Hitting home with quality

Automotive Industries, August, 2003

Your editorial in the June issue of Al (page 4) really hit home. I remember going into a Chrysler/Plymouth dealer at the start of a model year and seeing on display in the showroom, the nameplate letters P-L-Y-M-O-H-T-U. That was just the last indicator and I left. (Then) I made the mistake of buying a new 1971 Chevrolet C-20 pickup. This vehicle appeared as if it were assembled by Pygmies with their feet. No two adjacent panels fit properly and needless to say, everything rattled. My contact with the Chevy regional manager at the dealer facility was interesting but not all of the three pages of my gripes were satisfactorily corrected. I tolerated this lemon for a year and traded it in on a VW CampMobile, which I kept for 13 years. That Chevy was the last domestic product that I've owned, but not out of desire. I have always wanted to buy "made-in-the-USA," but I won't tolerate inferior workmanship and trouble-prone products, I don't have the time.

My automotive work finally led to what has come to be known as Garner's Iron Law which says "a product which is designed to be properly assembled by unskilled labor and goes on to fulfill its functions in a trouble-free and reliable manner, without mechanical or electrical anomalies for its design lifetime, is well engineered."

Nowadays, one can purchase a product with an American "nameplate," but the probability is high that it has considerable import content. In a like manner, a product with an overseas nameplate might very well be "made-in-the-USA." As in the supermarket, read the label.

Louis H. Garner

EIGar Consulting

Las Vegas

I don't believe that rust has been put to sleep. From my casual observations in Western New York, I have seen many relatively late model GM vehicles, notably Pontiacs with rusted out rocker panels.

As we both know, during the '50s, '60s and most of the '70s it was common to see rusted out rocker panels on most makes and models. With the galvanizing of these panels, the end to rusted out rocker panels came about--although for a few years the paint would flake off the galvanized parts.

I believe that GM may have stopped galvanizing lower body parts in a cost cutting move. I certainly hope that I'm wrong but there's just too many GM cars running around the Buffalo and Rochester, NY., areas with rusted out rockers.

Richard W. Knapp

Florida