Pickin' cotton in Alabama (instead of concentrating on cars)

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Dori A Schmetterling - 01 Dec 2004 10:21 GMT

While most of you don't have the pleasure of reading our very own Jeremy
Clarkson's words of wisdom on cars every Sunday (in the UK Sunday Times), I
know that many of you have heard of him through other ways, so you may like
to hear about his comments on the results of a recent BBC Top Gear customer
satisfaction survey.
Top Gear is a top motoring programme and has a classy magazine associated
with it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/survey/

Of 142 cars surveyed in the UK, the M-Class was BOTTOM for reliability.

Clarkson gives two reasons two reasons..."appalling dealer network but also
because it's made in Alabama, where the locals are good at picking cotton,
singing mournful songs and listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd but not so good at
attaching complicated pieces of machinery to one another."

You can read the whole article -- which is mainly about the new Peugeot
407 -- here (see page 2):
http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,12529-1376145,00.html

(Just for comparison, only one west European brand was in the top ten, Jag
at No. 2).

What do you think about the workers of Alabama...?...

DAS

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greek_philosophizer - 01 Dec 2004 15:08 GMT

> While most of you don't have the pleasure of reading our very own Jeremy
> Clarkson's words of wisdom on cars every Sunday (in the UK Sunday Times), I
[quoted text clipped - 23 lines]
>
> DAS

I hear Alabama is a nice place and the workers just
do what they are told.

Mr. Clarkson sounds like a colorful person. Peugeot
sounds like it has an excellent market niche.

.

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Dori A Schmetterling - 01 Dec 2004 19:18 GMT

Yes and yes.

I like Peugeot's smaller cars but their reliablity may not be up to scratch.
Did pretty badly in the same BBC customer satisfaction survey.

DAS

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[...]

> Mr. Clarkson sounds like a colorful person. Peugeot
> sounds like it has an excellent market niche.
>
> .

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John Mauel - 01 Dec 2004 23:05 GMT

>> While most of you don't have the pleasure of reading our very own Jeremy
>> Clarkson's words of wisdom on cars every Sunday (in the UK Sunday Times),
[quoted text clipped - 35 lines]
> Mr. Clarkson sounds like a colorful person. Peugeot
> sounds like it has an excellent market niche.

I don't know about the survey, but I've watched 'Top Gear' on BBC World (now
on Speed Channel as 'Fifth Gear') many times, and it seems Clarkson can't
mention any German car he's reviewing without some mention of WW II. Even
though (I think) he actually bought an SL55 with his own money, nearly every
show segment on a German car makes an oblique (and sometimes not so oblique)
reference to the Battle of Britain, Spitfires, Messerschmitts, The Blitz,
&c, &c.
The 'cotton picking in Alabama' remark would suggest he's got a problem with
stereotyping.

John M.
'94 E320 Made in Sindelfingen

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Andrew Stephenson - 02 Dec 2004 00:23 GMT

> I don't know about the survey, but I've watched 'Top Gear' on
> BBC World (now on Speed Channel as 'Fifth Gear') many times,
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> The 'cotton picking in Alabama' remark would suggest he's got a
> problem with stereotyping.

IMHO, Mr Clarkson's big problem is that he is superficial, brash,
glib and head-over-heels in love with his own sheer wondrousness.
Cannot bring myself to waste more life time in watching the fool.
--
Andrew Stephenson

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Peter W Peternouschek - 01 Dec 2004 17:42 GMT

I believe that reliability issues are primarily caused by low cost/quality
commponents. MB's and Chrysler's track records are not very good in this
regard. Assembly operations are pretty well automated and quality control
processes are very effective in a modern assembly plant.
Please note that Nissan (similar reliability record to Toyota) is assembled
in Smyrna, TN not to far from Alabama. The workers there probably have the
same music preferences.
I find it interesting that the Jag was at N0.2. Any BBC bias here? An
acquaintance recently purchased one of these. After numerous electrical
problems, transmission failure all within 6,000 miles she traded it for a
Lexus.

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Dori A Schmetterling - 01 Dec 2004 19:22 GMT

In the past Jag was a byword for techical crappiness (except for great
appearance and ride) but after Ford's billions things went very much uphill.
For quite a while Jaguar has been doing well in satisfaction surveys, incl J
D Power in UK.

Regarding your acquaintance's experience I am a bit surprised. Well,
everyone can produce a lemon.

My brother-in-law has a large Jag saloon, bought as a used company car off
his brother-in-law and he is very happy with it.

DAS

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> After numerous electrical
> problems, transmission failure all within 6,000 miles she traded it for a
> Lexus.

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Dan J.S. - 01 Dec 2004 19:06 GMT

> While most of you don't have the pleasure of reading our very own Jeremy
> Clarkson's words of wisdom on cars every Sunday (in the UK Sunday Times),
[quoted text clipped - 27 lines]
>
> DAS

Nice try to blame the workers. If this was true, why are Toyota's built few
hundred miles from there very reliable. I think MB just went down hill since
the whole Chrysler fiasco. Nothing beats an older diesel Mercedes in terms
of reliability, but everything built now is junk.

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Just Mike - 01 Dec 2004 19:47 GMT

>everything built now is junk

Ahhh the sweet smell of a broad sweeping generalisation :o)
Mike

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AJDalton7 - 01 Dec 2004 20:32 GMT

>Ahhh the sweet smell of a broad sweeping generalisation :o)

Nope.. All models inclusive...

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Dori A Schmetterling - 02 Dec 2004 14:41 GMT

Mine isn't (we're talking Mercs here, I take it).

DAS

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> >Ahhh the sweet smell of a broad sweeping generalisation :o)
>
> Nope.. All models inclusive...

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Just Mike - 02 Dec 2004 16:10 GMT

>Mine isn't (we're talking Mercs here, I take it).

Well, I read it as it was written, "everything"!
Mike

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Frank Kemper - 02 Dec 2004 21:25 GMT

"Dori A Schmetterling" <ng@nospam.co.uk> haute in die Tasten:

> What do you think about the workers of Alabama...?...

It was my firm belief that the british journalists are the best examples of
this profession, and that the good old Times is one of the most serious
periodicals around the world. But I was wrong. They are giving room to
bloody storytellers where we expect unbiased facts;-)

Actually I have heard about some reliabilty issues with the M-class, but I
do not take these customer satisfaction indices too serious. Maybe it is
much, much harder to satisfy the buyer of a 50.000 $ Mercedes than the
buyer of a 10.000 $ Nissan Micra? And maybe the current Jaguar owners are
pleased with the fact that Jaguar nowadays uses Bosch starters which
sometimes work instead of the Lucas starters they used to install in the
60's?

The other day I read a customer satisfaction survey in Germany, and the
headline said something like "Japanese brands beat German brands, Mercedes
only rated position 8". Then I looked into the figures and found out that
there was a range of indices, starting Toyota with .84, and ending with
Fiat at .74. So the difference between the best and the worst brand was
only 10%, which means that the difference between the single brands is
close to zero.

Frank

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