Glen,

As an engineer, you also know that some things are done for research purposes. The battery tech did not change rapidly enough.

Using your criteria of 'designing things that cost more to service and or fix', the Prius would not be for sale. It is a loss leader. That is, it costs more to produce than what they can sell it for. Replacing a single part on the Prius under warranty puts it even farther into the red.

It is an advertising machine, however - fooling people into thinking that Toyota is all about fuel economy.

We did have an engineer in charge at GM - Bob Stempel. Engineers like to play too much. Beancounters are needed to keep the sandbox the right size.

There is a balance. I don't know exactly what it is.

I do know one thing - I don't know of a single engineer that could have predicted the future in 2007; when GM was making a profit with cars that people liked, priced right, etc. Fortune telling was the skill required. Most engineers don't have that in their back pocket.

The 'blowing it' came in the Roger Smith era. Not Wagoner. Wagoner and his management team are responsible for the investment in the Volt technology - which will be a game changer available to all.

I'm sure it looks easy to diagnose the ailments from the outside. I'm living in Colorado Springs now, and it's easy to see that people just think of cars like they do their big-screen TVs. They really don't care where they are made or who makes them. Without seeing the devastation to a local economy, it's so easy to live in the happy world without that consideration. I know I do it for nearly everything I buy - so I'm casting the stone directly up in the air to come crashing down right on my own head.

So much misinformation is out there substituting as facts; GM vehicles don't last, the Volt is a hybrid, etc. etc. So much armchair quarterbacking. I've just gotta quit. PM me if I reply again to this thread for an electronic dope-slap to my head.

Last edited by rockstar_not; 06/04/09 10:17 PM.
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