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Hi Dave, I have two questions:
1. How did American made cars develop a bad reputation for being unreliable or poorly made compared to Japanese cars? And is true that people onced viewed Japanese cars as being poorly made, and then it became more reliable?
2. Since I am in school at the moment taking general classes, in your opinion, what is a skill or field of knowledge that you see is underrated/undervalued/underutilized? If you could go to school again, what body of knowledge would you have concentrated more on, or what would you have done differently?
1. Every car manufacturer’s quality has greatly improved (steadily) since the ’60’s, but the Japanese companies improved much more rapidly during the 60’s and ’70’s. The US manufacturers finally caught up during the ’90’s, some did better than others and you can see the statistics in the JD-Powers ratings. So American cars really were significantly worse quality, but today there is little difference between all the OEM’s. You can see the data on this at the JD Powers website. The worst quality companies today are very much better than the best in the ’70’s.
2. I am happy that I pursued Mechanical Engineering and got to specialize in internal combustion engines. Today the big opportunities are clearly in electronics, electrical engineering, chemistry, and computer programming. I also recommend following your interests and talents because you have to enjoy your work!
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