Engine life span Qn

[Acemundo]

haha.......true also....

 

but i think its a catch 22 situation.

 

once pple start to spread word that conti less reliable, less pple buy conti cars.....less pple buy conti cars, less small scale workshop can buy diagnostic kits for conti cars.

 

i ever went to one of the middle tier workshop......he told me he got diagnostic kit for a lot of the brands of cars but contis he can't afford to buy a diagnostic kit cost too few units running around to justify him getting the diagnostic kit.

 

so that's how the situation evolved....then once they cannot fix, they will say better to get jap car lah, blah and blah....of course contis are generally more sophisticated. so it doesn't help in the cause either.

 

yeah its good to choose jap car if maintenance cost is a consideration cos ah beng mechs can also fix any jap cars.

[Ace_t]

if prices of conti cars were comparable with jap cars, you might see the trend move the other way round.

[Hoppe]

yeah...ah beng mechs usually use trial and error style to repairs.

Cant do that to conti-cars, since it might do more damage than harm to the internal computers, etc.

 

Ah Beng best for carburetted cars! Tune this cannot, try style B, if cannot neber mind, try style C... hehe

[Hitman]

Oh how true

[Soya]

for conti car, u pay for many things u dun see. i.e pioneering R&D, crash testing, safety technology, higher emission stds, etc.

[Hitman]

I had the same problem when driving the Peugeot ... always got to go back agent until I found the JB agent

 

Outside workshops cannot handle the complications of the Puegeot computerised system. Too few running around for them to play trial and error with

[Magfocus]

But jap cars do that too....

[Ace_t]

that's true..

 

but does that mean that jap cars do not invest in such criteria in car design ? or they do it more cost effectively.

 

[reply]

 

for conti car, u pay for many things u dun see. i.e pioneering R&D, crash testing, safety technology, higher emission stds

[Hoppe]

gotta agree that conti cars come equipped with a lot of cool features that Jap cars don't offer.

 

But recently, the conti cars (and American cars) seem to be increasing on the roads. Could be seeing more COE conti cars in the next 10 years.

Then ppl will say, why conti cars last longer than jap cars..haha

 

"Fung Shui Lun Lau Chuin" (Feng Shui take turns to change in Cantonese).

[Acemundo]

actually at one stage very close already....at that stage when i was buying car..

 

renault megane 78k vs corolla also 78k vs astra 80K

 

but thereafter, euro appreciates and the distance is dragged apart again.

[Acemundo]

hehe.....yeah loh....

[Hoppe]

Wife's a Japanese, working in the Japanese firm, so I know the culture very well.

 

Japanese looks at things from a "more practical" manner. When they are designing, they will see what the consumer wants, then implement it. More passive in thinking.

I think, Europeans are a bit of the opposite. They implement what their R&D has in mind and later attempt to sell the idea to the consumers.

Edited August 2, 2004 by Hoppe

[Acemundo]

yep....guess its across the board loh

[Acemundo]

i think both approaches has some inherent fault in them....

 

the jap approach is faulty if the consumer is a novice..he don't know what he wants then car manufacturer don't provide....later when he knows he wants it already too late.

 

as for the conti approach, it means u might be paying for a lot of things u don't want

[Ace_t]

agree on that...

 

their product presentation is fantastic....

[Soya]

it's more cost effective as the japs let the europeans spend $$ on R&D and then adapt the tech (minus the bugs) on their cars later when prices drop. if u noticed, Abs, airbags, EFI, safety belt, anti- whiplash & submarine seats, safety cage, etc were R&D-ed in europe and introduced to conti cars long b4 jap cars had such features.

[Hitman]

And not to mention the lack of aftermarket products. If I wanted to change my Peugeot rims , I'd have to buy overseas , here no have at all

 

Can buy similar rims that fit the PCD but offset all wrong ... some absurd PCD size of 104 or 108 , cant quite remember And this is rims only .... the rest also forget it.

 

Never get a Conti if u wanna play with aftrmarket mods

[Ace_t]

like the analogy of a Kendo stick versus the rifle....

 

so do the europeans rule over better built cars at the end of the day ..considering that the West were the first to deisgn and build automotives in the early 1700s.