everything seemed to change in the 90s, in terms of bmw and perhaps germany, the car industry, or western society in general. i can remember watching Tomorrow Never Dies the year it came out and thinking something along the lines of "that piece of junk has traction control".
here's the scene:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBVsC1jKYK4there was a big shift in philosophies, and business practices. it's not about engineering, the problem begins and ends with greed, and short-term ways to boost corporate profits. it's everywhere now, big names designing crap and simply using their reputation to sell. most aren't even designing now, they stopped putting money into r&d, they wait until something new is made in taiwan and then they buy the design. tvs are made to last 2-3 years before a bulb burns out, or the focus gets so bad it hurts your eyes to watch it, etc. chipsets for computer processors keep changing, wouldn't want you to buy one without a motherboard & ram as well.. it's the way of the world currently. very wasteful hyper consumerism. there's no such thing as quality any more, its all about bulk. it will continue as long as people are oblivious to it. and even if quality is in their philosophy, that just means they'll squeeze out profit elsewhere, like how toyota never had a worker in the us make it to pension. and even their quality didn't last (started making drive-by-wire with no redundancy). bmw might make crappy cars, but you should buy one because they are loyal to their workers :rolleyes:.
honestly it makes me sick, the car commercials, the dam narrator voice. worse, i just had to go to the dealer. that walk through the showroom to get to the the parts dept.. i'd rather visit the dmv. never seen so many smug c@nts in one place. I don't know what annoys me more, the salesmen, the snobby customers, or the plastic look of new cars and the fact that people are actually lusting after those things.
