Originally Posted by farmerjones

While I understand where you are going with this, I don't think it really rings true. Manufacturers are probably doing more real-world road miles now than ever before. I doubt there is a car on the planet that comes to market without 1 million miles tested, and I know Lexus has some some 2 million pre-production miles before. If you figure in all the cold weather testing that goes on, followed by hot weather testing, and then endless laps around simulation test tracks, these cars ARE tested for the real world. Every manufacturer is testing cars around the world....just look at the spy shots from around the globe. In my opinion cars have become so complex that it's the parts suppliers than cause the most heartache..... A part is changed mid-year by a supplier and makes it way to the assembly line, skipping those million-mile tests...and that's a lot of the issue. Also, so many components are needed that often times more than one supplier makes the same part, and yet variances between the two cause issues on the assembly line. It used to be easy for a brand to control quality, as they only had to oversea a limited number of suppliers. Now they get parts from around the globe to meet such high demand (sensors and cameras are a good example), and suddenly they just can't micro-manage the quality. If the supplier isn't living up to their end of the deal what happens on the assembly line is very different than the approved pre-production million-mile test cars that were trouble free.