"Subaru surges, Jeep stumbles in annual auto report"

Patty Winter wrote on 2016/02/23:

"we encourage customers to experience our [Jeep] vehicles for themselves."

What a dumbass response to their reliability issues. This sluggard has never rented an SUV to realize their potential customers are not renting Jeeps to find out "for themselves". So the idiot is saying "Buy our cars to know". Uh huh. If I had that kind of money to toss around, I wouldn't waste it on a Jeep.

I spoke to a Chrysler retiree from the plant that was here and he told me that at one time they had the best transmission in the business. To improve their bottom line they made it cheaper and it became a dog. This was the way US car manufacturers all operated. Make a good product, then make it cheaper to make more money.

Japanese business model was different - constantly improve product quality, sell more, make more money.

Caused basic downfall of US auto business.

Fiat must have the US model and them buying Chrysler was like two mongrel dogs breeding. The bloodline did not get better.

"Was" holds the key.

W.Edwards Deming is long dead, and the Japanese are learning to cheat and cut corners as well, in case of Subaru from GM. GM partially owned Subrau, and I am sure transferred a lot of "know how."

Why do you think Subaru's never ending odd problems?

First, cheap notoriously failing rear bearings (late 90's Impreza), then never ending problems with headgaskets (all 2.5l engines -1990s and 2000s), later steering wheel column shake (mid 2000s Legacy), auto tranny hesitation with 3.6L engine (2000s, a software glitch of some sorts).

Lately the excessive oil consumption puzzle affecting many FB engines.

All these problems seem NOT to be engineering fails per se, or unintended mishaps, but some kind of quality reduction, presumably by policy, to save cost.

BTW, most problems remained unaddressed by Subaru until a new model came out. There were of course a lot of cheap fixes, to get owners past warranty period, like the 5$ Coolant conditioner fix for head gasket, ineffective software updates, cheap mechanical fixes of the steering column shake, etc.

All in all Subaru is not immune to quality reduction issues, and Japanese are not some super race that by breed is bound to high standards of manufacture, I'd say the opposite, they are little cousins of the Chinese, who were thought quality from the Americans, who themselves learned earlier from the various Germans immigrating to America.

Basia

Not to praise the Germans; a warrior and murderous Teutonic race that relied through outits history on conquest of other peoples, with the aid of technology, relying on superior quality weapons manufacture for its survival !!

These are the origins of legendary Teutonic quality.

All of it stemming from the Germanic need for superior weaponry for puposes of conquest.

Jeep, btw, also started from military origins, or orders for Willis, jeeps in WW2. Subaru earlier in WW2 as Nakajima Aircraft. Deming was in Japan teaching quality not because of philantrophy. Cold War was on horizon, and the Japanese were to be integrated into the anti-communist military alliance.

Again, need for superior weapons and weapons sub-components manufacture. Actually what happened is Americans kept weapons manufacture for themselves but delegated consumer goods production to the conquered Japanese. It worked pretty well.

Basia

I'm sure you are right about both but the competition is good and the rising tide raises all boats.

I got my first Subaru when our Mazda was stolen. Wife refused to get another Mazda because Ford owned a chunk of them and we had a problem with Ford that had put them on our never buy list.

Failing rear wheel bearings? I have a '14 Forester Limited with approx.

45,000 miles on it and a '15 Outback Limited with approx. 16,000 miles on it. Both had to have the rear driver's side bearings replaced early on. But, that's the extent of any problems with either. Both have the 2.5L FB engine and neither have oil consumption problems. The wife and I are extremely happy with these cars.

I've been buying parts on eBay for my VW Passat. Boy are they priced right! They're made in Asia but I can't imagine the parts will be any worse than an OEM Bosch or Hella part made in god-knows-where Europe. I suppose that's not saying much. Hee hee.