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Originally Posted by theaveng
Nobody's perfect, but some companies will admit their mistakes rather than stick the customer. For example MAZDA has been helping owners of their "SkyActive Diesel" engines to provide free repairs. They know there's an engineering flaw, so they are eating the cost themselves. If the customer visits the dealer every 7000 miles for oil change/service, and the engine still turns the oil from liquid-to-gel, which causes it to die after just 30,000 miles....... how it that the customer's fault?!?!?
Yes sometimes it is customer neglect
Othertimes it is ENGINEERS that frakked up.
Engineers are humans too and not flawless. In that engine case, they made it run too hot so it died prematurely. That alone doesn't make the car company bad..... it was their response to tell customers "Warranty void" (and sticking customers with a $7000 bill) even when customers & dealers said the engine was faithfully maintained/oil changed.
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Here's Consumer Reports' take on it:
"The Center for Auto Safety, a consumer advocacy group, has received over 3,000 complaints about sludge problems covering model years 1998 through 2005. A large majority concern the base 2.7-liter V6 used in the Dodge Intrepid before the 2003 model year. A relative handful came after that or concerned some engines used in the Audi A4 and VW Passat, Saab 9-3 and 9-5, and several Toyotas, again mostly before 2003. Engine failure due to sludge is a major problem for car owners, and automakers appear to have been slow to address it, generally linking it to poor maintenance rather than to a problem with the engine. Still, Chrysler has instituted an arbitration program that offers partial or full restitution to owners who can demonstrate that they changed the oil when they were supposed to.
In a related case, Toyota settled a class-action engine-sludge suit in 2007 that covered an estimated 2.5-million Toyota and Lexus vehicles made between 1997 and 2002. In that case, Toyota agreed to repair sludged engines for up to eight years from the time of purchase. While Toyota staunchly maintained that any such "oil-gel" problems are attributable to owners' abuse or poor maintenance habits it did set up a mechanism to reimburse complainants. The language of the settlement appears to include reimbursement to those people who may have already paid to have their sludge damage repaired."
I might be reading that wrong, but it doesn't sound like Toyota told its customers to stick it, and I don't think "extending a warranty to eight years" is the same as "voiding a warranty."
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What about the story of Boeing planes having lithium batteries catch fire? Customer fault? No. Poor design.
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Two planes--and the fleet was subsequently grounded until a fix could be implemented.
All true, except...that would be "plane," singular. And that incident was 25 years ago. And the plane didn't crash.
I love how you cited all your sources and didn't sensationalize anything to bolster your argument!