Ok, I understand a lot is owner maintenance, but, like, they are making the same basic thing and molding parts, unless the molds are wildly off or drills to put in screws don’t work (less of the occasional bad unit that will just happen), how does reliability vary so much between brands when they should all be building the same thing. Did the Americans just not care if stuff was tightened down or out of spec?
In: Engineering
You know how some stuff at the dollar store just falls apart but the same type of item from walmart lasts a little longer and costs a little but the one from your favorite store lasts a long longer but costs way more? Well sometimes car makers use parts that are dollar store quality so they can save money because they think it will last as long as the walmart part. Sometimes the part does, sometimes it doesn’t. When you guess right, you make more money. When you guess wrong, you don’t. Some companies like to keep guessing, some companies try to only use walmart parts.
A lot of it is also perception. There is an big difference between how reliable a brand is versus how reliable people think it is.
I’d counter that has changed over the last 5-10 years.
Toyota just recalled over 100k Tundras and are doing a complete engine replacement on them. There’s also issues with the new Tacoma.
Honda also has had a number of recalls recently – heck, my father in law’s Pilot had it’s engine seize at 100k last year due to a bearing failure that was recalled later in the year after he dumped it.
You’re talking about a complicated machine under a lot of stress when it’s in use. Over time, this stress causes wear, and wear causes things to eventually break.
Engineers know this, and they try to design cars so that stress is minimized across the vehicle. This makes things break down more slowly. “Reliable” cars are ones where all of the little bits and pieces have been designed in ways that there’s less stress and wear.
Why aren’t all cars reliable then? Because things cost money. You could probably make a car practically indestructible—but very few people can buy that $10 million dollar car. As a result, corners have to be cut, cheaper parts and designs have to be used, and companies need to find a balance between reliability and cost. Some companies are better at finding that balance than others.
There’s *a lot* more to it than that, obviously, but this is the ELI5 version.
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