Returning to the original post, no I don't find that frustrating for two reasons:
1 - Technology always improves, we now have smartphones with more oomph than a PC had 5 years ago, and we have 1.4 production car engines making 170hp.
2 - As most EMers buy cars used, those new 2.4s will be in our greedy hands in a few years time and EMers will still be 20-30% above those EPA figures.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jamesqf
Forget the 60K miles: realistically, 100K miles is a Japanese vehicle's extended break-in period :-)
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I can't comment on the US vs Japanese debate but two facts stood out here in Europe. The first was that when Renault and Nissan 'merged' (yes all those Nissans you buy contribute to Renault's profits in France...) they started to base a lot of Nissans on Renault platforms - the Micra / Leaf is a Clio, the Versa is a Meganne, the Primera is/was a Laguna.
The Nissan dealers immediately noted a drop in quality and an increase in warranty work they had to carry out. On the flipside Toyota and Honda haven't noticed that from their European factories producing Japanese designed cars.
So I sense it may be at the design and production engineering stages were the problems start.
The second issue is that US built cars from US makers (Ford, GM, Chrysler) have (or in some cases had) an appalling reliability record in Europe. The GM Blazer and Ford Ranger were more or less disowned by Ford Europe, the Corvette sold in single figures and the Cadillac STS bombed even costing 30% less than the equivalent BMW or Merc. The Vauxhall / Opel Sintra (basically a US GM 'Van') was the UK's least reliable car for a number of years.
The Neon was sold here in the early 00s for a low price and lots of equipment. Car magazines still recommended a second hand European car instead.