(But the more closely I inspect the Acura ['Vigor' over here, maybe "CC-5?" in JDM versions elsewhere] - the more impressed I am with what QC really means: when it ain't just marketing BS) All body panels fit with unusually small spacing and - perfect alignment, including under-hood. I've rarely seen (never owned) any 'car' as evidently put together to Last. One example: the modified McPherson struts cum shock absorbers are designed for unlimited (er, life of car?) endurance.
And the several owners with near 400K km attest to their original ones still performing as at 30K. One guy has 300K *miles* on his. (Ditto - the often infamous FWD U-joints). I think I Like their engr. decision to keep the engine fore/aft (like the Saab was!) and not the usual transverse. Claim also is that - equal-length (L/R) driveshafts minimize torque steer: apparently so. This '94 car corners, stops, accelerates - well enough to eat for lunch some Popular '02 models ... Some say that the best built cars ever -- were the early '90s Japanese models assembled IN Japan. If this is an example, might be a grain of truth there. [/paeans]
And in a group of Vigor owners at Yahoo, where a few of these (mostly guys) used to work at Ford -- from engineering to production -- their habitual ref for "sloppy body panel fit" and for choices of the kinds of plastic trim as begins to look shabby after 3-5 years, etc. is *Ford*. [The Tempo being the Ugly Duckling for cheap laughs] One avers that this 'deterioration of appearance' is an actual M$-like Aim = how else to get you to think of replacing it a bit more often? (So why Would you get the Same, after early disappointment with its 'fading' -?- ask an addicted Windoze upgrader.)
Anyway - I acknowledge that the above is hardly a scientific unbiased survey of industry QC (!) so I'll add an equally unscientific factoid: once in a Ford dealership I perused an Escort on the floor. Stooped down by driver door and saw *RUST* on some frame rail or other - I forget now exactly Where I saw it). This: brand new!
But yeah - I never doubted that, hidden (and suppressed!) within all those
Just as: scuttlebutt is that the "TL, CL" (later US Honda / Acura models) aren't as well done as their progenitor: the Vigor. And the exc. and remarkably trouble-free 5-cyl engine has by now been eliminated from TL option. Gotta have a Vee-6 or the sheep will be confused (seemingly a factor, along with lousy recession-timing -- for Vigor poor sales on '91 intro + the poor rear-seat leg room! I could care less about That..)
So it goes -
Ashton
OK I admit - it's fun having a new toy; especially when the closer I peer, the better it looks! Now.. with the ECU limiter disabled - will it make 143 mph? [cackle]