Quote:
Originally Posted by rgrizzard
Actually I was commenting to Dragoneye about him giving credit to the "lackluster management" for the great new products and my point was that their engineering did it. I am not sure what POS cheap vehicles you are referring to but if it is a Chevy I have to disagree with you and would recommend a toyota site for you...
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I know. Management told the engineers to build cheap cars for 20 years, this was for a number of reasons: new fuel economy standards and emmissions equipment cost a lot, so do unionized workers. Now the engineers have been told to build cars with good value. Cimeron vs CTS. 1999 Malibu vs 2009 Malibu. Saturn SW vs Astra. Cavalier vs Cobalt vs Cruze.
Every engineer wants their product to be absolutely perfect. They constantly fight cost. But any engineer will light up when told to build the best. The result? The Enclave, CTS-V, G8, ZR1, Volt, etc.
Where does management fit in? They give the engineers the parameters for the car. Recent years have seen the shift from 'low cost' to 'good value'. That allows for cheap plastic to be replaced with nicely textured soft touch plastic, for example.