My '80 Citation had so many issues, I could swear it was actually a developement mule, which was made saleable.

 

That's not a distinction that I would make. Quality has to be designed in. Quality assembly is part of it, but even that has a lot to do with the design of the car and whether it is easy to assemble correctly or not. Training of the workers is just a piece of it.

I think the Vega was a symptom of the beginning of GM's quality problems, where getting the car done right took second place to expediency of getting a vehicle into production (time and price). GM had some fine cars during the 70s, but also some losers. Unfortunately, the pressures of near-annual changes in emission and safety standards took a lot of engineering resources, some of which might have gone to better quality. However, Toyota, Honda, and Nissan were able to meet the standards while retaining good quality. But they didn't have complete car lines back then, and emission standards were easier to meet with the smaller cars. Still . . . .

 

The only problems I had was the rear window defroster kept durning up the wire. I know there was a recall for something about the rear coming around in slick weather under braking, but my dad had fixed it before the recall came out with larger tires all around.

 

I realized I know way too much about the auto industry when I met with my group last night.

Good meeting, we got some direction. But it looks as if I'm going to be heading up every bit of this project.