New Car development : An insider perspective - From drawing board to customer - Page 2 - Team-BHP

arunforu1 · 7th May 2007, 10:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rehaan

Awesome information there Arun!

Heres another Q -
Do ALL vehicles spend some time in the windtunnel (and if so, is it always fullsize, or mostly scaled down?)

And by ALL vehicles i mean to include trucks and busses in the question as well....

cya
R

Well its not always the case, yes most reputed automakers do, but again it depends upon budget constraints of programme.

Some times its done on scaled down model too, some companies having money & facilites they do it on full scale vehicle too, but mostly now a days its simulated on computer, and they can actually get the data close to real life situations.

As using computer simulation provides accurate data, so now a days its being done virtually, although windtunnels do exists today, & needs a lot of money to install the equiptment & carry out the tests. I know one european manuf. even doing extereme weather testing like snowfall, high gusts etc. indoors.

Got a good book with lots of pics of their facilities, gifted to me by that manuf. but it is in german, i will try to scan few pages & PM to intrested fellows.

& about trucks & buses, yes it is done in windtunnel as well, but as i said earlier life is shifting towards virtual.Not only windtunnel testing but crashes & even rollover simulations can be effectively carried out virtually.

vasudeva · 7th May 2007, 12:18

3.Business Model: Japanese mfg concentrates more on very very optimised details of every part to save, weight, cost & dev time, while germans follow ruggedness, durability & safety more. An avaerage japanese car may be good for 6-7 years of use, but german vehicles never die.

First of all, let me say that I am very grateful for your first hand insights on auto manfg. As a person tracking the industry, this has been helpful. regarding Business model, I feel the need to express a different opinion. If you equate German cars with ruggedness, safety, then fine. But for durability, I hope you are only considering BMW and not Daimler (Merc) and VW. As you can research for yourself (perhaps some annual reports, auto oragnisations of repute), the durability and long-term reliability of Merc and VW has been on the decline for years, which has also been reflected in their financial troubles and some management churning. Perhaps this link can help.

ConsumerReports.org - Reliability trends, how they age 4/07

Consumerreports is subscribed by 6 million, and the above trend is based on 1.3 million users. As you may be aware, their recommendations influence a lot of buying decisions in the US, simply because they are reputed to be largely honest and independent in their reports. In fact none of Merc cars are recommended by them which was also pointed out by Fortune last year, which said Merc was cheesed off, but then Fortune went on to justify ConsumerReports only.

Japanese cars may be less rugged, but what does ruggedness imply. If you have access to decades of full reports of IndustryWeek, Autoweek, ConsumerReports, Global Insights, AutomotiveNews, Ward's Automotive, JDPower, and general business pubs like Fortune, Economist, etc; you may find out (this is no secret anyway) that Japanese cars, particularly of Toyota and Honda, enjoy 4 or 5 star safety ratings from NHTSA, IIHS, and EuroNCAP, give higher FE, less headaches, and are far more long-term durable and reliable than German cars. They age more gracefully, and do last longer than German cars. Sadly German cars (at least worldwide) are now beginning to get a reputation of being unreliable long-termers. Of course, they are better looking as are all American cars, but as the decline of German and US car makers, and the continuing rise of Toyota and Honda over the last 3 decades are shown, customers do want better looking cars, but most of all they want a car that will run for a long time at a low cost without headaches. That as you would know is what sells any product, not just cars. If Japanese cars were less durable, less safe, they would not have enjoyed such long-term success.

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7th May 2007, 12:18	#17 (permalink)
vasudeva Senior - BHPian Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Delhi Posts: 1,080 View My Garage	3.Business Model: Japanese mfg concentrates more on very very optimised details of every part to save, weight, cost & dev time, while germans follow ruggedness, durability & safety more. An avaerage japanese car may be good for 6-7 years of use, but german vehicles never die. First of all, let me say that I am very grateful for your first hand insights on auto manfg. As a person tracking the industry, this has been helpful. regarding Business model, I feel the need to express a different opinion. If you equate German cars with ruggedness, safety, then fine. But for durability, I hope you are only considering BMW and not Daimler (Merc) and VW. As you can research for yourself (perhaps some annual reports, auto oragnisations of repute), the durability and long-term reliability of Merc and VW has been on the decline for years, which has also been reflected in their financial troubles and some management churning. Perhaps this link can help. ConsumerReports.org - Reliability trends, how they age 4/07 Consumerreports is subscribed by 6 million, and the above trend is based on 1.3 million users. As you may be aware, their recommendations influence a lot of buying decisions in the US, simply because they are reputed to be largely honest and independent in their reports. In fact none of Merc cars are recommended by them which was also pointed out by Fortune last year, which said Merc was cheesed off, but then Fortune went on to justify ConsumerReports only. Japanese cars may be less rugged, but what does ruggedness imply. If you have access to decades of full reports of IndustryWeek, Autoweek, ConsumerReports, Global Insights, AutomotiveNews, Ward's Automotive, JDPower, and general business pubs like Fortune, Economist, etc; you may find out (this is no secret anyway) that Japanese cars, particularly of Toyota and Honda, enjoy 4 or 5 star safety ratings from NHTSA, IIHS, and EuroNCAP, give higher FE, less headaches, and are far more long-term durable and reliable than German cars. They age more gracefully, and do last longer than German cars. Sadly German cars (at least worldwide) are now beginning to get a reputation of being unreliable long-termers. Of course, they are better looking as are all American cars, but as the decline of German and US car makers, and the continuing rise of Toyota and Honda over the last 3 decades are shown, customers do want better looking cars, but most of all they want a car that will run for a long time at a low cost without headaches. That as you would know is what sells any product, not just cars. If Japanese cars were less durable, less safe, they would not have enjoyed such long-term success.