Reliability and Quality

I'll be brief and give the 30 sec abridged version.
Took delivery of 03 VS speedster in May. First 4 months and 3500 miles car preformed with no problems at all. Beginning in September...

-front wheel bearings desintagrated
-both rear axle seals blew out
-parking brake mechanism fell apart
-clutch and transmission-linkage totally seized

Car has been towed in 3 times in the last month due to various mechanical failures. The last time 250 miles from home. So far Kirk has paid roughly $900 out of approx. $1500 spent out of pocket. Not to mention 2 rental cars.

Did I get a lemon? Comments please.

It sounds like Vintage fumbled the Quality Control ball with your particular car.

Each of those failed components Vintage handled when reconditioning the chassis and/or building your car. I would NOT be a happy camper. Keep us posted, but give Kirk a chance to make it right.

No telling how many future buyers are lurking out there in cyberspace. QC is everything with a car.

So that future buyers won't have similar problems, you might consider asking not only for fixes for each failure, but also a retrospective analysis of the root cause(s) and corrective actions taken to prevent a recurrence on future speedsters. This may have been an aberration, but the fact that it happened once means it can happen again without implementing specific changes.

Remember that QC did not cause the problem in the first place...it was either faulty components or faulty assembly. End of the line and/or in-process QC inspection simply will not catch every potential problem. Proper controls and checks need to be built-in to the process (using mistakeproofing methods, for example) so that each worker becomes totally responsible for quality, not the qc inspector.

As individual consumers, we don't have much leverage in requiring specific improvements like outlined above, but motivation can come from the manufacturer in the form of warranty costs! Reducing these costs can be very profitable activity. In addition to saving money, (usually $10 saved for every $1 invested) it results in customer satisfaction. Not a bad combination!

Thanks for your comments...no, I'm not a happy camper at all!

PS - The positive side to this (if there is a positive side), I was lucky enough to find a great garage within 10 minutes of where I most recently broke down (250 miles from home). The garage is in Livingston, NJ. If anyone is interested, let me know and I'll post the info. Thanks again for your insightful comments.

Fred

Follow-up to reliability & quality issue. Rec'd a check from Kirk for the full amount of the repair within 3 days. VS has always responded in a very positive manner with all of the problems I have encountered. I guess if I wanted 100% plain vanilla reliability with no personality I would have bought something practical...not in a heartbeat. Thanks for the support.

Fred,

I feel your pain. I bought my VS in Feb . After 1000
miles Kirk replaced the motor, repainted the door and hood. I replaced the speedo. Only 1500 miles to date. However its hard to
get to upset as he does act quick.. I agree with the QC posts
I work for GE and this is a very big deal..

Ahhh, Livingston NJ. That's funny as I grew up in Summit NJ. Parents are still there and most likely I'll be going back there during x-mass time. What shop did you end up taking your car too? What part of NJ do you live in Fred?

J-P

J-P

I live in the Washington, DC area...took a road trip to visit friends in Livingston. Euro Tec is the shop I took my car to.