I was reading the WSJ this morning and some time back, Nissan faked up thousands of vehicle quality control inspections by allowing the inspection work to be done by completely unqualified people. Not sure how this translated into vehicle reliability, but the article's topic included Nissan in a number of Japanese manufacturers that have pushed quality to the rear in an effort to boost quantity.

My '06 Frontier has been a good truck and I have no regrets over its purchase, though I've fought too many squeaks and rattles over the years and these drive me crazy. I'd give Nissan a B- on build quality with it. It's a blast to drive though. The 4.0L matched to the 6-Speed manual is a sweet combination and it's fulfilled its homeowner and family hauling duties well.

 

To the best of my knowledge, it was Subaru that came out and apologized first for not using qualified inspectors.

That sent a ripple through Japanese automakers and it came out that pretty much none were following the rules.

 

I read that it was Nissan & Subaru. Not sure of the others involved.

 

takata, kobe, nissan, subaru. not all, but a lot of jlander manufacturers have gone down to shits to a point. it's really the current 55+ yr old wannabies that just faked up the entire jlander manufacturing industry my pop's generation created back in the 60's, 70's, and 80's.

but for subaru, you have to understand they are a very naive company.. even if they didnt use 'certified' techs to check quality i doubt it wouldve made a difference. GAFIT you a certified tech? probably not, but your car runs decent, yes?

im no certified anything and i work on cars, my cars are problem free except for my shitty GK's paint. honda used certified techs on my GK and yet the car is a pos. makes no sense. get my point? not like VW knowingly altering and manipulating test results. subaru is much more naive.

 

I think that is why Subaru was the first to apologize. It then caused a ripple through the Japanese car industry.

My understanding is that the final level of tech that we are discussing isn't even used outside of Japan. These are techs that are supposed to be government certified and weren't.

I don't hate on any of them, but I do see it as a slight failing of a system that was beyond excellent. Still likely better than anywhere outside of Japan.

 

i am sure there are a lot of people freaking out outside japan too for the things they’ve done or hadn’t done. let’s just hope they were freaking out changing their ways before being publicized. unlike some companies that don’t give a shit.

 

Ken I saw an R sliding in the snow this morning. Our MINI motored on by, Blizzak's FTW. ;-) My GTI is hiding in the garage for the next week. It's nice & clean so my wife's MINI gets the sloppy road jobs.

 

the R was probably running summer tires it comes in. good call on keeping ur GTI safe and clean. my GTI is a mess.

 

Yes I bet he was on summer rubber. He wasn't going anywhere fast. The little skinny snows on our MINI were the right tire for the conditions. If I had snow tires for the GTI I'd be driving it. Since I'm a retired old fart I can stay home when the roads are bad or take my wife's car.

 

Was just reading up on VW testing their tdi's on monkeys. Goodness gracious! Where did VW find it's top exec's? Did they count the swastika tattoos as a way to pick employees?

That company needs a major, major re-organization. Their products have merits, but the company could not be much worse at being a good corporate citizen of the world.

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/aut...s-test-n843656

 

indeed. running wide tires (especially summers) in the winter is pretty silly. even i run narrow-ish 225's on my GTI in the winter. the DWS06 is quite good in my area. i had no issue going up a ramp this am into our company parking structure even though there was probably 4-5inches of snow on the ground.

if i had more snow id get 205's and some real snow tires on the GTI, but it hasnt come to that yet.

 

im sorry to hear but im not giving up my GTI nor R for a couple of real bad apples in the company. im not a fan of VW in any way but mang these GTI's and R's are just phenomenal cars. cant wait to get my hands on a RS3..

 

So then skinny tires are best in snow? I'd have guessed the opposite, thinking more tire surface would be better.

 

yah, narrower tires bites into snow and ice more than wide tires as the weight is more concentrated to the smaller contact patch.

 

you dont see ski's that look like broom handles..lol

 

A wide tire will ride up on top of the snow, think flotation. While a narrow tire will knife through that snow & get a purchase on the pavement. Years ago I had a good conversation with a tire engineer about rally tires I was about to buy. He explained the narrow vs skinny tire thing to me. The same holds true for gravel & dirt roads. Although he said on gravel with a high HP car he would go wider. needed for is if you have a high HP car.

Ken is correct the smaller patch also puts more weight down on the contact patch.

 

LOL! Now that there is funny.

 

Good information to know about snow tire width. Snow tires have softer rubber compounds too, right?

Someday when my wife and I retire to the mountains, I'll need to know this stuff. Do y'all mount your snows on their own wheels? If so, do you worry with TPMS with them?

 

i have the tire store mount and balance the snow and winter tires to dedicated wheels, but i do mount them to the car once the tires are installed.

the GK, GTI, R uses abs sensors for tpms so no need to run tpms transmitter valves inside the tiress. my STI uses the latter type and i just ignore the tpms light while i have the winter wheel set on. it will reset itself once it detects the tpms sensors come Spring time.

 

Alco yes snow tires have have a softer compound. They don't handle as well on dry roads, but in snow they are the answer.. There are some all season tires that would work OK, but not stellar in snow. I have Conti DWS 06 tires on my GTI & they are passable in light snow. Since we have a snow tired shod MINI in our drive I use it when there is snow & ice so no dedicated snows for the GTI.

I've always mounted snows on another set of wheels. It makes change over so much easier. I did add the TPMS sensors the the snow tire wheels on my wife's MINI. The cost of them has come down a lot. If you don't mind seeing a tire light you can pass on them.