"TeamCasa" wrote in message
...

Leon, I too work in the automotive industry. Our company operates Honda,
Acura, Chevrolet and Saturn dealerships.

Our sister conmanies sold Honda from the early years when you could also
sell motorcycles in the same dealership, Buick, Mazda. GMC, Isuzu and
Oldsmobile.
Having been on the receiving end of customer complaints with 4 of thise
product lines, I got the least complaints percentage wise from the Japanese
car owners.

Bad cars (and other products) are made by all companies. Hondas blew
headgaskets like crazy, Saturns were noisy and ate alternators and
batteries,

I am not familiar with Honds's blowing head gaskets but I bet it was not
anymore often than the Oldsmobile Diesel engines and the Chevrolet Vega
engines. :~)

What matters to me is how the manufacturer handled the problems.

True. I also had to deal with the Oldsmobile factory service reps. What an
arrogent bunch they were. Our dealership won service awards from Oldsmobile
and they would send us their problem customers after the other Olds dealers
failed to properly repair the cars. We would do the warranty work on those
cars and the rep would kick back the claims because we were replacing too
many parts when compared to the other 4 delaerships. Maybe we were
replacing too many parts but the cars were being properly repaired and the
customers stayed with us.

Acura transmissions were junk and so on and so on. Honda/Acura stepped up
and fixed all of them - no questions.

My wife and I had a 90 Integra automaticand put more miles on it than any
other vehicle. We replaced it simply because my wife wanted an new car 10
years later.


Saturn fixed their issues with a
little pushing, Chevrolet relies on the dealer to decide if they should
help and to what extent.

Bad companies are the ones that die. Good companies, step up and take
care of issues and subsequently improve their products. That is until
they are swallowed-up by larger companies.

Woodworkers are in somewhat a different class. They buy cheap crap all
the time and justify it by saying "It works OK for me" or "I don't use one
enough to warrant a quality one". I am a tool snob. Not because I love
spending tons of money, but because I want my tools to work right when I
need them. OTOH, I do own some Jet and some import Delta tools. However,
I do buy professional quality when it counts.

My (long and windy) point is, Wal-mart, Harbor Freight, Grizzly and the
like will continue to flourish because we do not want to pay for real
quality and are willing to settle for less. Quality companies like Lee
Valley, Lie-Nielsen, Leigh, Snap-On, Miller Electric, Wilton and others
will also have a market until they venture down the "cheaper is always
better" road. Are you listening Robin?

Dave

Note to Robin, I looked high and low to replace a special crowbar (that
was stolen) and now I see you have them. They are without a doubt, the
best of the best. They have no peer. You call it the renovator's bar. I
searched for the name on the bar, TOVE, and it did not show up on your
site. You should add TOVE somewhere on the page so more people might find
them on your site.