Different quality cars from same manufacturer

[Tommy Cookers]

small cars are now 'town cars', having minimal rear overhang, hence very little weight on the rear wheels when lightly laden

Hyundais of this type always had (even in the UK market) the 'usual' Asian-market soft ride
now they are all made in India, and have a notably stiff suspension (ie rock hard at the rear unless fully laden, presumably for Indian conditions)

manufacturers fitted parts bought in from suppliers on a commercial basis ie bargaining, with both suppliers and customers in competition, and largely driven by credit considerations
this caused random and very irritating variations in significant equipment eg 3 different brake systems in 1 years production of Peugeot 106

does this no longer apply ?

[Smokes]

small cars are now 'town cars', having minimal rear overhang, hence very little weight on the rear wheels when lightly laden

Hyundais of this type always had (even in the UK market) the 'usual' Asian-market soft ride
now they are all made in India, and have a notably stiff suspension (ie rock hard at the rear unless fully laden, presumably for Indian conditions)

manufacturers fitted parts bought in from suppliers on a commercial basis ie bargaining, with both suppliers and customers in competition, and largely driven by credit considerations
this caused random and very irritating variations in significant equipment eg 3 different brake systems in 1 years production of Peugeot 106

does this no longer apply ?

Eu safety regs limit how much overhang you can have.

supenions setting are very market dependant most try and use the UK as a good base line due to mix of road surfaces.

Peugeots had diffrent system due which plant they where manufacutred girling (uk) bendix (france) but i am sure that has changed not

[Greg Locock]

small cars are now 'town cars', having minimal rear overhang,

Eu safety regs limit how much overhang you can have.

oh, which ones? BMW must be in trouble then, since their rear wheels are usually as far forward as is practical.

[Jon]

Well, I live in Mexico, quite near to the US, so I have relative easy access to cars from two very different markets.

I know by experience that this happens. Let me give you a few examples.

First, an example with General Motors trucks. I used to own a 1986 GMC Suburban. I actually bough it used, and imported it to Mexico. I also had a friend with a GMC Suburban bought new in Mexico. Well, this friend once took a trip from San Diego, California, to Houston, Texas. Somewhere in Arizona, his truck had overheating problems. The next year, around the same time, me and my truck passed through without any issues. This was a specific issue, but the two trucks also were, in general, quite different in its build quality. Mine was older and had three kids jumping all around all the time, and yet it endured all much better than his truck endured him and his wife. You could see these details everywhere: the seats, the floor carpets, the radio, speakers, etc.

Now, an example with Volkswagen.
This happened in the early 90s. A friend of mine had a year old VW Golf and made a trip from Mexico City, to NY. His was a fully loaded Golf (not a GTI, just below that). Somewhere in the US (sorry, the location escapes my memory), his car developed a problem, so he stopped in the next VW dealership he could found. They performed a diagnosis and told him that there was a problem with the car's carburetor. However, they were unable to fix it, as they didn't have the parts for it. - How come? - my friend asked. The reply was that there were no VW vehicles sold in the US with carburetors for a few years now, all were Fuel Injection, so they didn't carry the parts. I can assure you that VW was still selling cars that used carburetors at the time in Mexico.

To be fair, the last time I was able to make an observation like this was in the late 90s, so things might have changed. I have the feeling that it has not changed much.

[Tommy Cookers]

In the EU the 3-way (Oxidation and Reduction) catalyst has been mandated (in cars) for the last 20 years, in Japan and the USA for about 30 years (after about 10 years with 2-way (Oxidation) catalysts).

Does the whole world now mandate 3-way, or are some countries still allowing 2-way or no catalyst ?
any idea of the history of this progress ?

The 'do-gooders' 'did bad' in mandating 3-way' because it increases fuel consumption (thereby increases CO2 emissions, 'bad for the climate'), as stoichiometric mixture must always be used partial powers are developed entirely by throttling, rather than 2-way where mixture leaning is used, with less or no throttling.
Some recent cars have design features and/or intelligent control to lower NOx at source so that the catalyst is rarely/never operated 3-way, giving better economy and less CO2 (emissions the lawmakers ignore at this point, to avoid unpopularity).

Older designs and their factories are sold off and production restarted in countries with less demanding rules ?
Japan applies (or has applied) rule changes retroactively ie to cars already in use, this forces the export of huge numbers of little-used cars, to the advantage of the recipient countries.
This is the worst kind of protectionism (which the EU is now starting to emulate).

So I'm wondering where we are today, have we 'gone global' or not ?

[Smokes]

You will find we haven't gone global with car standards as the automotive lobby dictate the standards in each country it seems.

[Smokes]

small cars are now 'town cars', having minimal rear overhang,

Eu safety regs limit how much overhang you can have.

oh, which ones? BMW must be in trouble then, since their rear wheels are usually as far forward as is practical.

it more to do with pedestrian safety reg

The 106 and 306 and citron AX have less overhang than the BMW

[Greg Locock]

You don't seem to be explainig youself very well. The point made was that small cars had small rear overhang, and now you claim this is due to EEC pedestrian safety regs? Do you often reverse into pedestrians at high speed? How does fitting the rear wheels near the bumper help them?

[Belatti]

In Argentina they are still selling these:







These are 1990s models with 2012 facelift restylings but have basically the same equipment (no ABS, no Airbag, no AC, no power steering, not even a CD player) and prerformance. The worst part is that they cost arround 10k USD

Could VW, GM or Fiat sell those in the US or Europe? How morrons are my fellow countrymen that go and buy that?