Remember the thread I started about the Mercedes-Benz recall a couple weeks ago? Several of us noted how it would never make headlines, the NBC nightly news, or even the scattered local newspapers back in the Atr Section.
Well, that's exactly what happened... nothing.

This morning I am reviewing some news from the weekend, and I come accross this article about an investigational probe into the ALREADY ANNOUNCED RECALL of Ford trucks and SUV's.

Yes, you read that right, already announced. For d has voluntarilly recalled 750K trucks and SUV's to have a connector replaced on the cruise-control module. Now the NHTSA is conducting a probe into what additional vehicles might have the same issue, with 100% cooperation from Ford no less, and out comes this story.

The press is so kind to Ford that hey offer the maximum number of vehicles could be 3.7-million vehicles... in the TITLE of the article.

So Mercedes can have a full-blown recall for 1.3 million vehicles, and they get the same press coverage (if not less) than an INVESTIGATION into a US manufacturer. There's something wrong here.

After seeing this and reading what's going on lately, I have to take a big hats-off and a to Bob Lutz for blasting the media last week, and to GM for taking action against the media for publishing the trash and sh1+ they put out lately. I can only HOPE that Ford grows ballz and takes the same stance. Dodge would be well-served to do the same too.

Just as important as freedom of the press and freedom of speach, is the freedom to report all activity in equal light and with equal billing.

I guess these flim-flam press writers are afraid they will either lose their comfy rental appliances supplied by the importers, or they are afraid nobody will believe them if they publish how sh1++y the import vehicles are getting these days, so they fall back on hounding the good ol' US guys in order to sell a rag or fishwrap.

Know what? IMO, they can blow it out their *****... for every stoopid article I see against a US brand vehicle, I will post and find 2 about the imports. AND, I will bring more resolve to spend MY money on US-based cars and trucks.

 

 

Ragging on US manufacturers has become the accepted norm in society after over two decades of terrible vehicles. Even now, a lot of the new american cars are not completely up to snuff with their foreign counterparts.

 

for some reason I don't think Daimler-Chrysler will agree with you...

 

Easy answer. Look at the link you posted. This is about a NHTSA safety investigation. The government gets involved when there are complaints of defects that have or could cause injury or death. If the NHTSA finds there is a safety defect then the GOVERNMENT ORDERS A RECALL for safety reasons.

Now look back at the Mercedes recall. It was NOT a government ordered safety recall. Mercedes decided that parts of their car were not working correctely and they decided to inspect and replace any defective parts they find. This is a little different than a government ordered safety recall.

 

I think its a combination of several factors.

First you have the Car & Driver mentality. For years the Euro and even Japaneses cars were higher quality and more "refined." The imports therefore gained years of praise from mainstream car mags and that has translated into a kind of euro-bias and Nippon-bias in the fact that I think that any new import automatically is going to get the benefit of the doubt, whereas a new domestic is more guilty till proven otherwise.

This is why they are never suprised at a great import but always suprised if a domestic is a better car than they thought.

Also remember where these guys live...L.A., Detriot.....they intermingle with the big media in general. Why is that important?

Because the main stream media, I'm talking TV except Fox News, all the news papers in america and most of the Magazines are liberal-biased. Why is that important? Because its hip to be down on America in liberal circles, especially in the media which has been found to be more liberal as a percentage than the City of Berkeley, Calif. Everything from Europe is hip, trendy and to be emmulated to these people, whether that be social policy or automobiles. Everything American is reviled because it stands for American arrogance and tyrany and backwardness.

So I think domestic products are looked upon by the media as somewhat less sophisticated and more utilitarian...for the common man. You'd never see a big time media elite driving a domestic car, they'd get laughed out of the office.

 

that ford recall about the cruise control switch is because that is something that is actually BURNING PEOPLE'S HOUSES DOWN

the local NBC station here in orlando broke that story, ford denied denied denied till finally the govt got involved and suddenly there is a recall for a limited number of the vehicles.

and i don't really see why the 3.7 million vehicle figure can't be in the headline, thats a huge number of vehicles ... and its not really like "oh, they might have this defect" ... there was no change in that system between quite a few model years on some of ford's highest selling SUV's and trucks. hell, i'm surprised the number isn't BIGGER than that considering the F-150 was one of the vehicles with this system, and they sell an average of 1 million per year and this cruise control system spans multiple years.

 

Not directed at you, but...

Kinda like the Honda CRV's that are BURNING PEOPLE'S HOUSES DOWN, which HONDA DENIES IS THEIR FAULT, eh?

Hey, I got an idea for Honda...

How about NOT putting the oil filter upside down on top of the exhaust manifold? Ya know, 'cause like oil BURNS and STUFF.

DUH.

 

The Detroit News (of all papers! ) is getting pretty notorious for their slanted automotive coverage. I'm pretty convinced their auto section exists only to feed the amusing yet scary rants and ramblings of import-loving posters in their auto talk forum (complete with rediculous and annoying reviews by the Leinart couple--what a couple of latte-swilling uppities).

This is the kind of stuff the Big 2 have to overcome...all they can do is keep bombarding the market with some well thought out, high quality product that people can't ignore.

 

Ford did the same thing though. The 750k unit recall was voluntary, not government mandated - no different than MBenz' situation.


Would a recall on the infamous MB 500 SL be a surprise?
How about 10 recalls on it?!?! 1990 500 SL
Do you car nuts remember that from th 90's? I don't think I ever heard about it.

What about a recall on the 500 CLK that MT gawked about in their covers when the 2003 Cobra was coming out....
It's better, only got 2 recalls... 1 for seal belt malfunction and 1 for engine cooling fan failure. 2003 500 CLK

On the other end is the economy class... look at the C 230 for example...
1 recall for seat belt/infant restraint failure and 1 for brake system issues.
That's MUCH better isn't it? 1997 C 230

Here's one writer who made a modest comment about their quality slipping...
The Car Connection from last year...
Quote,"Mercedes has encountered a number of quality setbacks in recent years. Its reliability score on J.D. Power surveys rose to 318 problems per 100 vehicles last year for 2000-model-year vehicles and early in May stood at 108 problems in the first 90 days of ownership of 2004 vehicles."
Of course, the article is short, and they don't give the reader any yardstick metrics to go by like Buick, Chevy, Lincoln, or Ford's reported problems/100 vehicles sold. Since the subject above was a 2000 model, here's a comparo...
JD Power - 2000
JD Power - 2004
You'll notice the huge strides made by the US carmakers, and the slide of the European marques, Benz in particular went from 308 complaints/100 in 2000 to 327/100 in 2004 - while Buick went from 340/100 to 187/100.
Double- to GM and Buick for the gains made too.
Lincoln went from 337/100 to 194/100 in the same time frame.

So again, my point is... I have to go digging to find how sh1++y the imports have become, but the press will gladly tout how crappy the US suppliers are today - even after we have bested some of the premier marques in the world like MB, Audi, and Nissan.

(PS - to some who wonder, it's not the nature of the recall that I am harping on, it's the way the recalls make it into the press and how far they ride it that frosts my *****.)

 

damnbippy.

 

havn't heard anything about that ... got any links? i'm interested ...

however, there arn't nearly as many CRV's sold as there are ford F-150's and SUV's


edit:
after a quick google, it appears as though it is not honda's fault that people put oil filters on incorrectly causing oil to leak and cause fires. bad engineering? yes, but nothing like having your vehicle burst into flames at 5am while your sleeping.

 

Technically, Honda is claiming it isn't their fault and is instead blaming the service technicians for not installing the oil filter correctly. Now I don't know about you, but if I was a Honda certified mechanic at one of their dealerships and they were trying to tell me that I don't know how to install a freaking oil filter correctly, I'd be pretty cheesed. And what a coincidence, it isn't just one mechanic it seems there's a whole slew of mechanics who don't know how to change oil. Errr yeah......

 

America is the victim of its own success.

We have two different standards for measuring American vs Non-American (companies, products, people and etc) and like it or not we as Americans set an almost unrealistic standard on ourselves while we will let non-American Companies, products and etc get away with murder.

As long as America is the dominate force in the world we will be unfairy attacked on all fronts (even by those in our own country) and the only time this will change is if America loses its dominance to the Chinese in the future.

 

Not gonna happen.

Might be Europe, but not the Chinese. The Chinese still need to figure out how to feed themselves.