In the name of cost cutting
05-09-16, 04:18 PM
#16
Lexus Test Driver
05-09-16, 05:05 PM
#17
Sorry, but this is ignorance rather than cost cutting. You could press a button and the speedometer needle would switch from mph to the right kph equivalent. My friend had a hand-me-down first-gen SRX and I'd play that trick on her all the time. The Malibu of that same time frame had the same feature.
Speaking of window switches, the Tesla Model S' are straight out of the Mercedes parts bin, as is their column-mounted shifter. Have to cut costs somewhere with that expensive battery technology.
That new little Infiniti compact hatchback (Q30?) also uses the exact same window controls from the Mercedes parts bin.
05-09-16, 08:11 PM
#18
Lexus Champion
So what happened in this picture -- the RHS exhaust pipe fall off?
05-09-16, 08:18 PM
#19
I approached from behind and to the right, a Malibu of that same generation this afternoon, and noticed that it had only a single exhaust, on the left-hand side and NO cutout for an exhaust tip on the right-hand side.
So what happened in this picture -- the RHS exhaust pipe fall off?
So what happened in this picture -- the RHS exhaust pipe fall off?
05-09-16, 09:04 PM
#20
Lexus Test Driver
Lol darn. What a pointless feature though, it solves a problem which never existed.
Speaking of window switches, the Tesla Model S' are straight out of the Mercedes parts bin, as is their column-mounted shifter. Have to cut costs somewhere with that expensive battery technology.
That new little Infiniti compact hatchback (Q30?) also uses the exact same window controls from the Mercedes parts bin.
Speaking of window switches, the Tesla Model S' are straight out of the Mercedes parts bin, as is their column-mounted shifter. Have to cut costs somewhere with that expensive battery technology.
That new little Infiniti compact hatchback (Q30?) also uses the exact same window controls from the Mercedes parts bin.
05-09-16, 10:19 PM
#21
Lexus Test Driver
The current Camry and Accord have built subtle rear difusers that would accept a dual exhaust if optioned. Without the dual exhaust, one can barely tell there is still a slight notch there on the bottom of the bumper. I find this to be a fair and tolerable compromise that most people would never notice.
What's more of an annoyance is some of these cars, like the Camry, include a pretty chrome exhaust tip, but it's shoved so far in that you cannot see it unless you are well behind the vehicle. Not only does it get lost that far in, but no one ever bothers to clean it because it's so buried. Waste.
05-10-16, 05:29 AM
#22
Yep! Seems like forever ago. It was actually the first year (2006). I was thinking it was 2008, but that's when I dumped it. It ran on premium and got 14mpg. Premium was around $4.40/gal and I was spending over $500/mo just commuting back and forth to work!
05-10-16, 11:47 AM
#23
Lexus Fanatic
In my first post, forgot to mention one other annoying cost-cutting feature that was used on the former Saturn Ion, some current and older Scions, older versions of Toyota Echo/Yaris, the Ford-powered Panoz roadster, and some older Nissan Quest minivans...the center-stack dashboard. The Saturn people (see the image below) tried to convince us, at auto shows, that it was done for safety and legibility reasons (to keep the rim of the steering wheel from blocking driver-sight of the gauges).
That's B.S. Anyone with an ounce of sense can see that it is purely a cost-cutting measure....designed to cut down on the number of parts needed for different dash-panels in left-hand vs. right-hand-drive markets, and to make the dash/gauge installations simpler. Once the public got wise to it, and started complaing, most manufacturers, on most vehicles, have returned to conventional gauge-placement behind the wheel, though, in some cases, like with Honda Civics, with two-tier layers.
That's B.S. Anyone with an ounce of sense can see that it is purely a cost-cutting measure....designed to cut down on the number of parts needed for different dash-panels in left-hand vs. right-hand-drive markets, and to make the dash/gauge installations simpler. Once the public got wise to it, and started complaing, most manufacturers, on most vehicles, have returned to conventional gauge-placement behind the wheel, though, in some cases, like with Honda Civics, with two-tier layers.
05-10-16, 12:00 PM
#24
Lexus Fanatic
The Saturn people (see the image below) tried to convince us, at auto shows, that it was done for safety and legibility reasons (to keep the rim of the steering wheel from blocking driver-sight of the gauges).
That's B.S. Anyone with an ounce of sense can see that it is purely a cost-cutting measure....designed to cut down on the number of parts needed for different dash-panels in left-hand vs. right-hand-drive markets
That's B.S. Anyone with an ounce of sense can see that it is purely a cost-cutting measure....designed to cut down on the number of parts needed for different dash-panels in left-hand vs. right-hand-drive markets
05-10-16, 12:11 PM
#25
Lexus Fanatic
05-10-16, 12:30 PM
#26
Lexus Fanatic
But you still need to develop two dash pads, one with the hole for the steering column and other driver controls on one side and glove box on one side, and then reversed for the steering on the other side. This is an example of carmakers trying to be a little bit different not really cost cutting.
05-10-16, 01:33 PM
#27
Lexus Champion
Thread Starter
That's exactly what happened. So this pic and thread is a bit unfair to GM.
The current Camry and Accord have built subtle rear difusers that would accept a dual exhaust if optioned. Without the dual exhaust, one can barely tell there is still a slight notch there on the bottom of the bumper. I find this to be a fair and tolerable compromise that most people would never notice.
What's more of an annoyance is some of these cars, like the Camry, include a pretty chrome exhaust tip, but it's shoved so far in that you cannot see it unless you are well behind the vehicle. Not only does it get lost that far in, but no one ever bothers to clean it because it's so buried. Waste.
The current Camry and Accord have built subtle rear difusers that would accept a dual exhaust if optioned. Without the dual exhaust, one can barely tell there is still a slight notch there on the bottom of the bumper. I find this to be a fair and tolerable compromise that most people would never notice.
What's more of an annoyance is some of these cars, like the Camry, include a pretty chrome exhaust tip, but it's shoved so far in that you cannot see it unless you are well behind the vehicle. Not only does it get lost that far in, but no one ever bothers to clean it because it's so buried. Waste.
05-10-16, 01:43 PM
#28
That could very well be. They do work on just in time delivery. That or the parts not being sequenced properly before shipped. Then the guy on the line didn't notice or didn't care.
05-10-16, 02:01 PM
#29
Lexus Test Driver
Bumpers and trim generally do not change on cars in the middle of production. Only redesigns and facelifts yield different pieces.
The story with Saturn's central gauge pod came from the company wanting to be different. It was listed as that in press releases, along with the plastic door panels and unique buying experience.
The story with Saturn's central gauge pod came from the company wanting to be different. It was listed as that in press releases, along with the plastic door panels and unique buying experience.
05-10-16, 02:01 PM
#30
Pole Position
Speaking of GM, cost cutting, and exhaust setups, they drove me nuts with the 3rd gen and 4th gen fbody(Camaro/Trans Am) exhaust setup. I had a couple of these cars, they came from the factory with a single exhaust setup(one muffler with two exits to make it look like a dual exhaust). GM designed the floor pan, rear suspension, heck the whole car to make it extremely difficult to install an aftermarket dual exhaust with an x or h pipe, which makes the car sound so much better(that's the setup Mustangs use). Granted you can get good flow numbers with a single exhaust setup on these cars, but they just do not sound as good as a dual exhaust, especially if you do long tube headers and get rid of the cat converters.
Aron9000-I had a '79 Malibu coupe with that same exhaust-got real duals the first week I had it.
But worse yet, Lexus did this with my 4RX. Single all the way through the cats, two mufflers but the second one has the dual outs into those nice diffusers. On top of this, if you look at that pipe as it goes underneath the rear suspension, it is restricted even more by a flat spot bend they made I guess for clearance. They didn't need to do that! What did it save-an inch? I assume that this system is well thought out for that 292HP v6 that needs to breath out. My opinion is they could've had dual cats and true duals all the way into the final muffler that would have dual outs with resonators for what we paid for this vehicle. I think they cut a corner with this exhaust system and I think that pipe hanging under the rearend looks like crap from behind and screams FAKE DUALS!!!