A few years back, I was looking at SUV options and went and looked at Grand Cherokees. I sat in multiple examples that had switch gear falling out of the dash on the dealer lot. It doesn’t get much more “initial quality” than that.
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This. The stats on brand retention aren’t as shameful as model (E.g. how often someone replaced one Honda with another, vs 1 Accord with another Accord).
My recollection is that Marintz is one company that does long-term ownership studies. And this is what True Car Delta (not TrueCar the shopping site) was trying to get at.
Any car that will kill you while in PARK is on the permanent banned list.
When I was in engineering school many moons ago Ford Pinto was a case study on engineering ethics. There were internal Ford cost/benefit studies on how it was cheaper to pay burn victims than to do fix the car.
Came up in my engineering ethics class 15 years ago or so as well.
People remember how Lee Iacocca turned around Chrysler, but he was also the person responsible for the Pinto.
YUCK. Glad that there’s something called engineering ethics, though.
By time I “came of age” and had an awareness of the world around me, what I read (esp about airbags) made me think Lee Iacocca was a hypocritical a$$hole. And while he might’ve saved Chrysler, I thought Chryslers were sh*t growing up, and the later “cloud cars” never did much for me.
I have to admit that the fawning obits made me very confused b/c I assumed that everyone would remember that stuff (but, alas, they apparently did not…).
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Chryslers are still shit, 30 years after Iacocca left the first time, and remained shit when he came back and left again.
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I actually was selected to fill out the JD Power survey for my Bolt a little while ago. I’ll have to see how it fared. I don’t remember that much about it specifically, but it was a pretty detailed survey.
Out of curiosity, how do you choose a decent mattress?
I was out mattress shopping today, and the two I liked (strictly based on comfort) were $~1400 and ~$3100.
I didn’t like the $3100 one 2x as much so I ordered the $1400 one.
Then I got home and read a bunch of reviews on the one I chose, and the consensus is it’s garbage. I canceled.
The other one just came out, so reviews are sparse.
So I’m back to square one.
I learned that it’s impossible to compare mattresses last time I shopped years ago.
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Some of the ones I rejected were obviously cheaply made.
I could feel the springs / coils through the sides.
But it’s sort of like choosing wine, which I stopped drinking because I can only discern the difference between drinkable and muriatic acid.
We bought a mattress online from Avocado a few years ago. It was number one rated by Consumer Reports, and we really like it. It is very firm. At that time they only had showrooms in New York and Los Angeles, so for most folks, it was not easy to check it out in person before purchasing.
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I made my own, with 3 layers 3 inch latex, you can mix and match firmness preferences on the fly.
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And then it gets complicated when your partner likes something different.
We went w/ a “hybrid” mattress from Nest. IIRC, it’s got a thin layer of memory foam on top of springs? Price was w/i our budget, soft enough for partner, firm enough for me. Good on-line reviews. Salesperson in the store seemed really knowledgable, and there wasn’t any type of pressure to buy. They had a few mattress types w/ noticeable different in firmness and materials, so it didn’t seem like going to the eye doctor and choosing btw “1” and “2” when figuring out your lens prescription.
Most fun part was cutting into the shrink wrapping when it arrived and having it almost violently expand. Wish I had taken a video.
We’ve had it for a couple of yrs and really like it.
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Answering myself…head over to Ikea and test out their Latex mattresses, to see if Latex might be a good feel for what you want. Theirs tend to be on the firm side, but you can also chop Latex into head/center/foot sections and piece them into a whole that way as well. I decided upon Latex due to durability, and adjustable bed frame capability, but turned out to be supremely comfortable and restful as well.
Her point of view was basically just get the one that you feel most comfortable on. No point in shopping based on price as aside from the mattresses with built in frames and motors, there isn’t much of a difference. I had a foam memory mattress for the past ten years and never spent more than 250 on them. I’ve been perfectly comfortable.
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