, becoming the best of the best, leaving GM on the bottom end
again. The ease of maintenance and longevity were two reasons (Dad
and) I chose Fords over other brands early on. I owned 2 used GM
products and would never own another, unless it was a free gift -and-
the SHTF/TEOTWAWKI had already begun. Um, and there was a GM junk
yard/parts store right next door. OTOH, I'd rather change a GM than a
Ford water pump on the side of the road... I was working as a lube
monkey for a GM dealer (my very first job out of tech school) when
the campaigns came in to replace all motor mounts on all vehicles, and
add a cable tiedown to the left mount. That was a true PITA.


What's the
old saw - that eighty percent of the cost is in the next decimal
place.

That has been true in the extreme, but the advent of CNC machining has
lessened it, at least on the bottom-to-middle end. It has provided
more accuracy without an increase in price, and usually a decrease.
Tenths and microns are still pretty damned expensive, though.


--
The more you know, the less you need.
-- Aboriginal Saying