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Termyn8or -> RE: How can US automakers compete with Toyota quality? (11/25/2009 7:05:58 AM)
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Does anyone remember decades ago a news story about a bunch of imported cars rusting in warehouses ? New, never sold or titled, were all scrapped.
But the title of the thread seems almost sarcastic in nature, and I was ready to field the question. How can we compete ? Well in martial arts we are taught to sidestep the opponent when possible and practical, I think the same logic applies here.
Our product must differ from their's. Back in the eighties those cars rusted "on the shelf" so to speak because nobody wanted to buy them. Why ? Even though our product might not have been better, it was percieved as better.
About fifty years ago Chrysler used to galvanize the chassis' of their cars. There were very few if any unibody cars made here. They were stronger and safer. Bigger engines made up for the extra weight, back when gas prices were within reason. But that doesn't mean they weren't corrupt. The established automakers made it impossible for Cord to get steel with which to build cars. For anyone not enlightened, the Cord was the most advanced car of it's time. It was a big threat to their laurels.
Today it is different. They are just as ruthless but really don't have the moxie and the brains to win a fair fight. Today the focus is on features, not on a solid basic design. They have been purposely made expensive and difficult to repair. And the one thing, the full frame instead of unibody is all but gone except for trucks. I've had two Buicks, both of which I really liked go down for the count. The engines fell out of them. Because of their desingn, this pulls the steering shaft out of the gearbox, and if it happens on the highway you are in big trouble. This is not a sound design.
However they had good radios and AC. Even that is gone. Through the eighties and nineties GM collaberated with Hughes Aircraft for the FM tuner, Blaupunkt for cassette decks and Bose for speakers. Now they sound like shit. The AC used to be a supersize system with a thermostatically controlled expansion valve and a BIG accumulator, which is a reservoir for freon because they knew they would leak. The accumulator is gone and now they are a cheapo cap tube system which requires a critical weighed in charge.
The ECM used to be under the dash, after all it is an electronic component and should be shielded from the elements. Not any more. Now they are under the hood and I know many need replacement, simply because the case corroded away. What's more replacement is no easy matter. You need the VIN, why ? Because the mileage is stored within in NVM.
Let me reveal something about technology. Remember old TVs ? They had a knob to change channels, behind the knob was the tuner. Well now it is all pushbutton. Why ? A couple of chips and what used to be called a varactor tuner became cheaper than building the old style tuners. Now adding features is usually a matter of writing some ASIC type code (software), and adding more buttons. In fact take apart just about any remote control and you will find room and accomodations for the extra buttons. It is cheaper.
It is cheaper to give you a user configurable dashboard rather than provide mechanical instumentation. It is cheaper to give you a roller cam than to put a real frame underneath. Yes my Buicks had roller cams, which used to be a very expensive aftermarket addon. Now when addressed in the manufacturing stage it is cheap, but is percieved by the customers as a great feature, when in reality it is required to get the preformance out of these flea speck engines. Fuel injection solved so many problems at once concerning perfomance and emissions that it was deemed cheaper to discard the old carberators and use it.
Cord had disk brakes, a lockup torque convertor and many other things. Bosch made fuel injection happen WITHOUT ELECTRONICS. The thing is, as long as the US automakers could depend on a certain level of patriotism in this country, they made it pay. Now that is gone and they have to do some real engineering, but they can't.
Back to the Tundra, isn't there some sort of comprehensive warranty on those ? Toyota should be replacing frame members in these vehicles, and doing so would boost their image. In fact if they are now under recall, that is probably exactly what they will be doing.
How can we compete ? First of all tout reliability. This would be one hell of a good selling point to any possible customer that has had a car break down on the road. And new cars, it is not a matter of adjusting the points to get it going again.
Trucks have always been a golden goose for US automakers. In fact looking at some of the current advertising they seem to be concentrating on that somewhat. But notice the price. Also notice that most US made trucks use tried and tested technology, slightly older, but reliable. Why ?
Because trucks are used for work. You think it's bad to get stuck in your car ? Try it with a crew and materials for a construction job on board, and don't forget those tools.
Years ago a coworker and I were at Sears to get some parts for our drill/drivers. This was alot of trips for him because of all things the speed control (trigger) kept going bad. The saleman asked him "What are you using this for ?", Smitty said "Work". The salesman said "If I'd have known you were going to use for work I would've sold you a Makita".
Call me cynical, but I think it is more of a matter of me not forgetting things as quickly as most.
Put me in charge of GM for a couple of years and see what happens. I have no degree and actually dropped out of school to get a real education. They would never hire me. But the fact is I could run circles around the current regime. In fact to prove it, pay them their salary to do my job and they will fall flat on their face. Of course I am starting to think that if they were given any real job.
Let's put it this way, it takes alot of guts and faith in one's product to open up a business in the midst of stiff competition. In other words, you don't open a pizza place right next door to an existing pizza place, usually. What's more if you have been there a while and a bunch of pizza places open up nearby, you better expand the menu or move.
Simple, a vastly different category and scale of operations, but the same rules apply. Just like physics. With a few exceptions, the same rules apply to all branches of physics. So it is with business.
And that last part is not how you compete, it is how you win.
T
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