Honda Car Forum

On 15 Jul 2004 05:07:53 -0700, acctforjunk@yahoo.com (Im anonymous) wrote:

>news@daytona.jcu.edu (James) wrote in message news:<896c9ed3.0407130519.61d2814e@posting.google. com>...
>> George Macdonald wrote:
>>
>> > One fairly recent model Civic(?) had an
>> > instrument panel made by Ford.
>>
>> Ford may have made several models, but they certainly made the Accord cluster:
>> http://makeashorterlink.com/?P22C35AC8
>> (do a search for the multiple instances of the word "ford" on the page)
>>
>> -James
>
>Hard to believe. At least this doesn't go to 03-04 models, not that I
>know of anyway.....

You can check it here for the 2K V6 model:
http://makeashorterlink.com/?T393220D8. AFAICT the 03-04s are Nippon
Seiki, all those I looked at anyway, but in the auto OE supplier business,
cost is king - engineers spend a fair part of their "day" doing costing.

Rgds, George Macdonald

"Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??

On Thu, 15 Jul 2004 17:53:12 -0000, "Joshua J. Belsky"
<belsky@brionne.cyberverse.com> wrote:

>Im anonymous <acctforjunk@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> news@daytona.jcu.edu (James) wrote in message news:<896c9ed3.0407130519.61d2814e@posting.google. com>...
>>> George Macdonald wrote:
>>>
>>> > One fairly recent model Civic(?) had an
>>> > instrument panel made by Ford.
>>>
>>> Ford may have made several models, but they certainly made the Accord cluster:
>>> http://makeashorterlink.com/?P22C35AC8
>>> (do a search for the multiple instances of the word "ford" on the page)
>>>
>>> -James
>
>> Hard to believe. At least this doesn't go to 03-04 models, not that I
>> know of anyway.....
>
>I wouldn't assume that an American made part would be any better or worse
>because it wasn't made by Ford.

Who said anything about American made? It could be made in Mexico, Brazil
or PRC for all we know.

Rgds, George Macdonald

"Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??

> This is true - reasons: 1) with air bags up the wazoo, padded interiors are
> no longer a necessity so less foam materials in panel plastics; 2) attempts
> to lose ounces of weight for MPGs; 3) the current witchhunt against PVC by
> the enviro-nuts... and yes Wank Haxman, that fine upstanding defender of
> idiots who can't think for themselves, is leading the charge.:-) The
> plastics mfrs have come up with new much harder, (olefinic) polymers which
> are thinner for similar strength characteristics. Hmm - I don't recall
> being asked if we wanted this but the results are evident and obvious to
> all!!
>
> Rgds, George Macdonald
>


George, you never cease to impress.

My wife and I both noticed just how hard and thin the dash plastics
are in the 2004 Chevy Impala LS we rented in Hawaii last week. I
spent 5 days bitching and moaning about the Impala in general, until
we switched islands and ended up with the Chevy Classic, which was
even worse from many standpoints. (Aside: I was confused for an
entire day about what a "Classic" was, not knowing that was actually
the name of the car. It stands for "Classic example of crap".)

JM

> My wife and I both noticed just how hard and thin the dash plastics
> are in the 2004 Chevy Impala LS we rented in Hawaii last week. I
> spent 5 days bitching and moaning about the Impala in general, until
> we switched islands and ended up with the Chevy Classic, which was
> even worse from many standpoints. (Aside: I was confused for an
> entire day about what a "Classic" was, not knowing that was actually
> the name of the car. It stands for "Classic example of crap".)

its the old style malibu, still made for rental car fleets

On 15 Jul 2004 17:22:03 -0700, jmattis@attglobal.net (JM) wrote:

>> This is true - reasons: 1) with air bags up the wazoo, padded interiors are
>> no longer a necessity so less foam materials in panel plastics; 2) attempts
>> to lose ounces of weight for MPGs; 3) the current witchhunt against PVC by
>> the enviro-nuts... and yes Wank Haxman, that fine upstanding defender of
>> idiots who can't think for themselves, is leading the charge.:-) The
>> plastics mfrs have come up with new much harder, (olefinic) polymers which
>> are thinner for similar strength characteristics. Hmm - I don't recall
>> being asked if we wanted this but the results are evident and obvious to
>> all!!
>>
>> Rgds, George Macdonald
>>
>
>
>George, you never cease to impress.

Nah I just read about it a while back in the Automotive Engineering mag at
www.sae.org :-) Do a search there on "olefin[ic] polymers" - the "papers"
are not free but you can find a few magazine articles.

>My wife and I both noticed just how hard and thin the dash plastics
>are in the 2004 Chevy Impala LS we rented in Hawaii last week. I
>spent 5 days bitching and moaning about the Impala in general, until
>we switched islands and ended up with the Chevy Classic, which was
>even worse from many standpoints. (Aside: I was confused for an
>entire day about what a "Classic" was, not knowing that was actually
>the name of the car. It stands for "Classic example of crap".)

On a related subject, my new keyboard's cable has a warning label marked DO
NOT REMOVE THIS LABEL courtesy of the State of California.... with a
warning that just touching it will expose me to lead and I should
immediately wash my hands.

Rgds, George Macdonald

"Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??