theriusDR3 wrote: ↑24 Mar 2020, 09:11
Last Asian F1 engine manufacturer to won F1 title was Honda in 1991 when Honda was McLaren's engine supplier that time.
Yet the most successful engine manufacturer in F1 is America's Ford Motor Company. Not a European manufacturer as such, albeit it could be argued that Ford-Werke GmbH is more German than American.
Your opinions?
Since F1 is predominantly a European series, surely it's self-evident why European manufacturers and engine companies are more successful?
Despite this, the more I look into and repair my Renault passenger car, the more it seems shoddy and poorly made compared to my previous Honda passenger cars.
Everything on a Honda is exacting and precise, logical and well-made, the more I looked into it the more impressed I became.
The Renault, however, very much seems to be a built and assembled with a "close enough is good enough" philosophy - it seems OK at a superficial level (fit and finish and paint quality is all fine) but the more you look into it, the more unimpressed you get.
The wiring is very messy -- not just on the engine (as opposed to the neat plastic runners with tidy wiring on a Honda engine), but in the cabin loom as well: some of the wiring runs are nowhere near the right length and are coiled-up with a cable-tie, one of the body control modules was double-sided-taped (!!!) to the inside of the boot and had fallen off, the design of the air-intake seems crude compared to that of a Honda, an abundance of plastic parts in the clutch and engine cooling systems, a poorly executed left-hand-drive to right-hand-drive conversion... I can go on and on... Quite disappointing.
Manoah2u wrote: ↑26 Mar 2020, 00:14
if Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault are 'in front' of 'Asian brands' (Honda, Toyota) in F1, then why aren't we seeing that in car sales?
Because each new vehicle market has it's own biases and preferences?
Where VAG and Renault brands dominate small cars sales in the EU (IIRC Toyota are a disappointing 5th or 6th place in EU cars sales); in Asia, Australasia and North America on the other hand, small car sales are dominated by Japanese and Korean brands, particularly Toyota.
In the Middle East, Toyota reigns supreme... particularly for 4WDs. Say what you like about Toyota's (mostly) conservative and outdated designs -- in addition to having high levels of quality control to start with, the old-fashioned layout of Toyota vehicles (LOTS of space in the engine bay, with seemingly an aversion to placing styling before serviceability) makes them easy to repair and so mechanics love them. It's almost as if Toyota are scared of changing anything unnecessarily, in case mechanics complain.
Of course too, the American affection for full-size pick-up trucks is well known. While Toyota and Nissan do dabble in that space, the big seller (and indeed best selling vehicle in the world at times?) are the American pick-ups, such as the Ford F150.