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Tight-ass manufacturer short cuts and cost saves


grogee

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11 hours ago, bunglebus said:

One more I remember from my 1st car, a 957 base MK1 Fiesta - no fan switch, the thermostat housing was not drilled/tapped to accept one but you could see where it was supposed to be. Bullet connectors in the wiring instead so the fan ran all the time. I know they were trying to keep the price to a minimum but sometimes I wonder if it was more about pushing you to buy a L or GL, the base also had no vents in the ends of the dash so two different heater boxes and dashboards had to be designed/made. This cannot be cheaper than just fitting the same one in all the lower spec cars, I know the Ghia/XR2 etc had a padded dash cos I fitted one, and the better heater etc too. I also fitted a fan switch thermostat housing, must have affected fuel economy over cooling?

1977 Ford Fiesta 957 HC Base | A bare bones base spec MK1 Fo… | Flickr

Ford Fiesta - Adrian Flux | Cult Classics

Time has stood still for this unregistered 1978 Ford Fiesta | Hagerty UK

The 'making a cheap version to force buyers to spend more' is an interesting equation. I don't think even car makers really know the true cost/benefit because the engineers and management always look at select costs, IE piece cost is cheaper for the bASe version dashboard/radio/grille or whatever. 

What they often don't consider is the additional cost of holding spares stock for two (or more) different spare parts. 

They also can't know what the sales figures will be, it's always a guess, so any sums showing that it's worthwhile tooling up for several versions of dashboard/bumper/headliner will surely be wrong. 

Found out that my Kia Ceed bASe didn't have an instrument backlight adjuster, but the switch from a higher spec car just plugged straight into the harness behind the blanking switch. 

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12 minutes ago, grogee said:

The 'making a cheap version to force buyers to spend more' is an interesting equation

I think it's partly so they can say "Fiesta from £999" or whatever, not actually expecting many people to actually buy one in that spec. Even the original buyer of mine specced a heated rear window and N/S mirror to enjoy from the comfort of the low back beige vinyl seats

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4 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

I think it's partly so they can say "Fiesta from £999" or whatever, not actually expecting many people to actually buy one in that spec. Even the original buyer of mine specced a heated rear window and N/S mirror to enjoy from the comfort of the low back beige vinyl seats

Yes, a 'price point' car. It's often sold at a loss just to get buyers into the showroom. 

I remember the Kia Rio about 2001 vintage had a bASe model of (I think) £5999 which was extraordinarily cheap. It did have seats and windows but not much else. 

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My first car was a 1975 Mk2 Escrote. Similar colour to this one but without the door mirrors and in much worse condition.

image.thumb.jpeg.c466126b80a81f2adbe4d5a2586f1d04.jpeg

It was, however, fitted with a heated rear window. What was not fitted was either a switch for it or a relay. Once I‘d sourced these and connected them up to the wiring loom, everything worked. Not seen this before or since.

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37 minutes ago, grogee said:

Yes, a 'price point' car. It's often sold at a loss just to get buyers into the showroom. 

I remember the Kia Rio about 2001 vintage had a bASe model of (I think) £5999 which was extraordinarily cheap. It did have seats and windows but not much else. 

Body coloured bumpers, though!

Does anyone stick unpainted black/grey placcy bumpers on their smoll cars these days? The first Dacia Sandeep bASe models had them (and no radio) but I'm not sure if you can get them from anyone now outside of the 4x4/crossover ranges.

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3 hours ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

Aye it'll probably be the same process. It's the same for the Mk1/2 Fabias. 

Give this guy a shout maybe, @Zelandeth. He does say that he caters to non-Skoda VAG models too, so at least worth picking his brains.

Cheers for that, I've dropped a query on that thread, will see if they come back to me.  Just would be nice to have given virtually every other option box aside from front fog lights was ticked.

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32 minutes ago, Inspiral_Mondays said:

My first car was a 1975 Mk2 Escrote. Similar colour to this one but without the door mirrors and in much worse condition.

image.thumb.jpeg.c466126b80a81f2adbe4d5a2586f1d04.jpeg

It was, however, fitted with a heated rear window. What was not fitted was either a switch for it or a relay. Once I‘d sourced these and connected them up to the wiring loom, everything worked. Not seen this before or since.

It may have been the case that Fords didn't have a plain glass rear window, i.e. one without the heating wires, in stock at the time your car was made.  Perhaps there weren't any plain glass ones at all or perhaps they couldn't get them.  

A similar thing happened with Fiestas in, I think, the nineties.  The 1100 variant in the eighties came with a four speed gearbox, which was then upgraded to a five speed for the Mk3 in all but the very basic models.  I assume that the basic 1100 wasn't deemed powerful enough to warrant having a fifth gear, but that left Ford with a problem as they had stopped producing the old four speed 'box.  Their solution was to fit a five speed, complete with all the selector rods, to the 'four speed' cars, but with only four gears marked on the gear lever and a bolt in the mechanism to prevent selection of fifth.  Apparently the cars could be converted to five speed by removing the bolt.  

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4 minutes ago, Missy Charm said:

It may have been the case that Fords didn't have a plain glass rear window, i.e. one without the heating wires, in stock at the time your car was made.  Perhaps there weren't any plain glass ones at all or perhaps they couldn't get them.  

A similar thing happened with Fiestas in, I think, the nineties.  The 1100 variant in the eighties came with a four speed gearbox, which was then upgraded to a five speed for the Mk3 in all but the very basic models.  I assume that the basic 1100 wasn't deemed powerful enough to warrant having a fifth gear, but that left Ford with a problem as they had stopped producing the old four speed 'box.  Their solution was to fit a five speed, complete with all the selector rods, to the 'four speed' cars, but with only four gears marked on the gear lever and a bolt in the mechanism to prevent selection of fifth.  Apparently the cars could be converted to five speed by removing the bolt.  

This is possible, it's also possible that the original had been broken and the cheapest/most expedient window available was a heated one

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3 hours ago, Metal Guru said:

Single reversing light (almost universal) annoys me. I know it’s as much to warn someone you are reversing ,and they’d probably claim it was a styling rather than financial decision,  but when backing into a dark space, two would be very useful.

Isn't that a legal requirement, so that it's not a pair of white lights coming towards you?  I thought that one reversing light and one fog light was the law..

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9 minutes ago, horriblemercedes said:

This is possible, it's also possible that the original had been broken and the cheapest/most expedient window available was a heated one

It's a shame we aren't celebrities, really.  If we were we could make a half hour documentary, with stock footage and an entirely spurious segment set in Tahiti, about the mystery of the unheated heated windscreen called something like 'The View Behind: My Journey on the Open Road'.  Unfortunately we will probably never know...

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16 minutes ago, loserone said:

Isn't that a legal requirement, so that it's not a pair of white lights coming towards you?  I thought that one reversing light and one fog light was the law..

For some reason I was intrigued by this statement- looks like your half right! You can have up to 2 reversing lamps, but only one rear fog lamp.

The latest regs are here -https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1989/1796/made

image.png.c3c8e97ac50976e32bf49d02311931cd.png

 

image.thumb.png.694e22334a5ed4e143d0512a4a6eec02.pngimage.thumb.png.e1e83bda07da05a081896870f7d44e56.png

Incidentally, if your vehicle was built before 1991 you can have an unlimited number of front fog lights! (but only 2 after 1991, following the 'great blinding' of 1989).

image.thumb.png.3fe53c3ab2ad90582aea7163bb87af6e.png

 

 

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Toyota decided to save $0.0001 cents per radio unit (see unit above in picture) by not running traces in the PCB to the rear speaker connector.

1B181CB2-E0B9-4015-9C69-0866ED2DD560.thumb.jpeg.22e589fb4e1e5438dc1e149e0dd29686.jpeg

Which is a real pain in the arse after spending the afternoon fitting rear speakers to the pre existing wiring loom and changing the head unit to one with the seperate rear speaker connector present which must obviously mean that it is compatible with rear speakers? Because why would you fit the connector but not wire it up?

TOYOTA, I’M SPEAKING TO YOU!

*rant over*

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1 hour ago, grogee said:

Yes, a 'price point' car. It's often sold at a loss just to get buyers into the showroom. 

I remember the Kia Rio about 2001 vintage had a bASe model of (I think) £5999 which was extraordinarily cheap. It did have seats and windows but not much else. 

Duster Access for £9495 in 2017. “Oh you don’t want one of those, how about the xxxxx model?”  were the first words from the salesman’s mouth. 

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On 5/11/2022 at 10:05 PM, Zelandeth said:

 

[] Interior light switch on the driver's door only (that DID feel like penny pinching).

 

You are aware that this will cost you all of about £5 to remedy aren't you?

Door switch from a scrappy ( pull the loom with it) & length of wire to the drivers door switch wire - scotchlock and jobbed.
If you want to be really anal and have a 5 door you can add it to the rear doors as well using the rear switches from an Auris.

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On 11/05/2022 at 20:33, New POD said:

Citroen: 

3 wheel nuts. 

Three was enough.  Little French cars used to be light, and cash was scarce post-WW2.  Four would have been too many, and the mechanical/practical disadvantages of two are obvious!

'Smol' cars are no longer smol, and can weigh about the same as a minor asteroid.  They often have five-bolt hubs with the same PCD as larger vehicles in the range, so rationalising the robotic assembly machinery.

Volkswagen Group, I'm looking at you...

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12 minutes ago, grogee said:

I like the three-bolt French wheel combo, because triangles. 

Did the AX ever get a peasant spec three-bolt wheel or was the party over by then?

Yep, same as the 106. Used to be an issue for early adherents to the Max Power scene, because most big rimz innit only came in various 4 or 5 stud patterns.

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40 minutes ago, grogee said:

I like the three-bolt French wheel combo, because triangles. 

Did the AX ever get a peasant spec three-bolt wheel or was the party over by then?

The AX GTi not the GT got 4 stud. All others 3 stud.

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3 minutes ago, NorfolkNWeigh said:

I had 2 Orion company cars a 1600 Ghia MK1 and a Mk2 1600i Ghia with optional ( and awful) ABS* I quite clearly remember that they both had exhaust pipes.

Lucas mechanical ABS 

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7 hours ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

The 2008 Grande Punto in Dynamic Sport trim we had never had two remote keys, just the one.

My Puma has one remote and one 'mechanical'. Plus one tiny stubby T-shaped one, I'm not sure what it's for. 

It does also have two functioning (though faded) fog lights. Having two lenses and penny-pinching the bulb and holder out of one of them is Scotland-level tight. 

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5 hours ago, Inspiral_Mondays said:

My first car was a 1975 Mk2 Escrote. Similar colour to this one but without the door mirrors and in much worse condition.

image.thumb.jpeg.c466126b80a81f2adbe4d5a2586f1d04.jpeg

It was, however, fitted with a heated rear window. What was not fitted was either a switch for it or a relay. Once I‘d sourced these and connected them up to the wiring loom, everything worked. Not seen this before or since.

Just looking through the pile of Beanos I bought last weekend...

Screenshot_20220513-174028_Gallery.thumb.jpg.403c87e2ca37ae1736da5b3b9bb6d55c.jpg

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