John,

After 1.5 years of working in an Acura/Infiniti dealership's service
department and my impression of Japanese reliability differs drastically
from yours.  I no longer subscribe to the notion that any these cars are
somehow superior and infallible.

Perhaps the toughest part was explaining to the custormers that ,contrary to
their expectations, their precious cars do break down after all.

Chris,

'85 Westy, 156K
'88 Audi 90 with 350 K miles and running and running....

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Reynolds" <kayakjr@JUNO.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Monday, February 18, 2002 7:37 PM
Subject: Re: wbx reliabilty

> Just remember when someone starts talking about the reliability of cars
> in Europe - Europeans do not expect as much as we do, nor do they
> typically rack up miles like we No. Americans do.  That's one reason why
> Japanese cars are more popular here than in Europe (I know there are
> other, bigger, factors- tariffs, nationality, etc).
>
> A co-worker of mine in France could not under stand why we do not have
> Renaults (or Fiats, Ugh!) - I explained their reputation of going 32,406
> miles and then both door handles off- he said "Really? Mine is quite
> reliable." and then went on to explain how we don't maintain our cars.
> Then he stated he had been through 3 exhaust manifolds.  He did not have
> an answer when I asked how one is supposed to maintain an exhaust
> manifold.
>
> As to Mercedes - I admire them, but the modern ones are impressive in
> terms of reliability - check out the M Class rating - very, very poor.
> Between the 2 Benz's and BMW's that the pres and VP of my company had -
> well, it was amusing to see the mechanics continually picking up their
> cars while my Honda keep running and still is 226,000 miles and 12 years
> later.
>
> If only if all the 2002's had not rusted away right of California -
> That's a BMW I would love to have.
>
> John R
>