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Internationalisation of production technology , especially "lean production," has reduced quality differences to insignificance. In 1981, according to JD Power, defects per 100 vehicles ranged from about 160 to over 700, with American cars at the top and Japanese cars at the bottom. By 1996, the number of defects/100 range between about 90 and 110 for all makes. I recall Wolfgang Reitzle being recently quoted as saying that all cars are made pretty much the same now; differences are mostly in style and clever advertising, a task at which BMW excells. Reitzle is the guy who put a chrome cat on a Ford Mondeo/Contour and called it an "X type" Jaguar.
My cars are 97 A6 Avant for bad weather and long distances. Drive the Carrera to work whenever weather is good. Half-ton Toyota pick up for hauling stuff.
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John C
1988 911 Carrera coupe
2002 BMW 530
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