Locating towing specs.

[Snowchief]

Hmmm I guess Bud Light might stand a chance

 

[Weekiman]

Having been inside the auto industry, and still being tangentially attached to it...you're not correct.

They advertise the big numbers knowing that most people will NEVER look any deeper than the advertisement - only those who NEED those big numbers will dig and find out there is only a couple configurations that hit them. It comes from DECADES of research into how people buy, and most people (probably 90% or greater) basically buy what is on the lot - you're lucky we still HAVE a 'build and price' tool for any auto manufacturer. It's the same reason manual transmissions are all but extinct; it's not that they CAN'T handle big power numbers, it's that there's been little to no research into them to keep the packaging small enough for light duty vehicles, combined with (again) most people just buying what's on the lot AND a slow shift towards driverless vehicles (the human factor is the single biggest contributor to auto accidents).

In the 1960s and 70s, we churned out junk cars that people worked on all the time, but everyone seems to forget that (remember the 'spare parts' tote in the trunk, along with carrying a tool box?). Then we learned that noxious gases coming out of the tail pipes cause health issues for pretty much everybody, so we had to start combating that.

Oh, and we brought foreign car manufacturers in and SHOWED them how we build cars, and explained all the places our processes fall short. Those guys then went home, fixed those issues, and launched small cars that had MUCH better quality because they'd fixed our issues. We then spent the next several decades playing catchup.

Do emissions and safety figure into this equation? Yes. Are cars also MUCH more complicated than they've ever been in history? Yes. Are they going to continue to get more and more complex as they push to make them as safe as they can be? Absolutely. Are they still built on an assembly line as a mass-produced product, in a process that has tolerances on it that keep 99% of them to the quality standard, meaning some of the 'bad' ones are likely going to get out? Also yes.

Frankly, I like knowing that my vehicle is actually MORE reliable than one I owned 20 years ago, and produces fewer emissions and is more likely to protect me in the event of an accident. Does it suck that all of that has come at a price? Yes, but it's a tradeoff I'm willing to make.

Wrong on most counts.

 

[2003F350]

Wrong on most counts.

You go with what your opinion tells you. I'll go with what research and data tells me.

 

[nlambert182]

Wrong on most counts.

How so? I don't know if he's right or wrong, but a big problem with forums is that people will claim someone is wrong with no evidence to prove it. If you're going to tell someone they're wrong, provide the data so that people can learn from it. This is how the whole 1500s towing fifth wheels myth came about.

 

[Weekiman]

How so? I don't know if he's right or wrong, but a big problem with forums is that people will claim someone is wrong with no evidence to prove it. If you're going to tell someone they're wrong, provide the data so that people can learn from it. This is how the whole 1500s towing fifth wheels myth came about.

You don't know if he's right or wrong but you only ask me for my facts. He's the one who told me I was wrong not the other way around. Where is his data? Do you not understand the difference between 60's and 70's vehicle?

 

[nlambert182]

You don't know if he's right or wrong but you only ask me for my facts. He's the one who told me I was wrong not the other way around. Where is his data? Do you not understand the difference between

I wasn't rebutting him. If I were, I'd provide contrary evidence. Since you seem to disagree with what he says, prove it wrong. That's how these things usually work.

What he said seemed logical enough that it didn't warrant my time researching. Is he right or wrong? Don't really know. You said he's wrong... so prove it. Then we'll all learn something instead of just bantering back and forth.