BK>> TW> That sounds FAIR to me. Stop the Crappy assembly and make a
BK>> TW> car that sells.

BK>> I was told by the mechanic who does my work that American cars
BK>> used to hold up better than imports, in the long run. It's only
BK>> in the last few years they have not. Apparently GM engines were
BK>> really superior.

 ...

 TW> But no matter how you slice it the Foreign cars,
 TW> Particualrly Toyots, Honda and Subaru to name a few, Beat
 TW> ANY UAW built cars in Both Reliability and Qunality by a
 TW> Mile.

 Do they?

 I logged onto the JD Powers site. They rank cars by a 1 to 5
 rating.

 Only Porshe got a rank of 5.

 Only Chrysler products, Saab, Saturn, Scion, Suzuki, Mitsubishi,
 the Mini, and Land Rover get a rank of 2. The mini surprised me.

 Only Infinity, Lexus, Mercedes, *MERCURY*, and Toyota got a rank
 of 4.

 All others were ranked 3. That puts GM and Ford and GMC in the
 same group with Honda, Hundai, Kia, Nissan, and every other
 import. Now there are probably differences within the groups,
 but those weren't on the page, and I haven't looked for them.

 Couple more things I found.

 There are two Harbour reports, the Harbour report, and the
 Harbour-Felax report, which are apparently not connected.

 The Harbour report uses inside company info to rank productivity
 etc. Canadian UAW plants are the most productive in North
 America. 35% more productive than Mexican. Now why would anyone
 build a plant in Mexico if Canadian plants are 35% more
 productive? Maybe because an 80-90% lower wage outbalances any
 35% in productivity. Oh, and US plants are somewhere around 25%
 more productive than Mexican.

 The Harbour-Felix report uses public info to draw conclusions.
 The $1300/car cost to US automakers for medical coverage is $100
 in Canada. That alone is a big improvement. On top of that, the
 $100 cost could be a factor in increased efficiency, since
 $1200/car is available to spend on improvements.

 Oh, and the Harbor report gives UAW manufactures top scores for
 productivity in this country, with only one of ten top plants
 including a foreign producer, and that one is a joint venture
 with a US company.

 TW> While the reliability might be blamed on Management the
 TW> Quality blame lies directly on the shoulders of the
 TW> Assembly line workers. ---

 No! Quality is 100% a management perogative. Management has the
 sole decision on what goes out the door.

 Hourly workers have exactly zero authority to decide what is
 acceptable quality. Management has all that authority.


BOB KLAHN bob.klahn{at}sev.org   http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn

... I can't define "Assault Rifle", but I know one when it shoots at me.
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