Quote:
Originally Posted by bjl584
People will often base opinions about certain makes and models of cars based on personal experience. In reality, it just isn't possible to own or drive every car that is out there for an extended period of time. Unless, you work for Consumer Reports or Car and Driver. Otherwise, what you see is someone saying something like, "I hate Ford. I had a Ford minivan, and I had nothing but problems with it." While that may be true, Ford makes dozens of different models and makes of vehicles. Painting such a broad brush about a company is unreasonable based on such a narrow experience. All cars, no matter who makes them, are machines. All of them have parts that wear down and fail over time. Nothing is invincible. There is someone out there that will have good and bad things to say about every car company and every car model. Everyone has had good and bad experiences with cars. Sometimes they are unlucky, sometimes they bought a model of car that was a lemon or had a history of component failures. But to say that a certain car company is no good based on a single or a handful of personel experience is like saying, the entire medical industry is no good because there were X amount of botched surgeries last year, or, the entire education system is no good because X amount of people failed out of school last year. Unfortunately, the world that we live in tends to paint a broad brush about everything.
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Excellent post!
I try not to critique companies on the whole. Instead, I try to critique the design because the design is consistent across every car that leaves the factory.
Some companies design better cars. Some companies design poorer cars.
As an example, let's look at doing oil changes, and specifically placement of the oil filter. This small fact has the largest affect on maintenance because oil changes are the most routinely performed maintenance item.
Some vehicles place the filter in easily accessible locations, making it very easy to remove and install new oil filters. Other vehicles place the filter in difficult to reach places.
As a result, oil changes on these difficult vehicles tend to be slightly higher than easy cars. As standard practice, most garages will maintain a consistent oil change price. As a result of this, owners with easier vehicles subsidize owners with difficult vehicles.
I think it's valid to critique the individual design of the vehicle because the design is universal to every car built with the same configuration. Realize that when professionals make a blanket statement, this is what they really mean. Most laypeople misunderstand, and think they're talking about the whole company.
Saying that one type of car is bad based on anecdotal evidence is therefore discouraged.