What makes a car a quality car?

What does "quality" mean to you?

 

a car that has specific meaning or purpose.

it can be practical or it can be luxurious, it can be just for fun. but a car has to have meaning and a defined direction.

 

Thanks kenchan!

I thought there would be tons of responses. I started a new thread because of this thread:
https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/othe...ing-msnbc.html

The word "quality" is mentioned by several people. But the word can have such vastly different personal definitions, one of those ephemeral words that can instantly change content and context, depending on what it's applied to or compared with.

The word itself has multiple applications:

Main Entry: 1qual·i·ty
Pronunciation: \ˈkwä-lə-tē\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural qual·i·ties
Etymology: Middle English qualite, from Anglo-French qualité, from Latin qualitat-, qualitas, from qualis of what kind; akin to Latin qui who — more at who
Date: 14th century
1 a : peculiar and essential character : nature <her ethereal quality — Gay Talese> b : an inherent feature : property <had a quality of stridence, dissonance — Roald Dahl> c : capacity, role <in the quality of reader and companion — Joseph Conrad>
2 a : degree of excellence : grade <the quality of competing air service — Current Biography> b : superiority in kind <merchandise of quality>
3 a : social status : rank b : aristocracy
4 a : a distinguishing attribute : characteristic <possesses many fine qualities> b archaic : an acquired skill : accomplishment
5 : the character in a logical proposition of being affirmative or negative
6 : vividness of hue
7 a : timbre b : the identifying character of a vowel sound determined chiefly by the resonance of the vocal chambers in uttering it
8 : the attribute of an elementary sensation that makes it fundamentally unlike any other sensation
synonyms quality, property, character, attribute mean an intelligible feature by which a thing may be identified. quality is a general term applicable to any trait or characteristic whether individual or generic <material with a silky quality>. property implies a characteristic that belongs to a thing's essential nature and may be used to describe a type or species <the property of not conducting heat>. character applies to a peculiar and distinctive quality of a thing or a class <remarks of an unseemly character>. attribute implies a quality ascribed to a thing or a being <the traditional attributes of a military hero>.

 

I think quality is as subjective as peoples tastes in cars, it means different things to different people. I bought a used 2004 VW Jetta Wagon in 2006, a car that is of some "quality" no matter who you ask. The car oozed class from every pore, from its Germanic design to its leather interior. After ten months of ownership during which the car broke things that I have NEVER seen fail, my idea of what is "quality" had changed. No matter how well crafted, designed, engineered, and executed, a car that doesn't start, and run, when I turn the key is useless to me. Besides,, if I want finicky and troublesome, I have my old Caddy to play with.....

 

Read (or re-read) Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Seriously. I've lost track of the number of times I have read ZMM since it came out in 1974, and I now have an electronic edition that makes it easier to search for specific passages. Guidebook to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by R. DiSanto and T. J. Steele (1990) can help hack through some of Pirsig's denser sections.

See also: Pirsig's metaphysics of Quality

 

In terms of cars I think there are two aspects:

Design quality.

Build quality.

kenchan was referring to the first. I probably think of the 2nd most often when people talk about quality cars. Both are important.

Then there's the thing they call Total Quality Management, an American invention the Japanese embraced.

In Japan, TQM comprises four process steps, namely (from wiki):

1. Kaizen – Focuses on "Continuous Process Improvement", to make processes visible, repeatable and measurable.
2. Atarimae Hinshitsu – The idea that "things will work as they are supposed to" (for example, a pen will write).
3. Kansei – Examining the way the user applies the product leads to improvement in the product itself.
4. Miryokuteki Hinshitsu – The idea that "things should have an aesthetic quality" (for example, a pen will write in a way that is pleasing to the writer)