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I've always collected car magazines and have a sea can full of them. I like refreshing my knowledge on old cars and reading what the motoring journalists thought of the cars when they were new. Sometimes they were remarkably prescient, and other times not so much. By sampling different decades of car reviews you really get an appreciation for the changes the industry has undergone.
One thing that has changed dramatically is automobile quality. Despite orders of magnitude more complexity, it is hard to find a modern car that is really bad. A 'leave you by the side of the road' breakdown is a rare event today. Cars back in the 50's and 60's were a lot easier to diagnose, and easier to 'fix right the first time', but they broke a lot more often.
What is apparent from reading car reviews from different decades is that the path to better quality hasn't been linear for most manufacturers - there have been good periods and bad periods.
British cars don't enjoy a great reputation for quality, but this hasn't always been the case. Here is a quote from Denise McCluggage in Town And Country Magazine on the 1961 Rover 3 Litre sedan,
"It is simply a well-engineered, beautifully constructed automobile that appeals to people who want a well-engineered, beautifully constructed automobile"
Road & Track, in their June 1962 road test, had this to say;
"A potential buyer who compares performance with price might be disappointed in the Rover but a buyer who equates quality with price will be pleased. We found no compromise with quality on our test car - everything fit, everything worked ... and was beautifully finished"
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Sitting in Lugnutz right now I have a 1961 Land Rover which has been sold and is nearing completion, and a 1961 Jaguar MkII 3.8 Sedan which will be auctioned on BAT shortly. Both cars, though vastly different in construction and purpose, are beautifully made.
The Rover 'T6' 2000 replaced the 'P5 Rover 3 Litre in 1963. It got very positive reviews, and won the very first 'European Car of The Year' in 1963. It was updated under BL to the 2000TC (Twin Carb) in 1966.
In 1968 British Leyland was created, merging Austin Morris, Rover, Triumph, Jaguar, Alvis, Wolseley, MG and Riley.
Maurice and Spencer Wilks - responsible for the Land Rover and early post-war Rover sedans - relinquished authority, as did Sir William Lyons who ran Jaguar since the early 1920's. Centralized planning and committees took over.
My December 1970 Road & Track has an Owner's Survey report on the Rover 2000TC. 100 TC's were sampled from 1967, 1968 and 1969. 43% of the owners reported problems with the speedometer, 32% had starter problems, 28% reported shifting problems and/or clutch problems, 25% had problems with the cooling system, 22% reported short spark plug life, 15% had trouble with their brakes, 15% had U-joint problems, 12% had tachometer problems and 11% had trouble with the transmission. Ouch!
There was one 2000TC in the survey - out of 100 - that didn't have any trouble, but it had only gone 8,000 miles.
There were 24 problem areas experienced by more than 5% of the owners - a record for Road & Track. By comparison the next worst were the Fiat 124 (15), Jaguar E-Type (14) and the Corvette (13). The best was the Mercedes 230/250/280SL with 3 problem areas.
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Arguably, Mercedes-Benz cars of the 1970's and 1980's were the best built. Their advertising slogan, "Engineered Like No Other Car In The World" was pretty accurate. They were also priced like no other car. The philosophy of the company changed in the 90's from building the best cars to making the most cars. Quality suffered, and by the late 1990's the highest quality cars were made by Lexus, not Mercedes-Benz.
This was the era of the 'Merger of Equals', between Daimler-Benz and Chrysler. Former Chrysler executives started out with 8 of 20 places on the Board of Directors of Daimler Chrysler, but this was reduced in short order to 1 of 10. In figuring out what to do with Chrysler, the management of Mercedes-Benz lost touch with their well-deserved 100-year reputation for quality.
I sold Mercedes-Benz in the early 2000's and while they were well designed, I would always cross my fingers delivering one for fear of something not working. More often than not, the car would be coming back for something. The SUV's were built in the US, and down to a price that was necessary for volume sales. Long time Mercedes owners weren't happy with the rattles and brake squeal that these cars exhibited when new, and that we couldn't fix.
It wasn't always the car's fault. Inexplicably, we were combining 'flexible' service intervals of up to 25,000km with cheap non-synthetic oil. Mercedes engines that were known to be good for 300,000-400,000km before a rebuild were now worn at 150,000km with a yellow sludge covering all the internals.
These were some of the first cars with screens and sometimes the customers couldn't figure out how to work them. I remember delivering an S Class to a long time MB owner. He was a self-made, no-nonsense kind of guy. He said the best advice he could give me was to keep my wife happy. Anyway, I was demonstrating how to set the time on the clock: First you go into the NAV menu. Then you go into the SYS settings. Then you select the Time Zone... He cut me off rather curtly and said, "What the F**k was wrong with a knob!".
I think I can make a solid case that the more automot CEOs focus on mergers, acquisitions and restructuring, the more vehicle quality suffers. The manufacturers that have managed to stay reasonably independent - Honda, Porsche and Toyota come to mind - have historically had the highest quality. It's no coincidence that these companies have some of the highest profits, and the vehicles have some of the highest residual values.
The car business is about the product. When the CEO gets on stage and starts talking about corporate structure rather than vehicles, it is time to sell the stock!
|  | This week on Bring-A-Trailer | |
2001 Acura Integra Type R in Calgary
Auction ending Friday, July 1, 2022
George Curnew and I raced these in the late 1990's. We got down to 1:30sec at Race city which was sensational at the time. Mine was $32,000 from the dealer, and I was thrilled at the $18k insurance settlement when it was inevitably stolen. This one must have been bricked up in a basement somewhere. Currently at $USD 88,000 and I'm sure the bidding is not done yet. This might be the only one left that hasn't been stolen, crashed or modded.
| Auction Results From Last Week.... | |
1956 Airstream Flying Coud in Oregon
Sold for $59,500 on June 24, 2022
Well I think this was a steal. As somebody who has refurbished an aluminum travel trailer, I know how much work is involved. It's like restoring a car and a house in one project! Even if you had free donor, you could never duplicate this for the money, and it would take you forever.
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1989 Lamborghini Countach 25th Anniversary
Sold for $605,000 on June 15, 2022
The early 'Periscope' LP400 Countachs got seriously expensive about 7 or 8 years ago with these early cars flirting around the $1M mark, when the later, more voluminous QV and 25th Anniversary cars were $350k. In 2022 the 5000QV and 25th Anniversary cars exploded - doubling in value with sales results in the $600k's and $700k's. Does this mean that the early cars are now underpriced, or the first half of 2022 just demonstrated some 'irrational exuberance'? My money (if I had it) would be on $2M Periscope cars in the near future.
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2020 MERCEDES-BENZ
GLS 450
Polar White (149) on Espresso Brown. $121K MSRP, In Service Sept 2020, Pre-Paid maintenance until 2024. Premium, Technology, Intelligent driving, Comfort Packages. 2nd row Captain's Chairs. 22,500km. Summer and winter tires.
$100,000
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2007 Aston Martin V8 Vantage Roadster Sportshift
Bought at Desert European in Scottsdale, AZ and imported to Canada when new (this was before there was an Aston dealer in Calgary). 93,000km Aston Dealer 4-year service ($2,800) just completed. One owner. Can't be reasonably faulted for year and mileage.
Price Reduction to $55,000
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2003 Mercedes-Benz SL55 AMG (R230)
Brilliant Silver (744) on Charcoal, 59,000 miles, Retractable hardtop, 5.4L Supercharged V8 with 493hp, 516 lb/ft Torque, no warning lights, clean bodywork.
Service 'B' Service at Lone Star.
Price Reduction to $27,500
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1961 Jaguar Mk II 3.8L 4 Speed
Ultimate Mk II specification. One family owned. Bought in Switzerland and imported to Canada in 1977. Sympathetically refurbished over the years. Always driven annually and kept in excellent working order.
Scheduled on Bring-A-Trailer for Auction
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