Talking to a friend yesterday, he related a story about a mechanic friend of his who is certified on Porsche and BMW. It seems he got a 2 yr/old Cayenne Turbo in his shop with a burned up starter. OK, he orders one up from the local warehouse and after hours of labor removing layers of turbo plumbing, pulls the starter and installs the new one. After reassembling the turbo on that bank, he turns the key . . . . (crickets)

Right out of the box, the official Porsche part (by Bosch) was bad. He removes the starter (reversing all that plumbing work) and takes it to a Porsche parts dealer. They give him another, but this time he insists on a bench test before accepting it. You guessed it, more crickets. Two dead starters in one day.

Then the parts manager admits this is a common problem for them. They are seeing a LOT of bad parts that are supposedly Porsche approved. The problem is like so many other companies outsourcing critical components to China, Bosch products are failing miserably in service. It's not altogether Bosch's fault, they contracted with a Chinese manufacturer to build goods to a tight set of specs, but obviously they aren't meeting them.

Another friend who owns a three y/o Fusion has been having transmission troubles. Again, a Chinese part that was low-balled to Ford and isn't meeting specs. Ford has refused to even touch the car, on or off warranty. They want nothing to do with that tranny. In the last two years Ford has re-sourced a number of their transmissions back to US companies, but it seems the 6-speed manual gearbox in the Mustang V-6 (w/ performance package) isn't handling the 305-hp, 3.7-liter engine's output - and they are scattering pieces all over the streets where stoplight GP's are held nightly. Again, blame China.

In these cases, I have no knowledge beyond what is available to the public, but I have had experience a number of years ago with Russian engineers who came to this country around 1976-1980. While most of these people were brilliant engineers, their understanding of US standards was non-existent. In those days we joked about "strong, like BULL" in engineering product reviews, because with some truly miserable metallurgy to work with, the old Soviet system tended to produce MASSIVE castings - just to ensure the designer didn't take a five-year break in the gulag. In one case, a transmission housing for an industrial gearbox had no real loads applied to it, all it had to do was hold up an upper bearing which placed little load on the case, and retain oil. Still the upper half of the housing alone was about 3' in diameter and about 14" high . . . and weighed 850 lbs. Good luck to the guy who had to take it apart without an A-frame and a chain hoist handy.

I suspect that the requisites of saving your own skin have not fully made the transition to Chinese factories, where making quota at lowest possible cost reigns supreme. Now, based on high costs of warranty work, Ford and other automakers are re-thinking their out-sourcing programs, and bringing increasing numbers of parts contracts home. Today, there are few cars that do not contain major Chinese-manufactured components, the exception being Korean cars that under their government policy do not trade with mainland China. Maybe Kia, Hyundai, and the others deserve a second look; that or maybe we should push our domestic manufacturers to buy American.

 

hm, i would certainly think it is an BOSCH, Porsche and Ford problem.

They are the ones that have to make sure their contractors meet their own quality standards.

 

Its not China that is at fault. I'm confident that they COULD build parts with same or better quality that factories in other countries build them, but it all comes down to cost cutting. When you pinch them to produce these parts at absolute minimum cost, you'll end up getting parts that are lousily built, using lousy materials. You get what you pay for.

 

Good thread. C&D covered some of this recently

http://www.caranddriver.com/features...erica_-feature

Download of map

http://www.caranddriver.com/content/...stic+Bliss.pdf

 

I think its funny that the most American truck out there is the Toyota Tundra...

 

Who would bring a 2 year old Cayenne Turbo to some guy certified in Porsche, just bring it to the dealer under warranty, and for the starter not working, I doubt this is the problem but computer technology is taking over, as of late I've heard of a lot of new components that when installed, you have to plug in the laptop, update the cars main system with the new piece of hardware before it will work otherwise it is never seen

As for the transmissions failing, my cousin who works for Ford, says that Fords biggest problem is themselves, they only care about the bottom dollar, they will use the cheaper parts supplier cause it saves a couple bucks per car, but Ford is well know for spending 1000's on warranty repairs for things that would have cost a buck more in the beginning.

 

You get what you pay for. Companies who contract out to budget manufacturers are fully aware of this and bear the same responsibility for ensuring QC. The cheapest bidder in China or any other developing manufacturing country is usually cheapest for a reason.

I worked at company that produces digital video recorders (DVRs). One manufacturing engineer told me that he found a bidding contractor in rural China hand-spraying painted plastic panels...OUTDOORS...in the presence of farm chickens running around.

 

to answer the title of your thread, both of my cars are built in japan. lexus reliability is important to me, which is why i won't touch german or US cars (your examples of porsche and ford prime reasons i've stayed with japanese built cars). as long as i properly maintain my vehicles (per maintenance schedule), i'm not worried about them breaking down.

 

Most people would be stunned to learn that a considerable number of the components of most cars are made in China. That includes cars manufactured in the US, Europe, and Japan. The reason is economic. The Chinese are low-balling bids while swearing to uphold standards, and through possible ignorance or more likely corruption that has been endemic to the Communist economic system from the beginning, a large portion of parts, sub-assemblies and the like farmed out to China by the world's automakers are not just faulty, but totally inadequate to their assignment. I'm sure someone knows better, but they are being driven by the new "entrepreneurs" to cut costs every way and every day.

 

Some of the later production Scion xB if I recall correctly have engine components being sourced from China. It is printed on the manufacturer's label where it states where the car was built and what % of the car was sourced from each country.