Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 06:05:53 GMT From: "James Sweet" <jamessweetnospamail.com> Subject: Re: Possibility of Saab closure
"ma_twain" <ma_twainnospamo.com> wrote in message news:41E60050.8020906nospamo.com... > James Sweet wrote: > > > "Dave Hinz" <DaveHinznospamcop.net> wrote in message > > news:34l9unF4dd7ekU1nospamvidual.net... > > > >>On 12 Jan 2005 18:44:11 GMT, Gary Fritz <fritzxxxnospamrii.com> wrote: > >> > >>>Dave Hinz <DaveHinznospamcop.net> wrote: > >>> > >>>>Maybe you should have taken the advice to have a spare in your > >>>>car. It's a 5-minute job. In the dark. The first time you do it. > >>>> > >>>OK, from posts on the web I see that my '02 9-5 Aero is subject to this > >>>problem, but... once of these things costs $300-400, yes? What's the > >>>chance of one of them going bad? That's a mighty expensive spare to > >>>carry around. > >>> > >>100 percent liklihood during the life of the car, from what I > >>understand. Mine is overdue, I think, at 95K miles, but since I'm > >>doing some engine work right now, I'll end up using my original one > >>as my spare. > >> > >> > >> > >> > > > > What's the usual failure mode? One would think (hope?) that whoever > > manufactures the part would recognize the defect and redesign the part. It's > > simply unacceptable for a $400 part critical to the engine running to > > regularly fail under 100k miles. > > > > Perhaps some manager told the engineer to design the component to fail > around 100,000 miles. That way, the company could either make money > selling the part and service or convince the customer to buy a new car. > I know its a long stretch to think that a company like GM for example > would even think of designing a car or component to fail at a certain > point just to get the customer to buy the newer model or pay for an > expensive repair . . . > > However, think about the various "wear" components on a car. Brakes, > rotors, clutches, belts, hoses, springs, spark plugs etc. These need > routine replacement and not many people complain. Even the tailgate > hinges on my 245 needed to replaced after only 20 years - I should > complain :-) > > But all those parts wear out gradually, you just don't hear of people getting stranded because their spark plugs failed or their brake rotors wore out. Hoses and belts both generally give plenty of warning that they're about to go and both can be patched up with generic off the shelf parts. The part in question here is something required for the car to move under it's own power, and that tends to fail abruptly and without warning. In many situations it's failure could be a serious safety issue.
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