Subaru to scrap cars missing welds

[ronsii]

What happens when someone doesn't program the welding robot correctly.... you get a bunch of worthless cars....

https://spectrum.ieee.org/riskfactor...he-car-crusher

[docwelder]

i was thinking about going with Subaru on my last new vehicle purchase till the dealer said 3 month wait.

[lotechman]

Well over 20 years ago at an AWS dinner meeting I was talking to a guy who had started his career programming and setting up welding robots for a large supplier who welded frames. He saw a batch of pickup frames being welded and at shift change they replaced the old contact tips but forgot to install the nozzles. I asked him what they did with the frames that were welded without shielding gas. He smiled and said they just ran the frames through again. Things used to happen that were shady but as the decades pass by there are more controls to make sure quality comes out rather than covered up mistakes.

[T man]

Lucky they only sold 9 cars to customers, and the rest are on lots, or in transit, according to the article I read.

Unfortunately, they don't save the good parts on the cars.

Fuso, a few years ago scrapped dozens of brand new class 8 trucks like my box truck because the emissions failed on them. They never left the port, and we're crushed on site, in view of a fubberment inspector. What a waste of money.but still cheaper than sending back, so they said

[ronsii]

Yeah, they wouldn't want to sell them off as parts donors because that would make too much sense... but on the other hand there are just too many people out there that would abuse the system and put these back into the system as 'rebuilt' autos sans fixing.

[danielplace]

The dealers could have used the parts but it is a better tax write off if they destroy the entire vehicle. Sad the way the system operates.

So really that many got through without welds. What does that tell you about quality control. Non existant evidentily.
No one is checking for welds to have occured. Bad weld ok but missing the welds complety. Just wow !

Could have never been caught except by chance sounds like.

[soutthpaw]

Well their insurer probably paid for those scrapped cards. A friend of mine is a line technician out at Tesla gigafactory. He maintains and repair all the robots. says the company is a total mess. Mostly middle management is totally clueless and Fu*ked up. My former roommate works for Panasonic there, both say it's run much better due to Japanese business philosophy and management.

[Fast Leroy]

Looks like the QC folks were asleep that day...

[Bistineau]

I wish I could be allowed to pull the engines and drive trains out of a couple of them before they were crushed. Probably be able to make some kind of fun off-road machine out of them.

[Rog02]

I wish I could be allowed to pull the engines and drive trains out of a couple of them before they were crushed. Probably be able to make some kind of fun off-road machine out of them.

Back when I was in high school, the vo-tech program got two brand new 1972 Monte Carlos’ that had been on a derailed train. According to my instructor, the cars had to be used as instructional aids and could not be repaired and sold. GM destroyed the “Certificate of Origin”. Not to be wasting the gift of free parts, the administration funded the purchase of a totaled MC and we used the body panels from the donor to rebuild the wreck. Once to car was finished it was put up for bid with any profit going back into the operating funds for the vo-tech school.

The engines,transmissions and other drivetrain components went to the “mechanics class” as teaching aids.

I know back then the manufacturers all would destroy any vehicle, damaged or not, if it had been involved in a train derailment or truck wreck while in transit from the distribution point to dealership. It was a liability/warrante thing. The vehicles got crushed with none going to salvage parts.

[dkrank]

The dealers could have used the parts but it is a better tax write off if they destroy the entire vehicle. Sad the way the system operates.

So really that many got through without welds. What does that tell you about quality control. Non existant evidentily.
No one is checking for welds to have occured. Bad weld ok but missing the welds complety. Just wow !

Could have never been caught except by chance sounds like.

Couldn't agree more. A ton of perfectly usable parts that were destroyed for a simple tax write-off. Wow indeed!

[Virgil5]

Lucky they only sold 9 cars to customers, and the rest are on lots, or in transit, according to the article I read.

Unfortunately, they don't save the good parts on the cars.

Fuso, a few years ago scrapped dozens of brand new class 8 trucks like my box truck because the emissions failed on them. They never left the port, and we're crushed on site, in view of a fubberment inspector. What a waste of money.but still cheaper than sending back, so they said

If it was a Joisey port something got crushed, but it wasn't a new truck that could be moved & sold.
I've seen video of the Toyota lot in Joisey, from the Insurance carrier's camera. 10 employees driving new cars from ship to lot and 20 guys available to drive them from lot to disappeared.

[whtbaron]

It works both ways... there used to be vehicles repaired that never should have been let on the road. In the late 70's I worked in a shop that fixed 2 brand new Datsun pickups that got their roofs ripped off by an overpass while they were on the 2nd row of the transporter bringing them to the dealer. Both were repaired, the dealership kept one for a delivery vehicle but the 4x4 was sold due to it's higher value ( I think base line trucks were about $2k then). The ironic part is that the delivery truck was eventually sold to a neighbor of the 4x4 and they had a head on collision on top of a hill. We fixed both trucks again. Today, those trucks would have been written off and removed from service either time.