Quote:
Originally Posted by pkolanko
I think the BRZ is so reliable due to the fact it is so basic. Not much to go wrong in a car meant for just driving.
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I beg to differ.
That car right there is very simple. I don't think there's a single part on it that wouldn't fail.
Although design and engineering deficiencies are a factor, reliability usually comes down to build quality, materials quality and tolerances in the manufacturing processes. A complicated machine built in a modern Japanese factory (or practically any first world factory) is almost always going to be more reliable than a very simple machine built in a British Leyland factory or even a modern machine built in a Tata factory. That's because the quality improvement processes have been distilled down to extremely low failure rates through Kaizen and Six Sigma and their derivative approaches, and for years they've been figuring out how to weed out the errors.
I have a feeling the reliability of our cars relies in large part on the fact that it has the eyes of two different corporate management teams on it. Subaru doesn't want to lose face dealing with Toyota, and Toyota doesn't want to lose face with Subaru. If either one dropped the ball, it would result in great dishonor. Lots of bowing and apologizing. Probably a suicide.