>From Eindhoven, the Netherlands,
Don,
Thanx, I'll need it !
Sorry to hear your so ironic about Pugs, esp. their (un)reliability. Since I took
mine apart, I regard (at least the old ones) them as defenately over engineered on
the mechanical front, it's just that they lack attention to detail which is
something f.i. the Germans are very good at.
When you browse through the newsgroups on cars on the Net, I always get the
impression that cars are mainly judged by their ability to run 200K miles without
any failure. Although I won't deny that it's reasuring to know that it'll fire up
next morning, there's a whole lot more to judge a car by, especially for so called
enthousiasts.
I reckon it's this "reliability obsession" which meant the departure from the US of
Peugeot, Alfa, Fiat, Renault, Rover (have you ever heard of Lancia ?). Those
European cars that did survive (BMW etc.) had something special to offer (status ?)
Of course, the customer is always right, and now you see that even French and
Italian car manufacturers are getting "quality consious", i.e. they build cars
which won't rust or rattle anymore, have a descent finish, la-di-da. To sum it up,
they're getting blander, more Japanse, cos they've lost their quirkyness.
So if there was any time for them to reenter the US market, it's now.
Paul