As a Mechanic at a Lexus delership I will tell you this. Germans do NOT
design their car with any semblance of making sense. They SUCK ASS to work
on!! Japs know how to build cars, that are easy to use by the consumer and
easy for the technician to repair. They design things in a manner that
dosent require the customer to pay outrageous labor charges to install
either. heres an Example: Brake Job on a Lexus 325.00 per axle for sedans
thats Resurfacing rotors New pads, Hardware and caliper bolts, and
rebuilding the caliper assmblies. On many german cars the rotors cant be
resurfaced with out extensice machining because their pads chew monster
sized grooves in the rotor. So apply that laborrate taht I quoted with
approx. 160-200 per axle for new rotors as well.
Elmo P. Shagnasty" <elmop@nastydesigns.com> wrote in message
news:elmop-6B77B4.18380008022004@news.usenetserver.com...
> In article <fpad201s66nirfa39mkmd03jusaqt4khuf@4ax.com>,
> George Macdonald <fammacd=!SPAM^nothanks@tellurian.com> wrote:
>
> > Go to the discussion forum at www.edmunds.com for VW models - the cars
are
> > loaded with gadgets... which break and break and break. Some of the
basics
> > also seem prone to break - ongoing problems with gearboxes, electricals
> > like locks, windows etc.
>
> Oh yeah--I forgot to mention the German electrics. They're worse than
> anything Lucas ever put out.
>
> Pay attention to German cars with burned-out brake and tail lights, for
> example. Then pay attention to Hondas with the same.
>
> VW had what I'm sure someone thought of as a great idea: let's put an
> amplified antenna on the roof of the car, mounted in the rear. Oh,
> yeah--and then let's put the amplifier electronics OUTSIDE the car, in
> the base of the antenna. Guess what happens when that antenna gasket
> breaks, as they all do? That's right--the amplifier dies, and you get
> no reception. Now we're into a new $100 antenna. And that's just the
> part; now we have to pull the headliner just to get to it.
>
> And while we're there, let's sand and scrape the corrosion away from the
> mounting nut so that there's a good ground, which is necessary for the
> whole thing to work.
>
> Compare that to the 98-02 Accord antenna in the rear glass. Whatever
> they've done, it just flat works--and there's nothing exposed to the
> weather.
>
> This is just one example of an important electrical detail that VW got
> monstrously wrong, which Honda got right.
>