Re: CARB

[farna@xxxxxxx]

You're right Bruce. At one time US companies were innovative. They got caught with their pants down in the 70s, and it took 10-15 years to catch up. Now I think a lot of the cars are (or at least were from 5-8 years ago) on a par with many of the foreign makes. It seems that US companies are now starting to slip. I think that started a couple years ago when they started emphasising trucks and truck based SUVs. THEY say it's because "that's what the public wanted". It's not that simple. The auto manufacturers and dealers make more money off trucks. Things traditionally don't change as often as cars, and there is less R&D, and relaxed emission controls and safety regulation. You don't have to push something in advertising if it's selling itself, but I've seen LOTS of truck and SUV commercials. Yeah, the general public tends to like bigger vehicles (as long as gas is reasonable), but the lemmings... er... Mr. & Mrs. Average Jones tend buy what is hyped the most and what the nei!
 ghbors have. Auto companies CAN and DO influence choices. 

I'll let you in on another secret -- the auto companies claim a lot of things are "better" when they aren't! They are, however, cheaper for them to build. A prime example is the McPherson strut. The only good thing about it is it's cheap and easy to assemble compared to a traditional double wishbone suspension. Double wishbone is the best -- it's very adjustable and tuneable to meet almost any kind of ride and handling. I'm not saying every double wishbone suspension can be tuned to meet any/all needs, the engineering (mainly lengths of arms and mounting points) dictate the limitations/compromises for each design. I mean the design in general. Even the strut rod suspension has limitations even though it's very popular, even amongst hot rodders. Struts have a fixed camber angle that doesn't change when the suspension moves, and very limited (if any) camber adjustment. It's okay for the average street car/driver though, and that's all that counts. All luxury vehicles that use !
 a strut also has double wishbones -- at least the really nice ones (Lexus, Infiniti, BMW, etc.). They use a strut only as a spring/shock replacement, not a replacement for the upper wishbone. The fight to change from drum to disc brakes was basically the same, onlt in that case the discs were clearly superior, they just cost more and required tooling up for some major components. Tooling for drums was paid for long ago. 

Why didn't AMC change from the trunnion to the ball joint earlier than they did? They put a lot of R&D in the trunnion in the late 40s. It was better than anything else made. The ball joint came out in 1953, just three years after AMC adopted the trunnion. Since there was no cost savings in switching (it would have cost them MORE to redesign the parts) and no performance penalty, they continued until there was a reason to redesign most of the front end. There was a perceived problem with the lower trunnion, so the switch to a lower ball joint was necessary to alleciate public concern. The lower trunnions that came apart on someone occasionally were sorely abused -- they weren't regularly lubricated! You can only grind on two metal parts wiht no lube for so long before they come apart, even a ball joint! But if one comes apart on someone who doesn't know enough about cars to realize the thing needs grease every couple years, ALL trunnion equipped cars are junk! Doesn't matter!
  if the problem is really their fault, not the part. 


> From: "Bruce Hevner" <scramblr@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: "AMC AMC" <mail@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: CARB
> Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2005 16:35:06 -0400

<EDITED>

> Then there's disc brakes. American mfgs fought that too. Until the Jap cars
> started showing up with them, even on the cheap models.
> 
> It's a shame but (IMHO) Detroit has been playing "catch up" for a long time
> now. Competition will initiate changes faster than Gov regulations any day.
> So let the Feds give em guidance but let the market dictate changes.
> 
> But hey,,, that's just ME!
> 
> Bruce Hevner


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