But you are not in the majority, or thats what they would build.  Automakers cannot base decisions off of the 36 Jalopnik commenters because they would alienate their millions of “normal” consumers.

I agree.  I just got a 2021 Explorer ST, and expected an interior made out of Rubbermaid and Play-Doh based on the internet reviews, but it is actually really nice.  Probably the nicest car I have ever had.

You can opt out.

Hyundai Kia just got slapped with a nice little fine for not taking care of safety recalls and we all know what happened with VW. Cars are complicated, and one bad car is not indicative of an entire company.

My last car was built on a Tuesday, and made a transmission fluid sacrifice on my driveway requiring a tow truck ride back within 24 hours, so your idea is not without merit.

Not to defend poor quality on the part of OEMs, but there are a lot of factors at play here. Cars have a lot more components, safety features, tech features, software, wiring, and emissions control devices that need to work seamlessly in order to build a car free from defects. To do that, you need a long development…

The same bike rack warning appears for the Ford Explorer with the power liftgate as well. Pretty smart to put that in there, since I guarantee some dumbass tried to lift two mountain bikes up in the air on their power liftgate and caused the motor to burn out.

I have auto high beams on both cars, and I turned them off. They turn on during dark stretches of interstate or two lane road where they really aren’t needed, but then they turn on and off way to frequently.

The Ram has better ride, but at the expense of payload. The Ram had a much better interior over the last generation F150, but I think this one is competitive, and both are light years ahead of the GM offerings.

Looks like they hit a home run if the only complaints are related to seam sealer application in the door jamb on a pre-job 1 build and door closure effort.

That is the issue with Consumer Reports and JD Powah. They do not effectively weight the severity of the issue when they come up with these reliability rankings.  

I think much of it has to do with the fact that they are not a full line manufacturer.  They have limited options, and therefore people go to the dealer with more cars.

That doesn’t even make sense since they do not cover collisions at motorsports events.  You have to buy a Haggerty track day policy if you want to be covered while racing.

Exactly. The only accidents I have had since I was maybe 18 were not my fault, basically since I was not moving when struck all of those times. But I accelerate rapidly and brake aggressively, so my rates would be through the roof.

Its less about how much energy to get moving as it is the energy it takes to keep moving.  I don’t remember the specifics because it was several years ago, but the Ram 1500 with the 20" wheel package was the tire with the best fuel economy, and therefore was on the volume leader Big Horn package.  The off road tire on…

Unfortunately this is not necessarily correct. Correlation does not always mean causation. My experience with vehicle coastdowns related to fuel economy/emissions could site multiple examples where the wheel/tire combo with the smaller wheel has a higher roadload (lower efficiency).

If batteries are a commodity, then they’re definitely a hot commodity.

Recalls are often driven by how severe the risk is, even if the occurrence rate is low.  There has been 14 deaths as a result of Takata airbags out of what, 15 million vehicles.

I don’t know, I think engines traditionally have been unique enough to warrant building them in-house, as engine differences have a huge impact on the vehicle DNA. Battery cells have an impact on charging and range, but all things considered, battery cells are a commodity. So at that point, it becomes a business…

It is interesting, having been remote in an engineering job for going on 9 months now, how well it works. My role is unique in that when we were in the office, I still spent most of my time on webex. Besides my immediate team, I mostly interface with people in other buildings and in other countries that change…