Build Quality

[Unknownsoldier]

Where is the best place to have your car built and why??

Germany, had two German cars and had no problems with either.

What Model/Brand do you consider to be a well built/good quality car and why??

BMW, again of the two cars I've had no problems (and built like the Scharnhorst, yes I know it was sunk, but it was well built, the three tonne of british lead in it didn't help ).

Tom

[NEEMSTAR]

Honda civic Type R - FD2

MUCH better build quality than ours

[NH Dan]

Originally Posted by Unknownsoldier

Where is the best place to have your car built and why??

Germany, had two German cars and had no problems with either.

What Model/Brand do you consider to be a well built/good quality car and why??

BMW, again of the two cars I've had no problems (and built like the Scharnhorst, yes I know it was sunk, but it was well built, the three tonne of british lead in it didn't help ).

Tom

Which BMW??

[Unknownsoldier]

E36 3 Series, (R reg) & an E39 5 Series (X reg).

Tom

[Unknownsoldier]

But the 5 my mum has had were all excellent too

Tom

[NH Dan]

Originally Posted by Unknownsoldier

E36 3 Series, (R reg) & an E39 5 Series (X reg).

Tom

Ok, whilst due to the ages of your cars, i cant say where they were built for sure but take a look at this info purloined form Wikipedia.....

South Africa
BMWs have been assembled in South Africa since 1970, when Praetor Monteerders' plant was opened in Rosslyn, near Pretoria. BMW acquired the company in 1973, which became BMW South Africa, the first wholly-owned subsidiary of BMW to be established outside Germany. Three unique models that BMW Motorsport created for the South African market were the BMW 333i, which added a 6-cylinder 3.2 litre engine to the BMW 3 Series.[1], the BMW 325is which was powered by an Alpina derived 2.7 litre engine, and the E23 M745i, which used the engine from the BMW M1.
Unlike U.S. manufacturers, such as Ford and GM, which divested from the country in the 1980s, BMW retained full ownership of its operations in South Africa.
Following the end of apartheid in 1994, and the lowering of import tariffs, BMW South Africa ended local production of the 5-Series and 7-Series, in order to concentrate on production of the 3-Series for the export market. South African-built BMWs are now exported to right hand drive markets including Japan, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and Hong Kong, as well as Sub-Saharan Africa. Since 1997, BMW South Africa has produced vehicles in left hand drive for export to Taiwan, the United States and Iran, as well as South America.

[Foggy69]

Originally Posted by NH Dan

Where is the best place to have your car built and why??

Japan
For the last couple of decades, buying a Japanese company's car has been a very good indication of reliability.
I don't think where a car is built has much to do with quality, it is the engineering and design behind the car. Toyota trusted the French to build the Yaris.

Originally Posted by NH Dan

What Model/Brand do you consider to be a well built/good quality car and why??

The original Toyota Yaris.
It is a cheap car, made with some fairly cheap looking and feeling plastics and when you close the doors, you get a nice hollow tinny sound. Despite this, it all works with the minimum of fuss and feels like it won't break. And it doesn't.

[Unknownsoldier]

I'm sure both of mine were built in either Munich or Stutgart. I believe many South African BMW 3 series (IIRC) were the compact versions (the 318 tis, being the obvious one that springs to mind).

ATB,
Tom

[Coldwarkid]

I hope we're not doing your homework, Dan.

My other car is an MG, as we all know from Longbridge, I've never had any issues with it apart from a squeeky dash.

My Mum has a BMW MINI, and all it has is a missing glove box.

[l-noel]

Best Place for Building car : Where there are japanese QA manager who are in chage of implementing real QA system and quality mentality to the workers in the manufactutring plant...
Best Quality producers : Japanese due to the above mentioned QA manager...

They dont avoid the problems but the rate of cars with problems is far behind other manufacturer.

[COB]

Originally Posted by l-noel

Best Place for Building car : Where there are japanese QA manager who are in chage of implementing real QA system and quality mentality to the workers in the manufactutring plant...
Best Quality producers : Japanese due to the above mentioned QA manager...

They dont avoid the problems but the rate of cars with problems is far behind other manufacturer.

It's down to the Japanese mentality and work ethic (and lots of experience) - walk into a car plant in the UK or other country and then walk into the same plant in Japan and you will see the difference then.

[4540flossy]

Isn't a question of perception of quality over actual quality? in the 80s VW mark 2 golfs, Mercedes 190s, 200/300, BMW 3 and 5 series were superbly built - any mid/late 80s german car would still be viable transport today. However, the over-engineering nearly ruined VW (and Mercedes) hence the shoddy VW Golf mark 3 and E36(?) BMW 3 series and quality glitches which they're still recovering from.

Look at how badly Audi, VW, and BMW did in the '08 JD Power customer satisfaction - Mercedes were in the bottom three marques! People who don't know much about cars tend to default towards german cars because of their reputation and perceived quality; dealers are shoddy because they know how little work they have to do to shift a "desireable" product. Enthusiasts or cognescenti might buy M3s or SLs but they certainly don't buy 1.6 litre Audi A3s, Mercedes V-class or a BMW 1 series with 3-doors...

JD Power top makes? Lexus/Toyota, Honda and Subaru (Skoda and Porsche). With Toyota now officially the most profitable brand of car ( equal with ?) Porsche, the Japanese are still powering ahead with their "just in time" supply chains and engineering know-how. I was a bit horrified by the tinny feel of the Civic's exterior door handle when I first got the car but inspite of it lacking the VW "kerwalitee" feel, I bet it'll still be working after the german car's been scrapped.

That's the deal though isn't it? The Civic "works" so well as a whole because it isn't german or trying to be something it isn't - unashamedly manga from bumper to bumper!

[Jack The Lad.]

So, the latest 911 is built in the Rain Forest then.

[electric]

My first 3 cars (Vauxhalls) were all built in the UK. The build quality was so bad I said I would never buy a car built in the UK again. 17 cars later I was swayed by Honda's good publicity and it was a big mistake. Mine has very obvious and careless build problems which would have been immediately evident to any tester before it even left the factory.

The best built cars that will do over 100,000 miles with no major problems are the Ford Mondeos and Focus. Half my road have Fords, I have had 12 different Fords and not one has had any problems. The only time they see a garage is for servicing and MOTs. - If only I could say the same for my Civic which in 4 weeks has been back to the dealer more times than my last Ford did in 4 years. (It's back again on Monday!)

I have now removed all Honda Civic cars from my company's approved list. No member of the company is allowed a Civic until they start building them in Japan.

[Unknownsoldier]

The E36 whilst some the high end models had some minor teething troubles, the E46 on the other hand is IMHO probably the worst BMW for some time, with the M3 being particuarly awful, and as far away as possible from the original ethic of the m3, much like the soggyness of Golf Gti's after the MkI, my mates mk III 1300 is still going after 150,000 miles, with only a slight fault with 5th gear. Give me German or Japanese BUILT anyday, as for British, I'd only ever buy an Aston built here The E46 did suffer from some problems in that it tried to hard to be technological and in the world of BMW 'cheap' these two don't mix. The E30 was IMHO the best built 3 series, and true to form many are still going (although I don't think any car manufacturer can equal VW's record, a Kubelwagen built 1940 or thereabouts, buried in Belgium somehow, dug up cleaned, and refuelled (nothing else to my knowledge) started nealry first go, hows that for reliability, leave a civic on your drive in sunny weather for a wek and you'll have to get the RAC out ).

Tom

[NH Dan]

Originally Posted by Coldwarkid

I hope we're not doing your homework, Dan.

My other car is an MG, as we all know from Longbridge, I've never had any issues with it apart from a squeeky dash.

My Mum has a BMW MINI, and all it has is a missing glove box.

Not in the slightest! - the point i was trying to make is that a lot of people 'go on' about German build quality and Japanese build quality etc when in fact the cars are no more german or japanese than you or I.

Most people would 'assume' that a BMW 3 series was built in Germany when in fact they aren't.

The most german of cars, the beetle?? yup, built in south america.

[Topcat]

I dont care where the car is built as long as it doesnt keep going wrong.

[Jack The Lad.]

I wonder if Asimo was built in the Amazonian Rain Forest.
It's that blow pipe, he has started using whilst running, that has me a bit worried.

[PJdali]

Seat Ibiza (X plate) - Built in Spain I believe
Build quality (body \ doors etc) and engine mechanically very very good, but the car was plagued with electrical issues which meant car was with A Clarks most months and I was treated appalingly by both A Clark and Seat. Has put me off buying another SEAT and dealing with that car seller.


Rover 25 (03 plate)
Biggest motoring mistake I've made........a rush decision to move the Seat and british build quality at it's worst. Plastics were awafully cheap, moving parts for seats broke within months or became unstable and loose. Engine wise it was fine but when things begin falling off in the cabin and warranty apparently means hee haw for plastics and 'wear and tear' components like seat levers then time to cut your losses. Never thought I'd buy british again! Utter POOH !!



VW Golf (05 plate)
Great german built car, build quality 100%, engine 100% reliable, rattle free, can't say fairer than that. Only decided on a Civic when looking at a bigger engine as I had a 1.4fsi and the 1.8 i-vtec Civic looked lovely and had that bit more oomph we were after! My wife wanted another golf with a bigger engine at first but in the end we went Honda side after 3 test drives...and bought a more modern looking car.





Civic (57 plate)
Been a very good experience to date. Car build quality is very good on the whole, a minor niggle with some rustling like noise when driving 60mph+ on some motorway surfaces that I can't suss out .......one other wee issue I'll get sorted at the service to do with a magic seat not locking down....might be related to rustling as noises bounce around the cabin. And my wife loves it she thinks it draws admiring looks on the road. No regrests buying Honda.....but being british built I did have doubts.




Just my tuppence worth..........

[civicfan]

Originally Posted by Topcat

I dont care where the car is built as long as it doesnt keep going wrong.

That's exactly the point, only that cars tend to be built worse than yesterday but better than tomorrow - as the manufacturers are hunting for more and more profit (unless one buys something outrageously expensive, and even this is no guarantee no made in Ch...eapland parts etc.). Hope the global players will come to their senses, but remembering they can sell almost any number of cars to the "emerging economies" there isn't much hope indeed