Joined
·
1,744 Posts
In about 1973 the older brother of a friend of mine came home for a visit. My friend and I were about 17. The older brother, maybe 19-20 years old, had moved to Detroit and gotten a job in an assembly plant making cars. I think he worked in a plant building Dodge Darts and making what seemed to us teenagers working at Burger King to be a lot of money. He was telling us about his job and I recall he was tasked with fastening 5 or 6 bolts on the part of the car that mounted the radiator and the hood latch. It runs across the car from fender to fender behind the grille and headlights. His bolts were on one side of the car behind the headight on that side. So anyway he explained that at first he could only get to 3 or 4 of the bolts as "the line moved to fast for me." After a few weeks he was experienced and fast enough to get to all of the bolts. I remember thinking how many Dodge Darts had 3 bolts in a part that was designed for 6. He laughed about it.
Fast forward 13 years or so and I'm working at a Honda car dealer prepping cars from the transporter truck into inventory. Hondas are hard to get at the time, demand was high and outstripped supply. As soon as ships sailed from Japan or trucks left the Marysville, OH plant we got a list of what was coming by model and color and we were selling cars still on the ship or truck and buyers were waiting sometimes weeks to get their new Civic or Accord. So this day I was doing the PDI (pre delivery inspection) on a white '87 4 door Accord. The new owner was coming soon to take delivery. I literally never had an issue with the PDI list. Honda's factory Quality Control associates had the power to stop the assembly line when necessary and cars were carefully inspected prior to transport. The cars I saw were perfect until this day. The model came with a cranberry colored cloth interior but this Accord had a blue center cushion in the rear seat back. The side bolsters were cranberry but the middle part was blue. What an unbelieveable commotion ensued. Phone calls were made and everyone at the dealership came to look at it. Photos inside and out. American Honda did not want to deliver the car like that but the owner wanted to take it and just come back when we had a cranberry cushion for him. I don't recall but I guess we didn't have another white 4 door to swap the cushion with. Honda mothership did everything but fly the CEO from Japan to apologize to the buyer. That's was the difference between Honda and domestic cars in the 80s.
Fast forward 13 years or so and I'm working at a Honda car dealer prepping cars from the transporter truck into inventory. Hondas are hard to get at the time, demand was high and outstripped supply. As soon as ships sailed from Japan or trucks left the Marysville, OH plant we got a list of what was coming by model and color and we were selling cars still on the ship or truck and buyers were waiting sometimes weeks to get their new Civic or Accord. So this day I was doing the PDI (pre delivery inspection) on a white '87 4 door Accord. The new owner was coming soon to take delivery. I literally never had an issue with the PDI list. Honda's factory Quality Control associates had the power to stop the assembly line when necessary and cars were carefully inspected prior to transport. The cars I saw were perfect until this day. The model came with a cranberry colored cloth interior but this Accord had a blue center cushion in the rear seat back. The side bolsters were cranberry but the middle part was blue. What an unbelieveable commotion ensued. Phone calls were made and everyone at the dealership came to look at it. Photos inside and out. American Honda did not want to deliver the car like that but the owner wanted to take it and just come back when we had a cranberry cushion for him. I don't recall but I guess we didn't have another white 4 door to swap the cushion with. Honda mothership did everything but fly the CEO from Japan to apologize to the buyer. That's was the difference between Honda and domestic cars in the 80s.