And driven by plastic Instagram-wives.
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Whenever we have an issue and BMW start shouting at me for possibly stopping the production line my response is and will always be. "We have an internal issue that I am doing my best to resolve, unfortunately MINI cannot cure cancer or bring back the dead. Until they stop being a mode of transportation for women to drive to the hairdressers and when they can do these things I mentioned I’ll start delivering on time and acting slightly more concerned. Unfortunately you pay us the lowest possible price to deliver your parts and cause us to scrape the bottom of the barrel with the caliber of drivers we employ and unfortunately they make more mistakes and care less than well paid and contented drivers.
That normally stops the arguments and get rude emails sent to me from my boss in Germany
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Oh man the automotive supply industry is a piece of work. When I started out at Magna Battery Systems, we had a project manager who at some point cried on a regular basis after having her daily call with her counterpart at the customer for that project. They bled us dry completely, underfunded us, requested ridiculous timelines that, despite our warnings, caused grave issues with the test vehicles, then blamed all the issues on us. Then after they had our know-how they did the next contract in-house. That caused all the leased workers including myself to be laid off.
Luckily I found a new job in literally 2 weeks. After a year or so when they were bought out by Samsung and ramped up development, my former boss called me and basically begged me to come back. Suffice to say I respectfully declined.
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Same here. Cut the job to the bone. Leave no margin for error or act of god and then kick off like hell when it goes wrong.
They just upped our on time delivery target from 98.5 percent to 99. We have 400 deliveries per day. All collected from all over Europe. Its horrendous. Very demanding and thankless
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Corporate BS. You’re supposed to not take it personally but they don’t pay enough for that. 
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VW Golf. I don’t do cars so don’t have a photo lol
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Despite all of the production and logistical issues mentioned above, my 2006 Cooper S is a lot of fun to drive. So much so that my wife and I decided to keep it when the Tesla arrived. When I eventually have to replace it I will almost certainly go with another electric vehicle, so the little Mini with it’s manual transmission and supercharged engine is kind of like the end of an era for me. I’ll be holding on to it for a few more years though.
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Fun? What’s that? There’s no such thing as fun while driving here unless it’s on my PC.
Driving is a thing to be survived, never enjoyed. All the roads I drive are straight, flat, overcrowded, poorly maintained, and have traffic lights timed by a brain-damaged toad with missing limbs.
I have a 2018 Honda Pilot, which replaced the 2016 that got totaled in the rain by the large truck’s wake-induced hydroplaning. It didn’t survive the guardrail impact, but I did, so I got another one. Seemed reason enough for me. Went up to the Touring edition for the 2nd one, has the BD player for the hour-long drives to Orlando we take the kids on every other month or so. Season passes to Universal Studios, might do Disney this year.
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The ecologically most sound thing you can do with a car (apart from not buying one), using it for as long as possible.
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^ This is what I tell my colleagues and friends, who got themselves a Tesla and ask me when I’m going to get rid of my 6yo diesel Skoda Yeti…
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This. I always drive my cars until they die or are totalled (the latter is happening more often with disconcerting regularity).
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Same. We typically keep a vehicle for 10 to 12 years.
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I like Hondas. Good looking Accord Kinger. In fact that is not your grandfather’s Accord.
Thanks! Unfortunately I was a dumb ass on New Year’s Day and suffered the below while attempting to get the car out of the garage without hitting my son’s friend’s car which was right behind it. I was rather pissed at myself obviously. This is why we can’t have nice things!
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1999 Subaru Impreza Outback Sport. They call it Sport because the suspension sits a half inch higher than the standard! What a deal!
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I just got hit on my way back home.
I was queued in a neat line of cars at a red light when out of my right side an imbecile backed up his own car into mine.
He was looking back only via rearview mirrors and not by turning his head.
Luck has it that he was so slow that it sort of kissed my car and only twisted a little bit the bodywork, plus ruined the paint.
Being a small Toyota Yaris is not too bad… But it still burns.
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Did I mention that my Volvo has 360 cameras…when switched on it blends all 4 cameras (front, back, each side) into an overhead view of the vehicle showing everything around it…too bad the guy that hit you didn’t have this feature, although he sounds like the type who wouldn’t have used it.
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You can bet!
While he totally accepted the fault, when I made him notice that you should turn around when backing up, he had the guts to say “I WAS looking back… Through the mirrors, you just were in a blind spot”
I kid you not I was so close to punch him.
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Hitting that sweet Lean Six Sigma target so that the Black Belts™ can bullshit their way into the next bonus!
There’s value in optimizing production processes but it has become a weird buzzword filled cult.
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- Just in time manufacturing
- DMAIC
- Value-enabled activities
- PDCA
- DPMO
- Sampling bias
(One of my mentors is one of those Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belts, and makes a VERY comfortable living independently consulting on it now).
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