525dse

yes I believe they did.

ImolaRedM

Actually, it was around for about 20+ years. The first "Defender" was the One-Ten introduced in 1983 then followed by the Ninety. The underpinnings of the Ninety and one-ten had more in common with the 1970's Range Rover than the Series vehicles that started production in 1948. The Series III was very close but still a very different car. In fact the Series I test mule was built on a chassis from a popular WWII off road vehicle from another country all together.

Bimmer32

If the thing was engineered well but built using cheap parts and sloppy assembly, the end product is poor quality - people tend to blame bad engineering too which is not always true.

My family (including extended) owns just about every year model of the Toyota Camry since 1990 to 2004. In 1997, the new model was built in Japan. Based on the same model (perhaps with updated engineering and mechanical designs), the 1999 Camry was built in the USA. It could have been a case of isolated incident, but 2 of the USA built models had varies mechanical and cometic parts failed sooner compared to my 1997 Camry, which had more mileage and more abuse.

My father owned a 1991 Lincoln Town with currently 60K miles and garage kept for 95% of the time parked. About the only thing that is still great about the car is the engine. All the other parts have failed not due to design but poor (cheap) materials.

As for MB ML series built in Alabama, the materials and parts used were poor quality. The engineering was solid, but the flaw was in the procurement of the inferior parts (There is a case study of this somewhere).

The american cars are not inferior in technical engineering as a whole. Let's not be bogged down by the common Ford, GM, or Chevy . They are inferior in design-looks (my opinion) and they use inferior materials/parts, granted, there are rotten apples (bad engineering) in very automaker.

dlevi67

However, I would argue that the average US car is designed and engineered to a lower standard than the average European car; just look at the sophistication of suspension design that is available in a mid-range car like an Euro-spec Mondeo against the Mustang... and they are both Fords!

Whether that holds true at the very highest levels is more debatable, but I at any rate would always pick the Porsche (and make mine a GT3, please, not a Turbo) rather than the Corvette.

Bimmer32

Location does matter in regards to business decision, management team, and market demand, in turn result in the end product quality. A sound business isn't going to put in place a management team from another country who don't know the market condition. While the engineering is the same, it's the operation's management team (local or in this case national) that makes the procurement and QC decisions, i.e., should I get a water pump from China for half the price or the one made in Germany for double the price? The downside to hiring a local management team is that while you bring the new product in, you're also susceptible to local management practices; this can play against or for the business.

Since American consumers having been buying "American throw away cars" for decades, American management team have catered to this mentality. And when the mentality changes, management will also change to serve market demand.

Toyota found a balance. Don't make super reliable cars; just make them more reliable than the local (American) cars.

I guess at the end of the day, the old cliche holds true that "you get want you pay for." But, it's not soley on engineering, but location (tie to local mentality), which in turn drives the quality of parts used, and QC.

Bang for Buck mentality is getting the most of your dollars. I'd take a Z06 over the GT3 or Turbo and the Z06 would out last and out run the Porsches. How? Buy a Z06 now, wait around 4-5 hours, buy another Z06 for the price of 1 porsche now.

aybeesea

Now I'm innocent in all this but does that "out run" include any kind of bends and distance?

ABC

Bimmer32

Of course. Just go a search on the new Z06 and be amazed at what this car can do compared to cars twice its cost. Of course, you can't argue with looks cause the Porsche, in my opinion, is nicer.

pennetta

One thing we are forgeting is that everyone is comparing Ford and GM with MB and BMW where you can have highly engineered and reliable cars if you charge twice as much for them. Same with the Z06 and the 911 GT3 or Turbo where you can buy two Z06's to one Porshe. Also in the US Jaguars and Range Rovers are not considered anymore reliable than US cars.

Scandic24

In Sweden there's a saying from the early days of Lucas : "Lucas - the man who invented darkness!" - That says a lot about quality...
It was quite exciting driving around in a car with Lucas lights though...

Bimmer32

I honestly don't know this one, but what is technically inferior about the new Z06 compared to the Porsche GT3 or Turbo? Is it quality parts used, QC differences in assembly, and/or engineering? Is the big block (8) going to deteriorate before the Porsche's 6? I'd love to see a reliability report between these to cars and total cost of ownership in 4 years.