The reluctance was in part tongue in cheek. In part reluctance to attribute quality and durability to a newcomer. Cars are complex and history is littered with failed car companies.
DeLorean is a good example. Ex GM designer, decided he’d make his own car company. Killer styling, shitty PRV motor. The 88mph thing from Back to the Future is a bit of a joke on the underpowered engine in a heavy car. It’s actually quite a challenge to get that thing up to speed.
In that example the engine fails the long term quality test due to (among other things) the valley of death, a V shape in the top of the engine where water pools and rusts right through.
The chassis fails maintenance tests because the cooling system uses a combination of hard and soft lines (remember the engine is in the back, radiator in the front) so replacing degraded cooling hoses takes days as you replace 30 different rubber hoses.
Both of these maintenance shortcomings only become apparent years later.
So BYD looks good so far. But time will tell. (Will the batteries last? Are the electronics repairable? Are there unexpected shortcomings?)
> The 88mph thing from Back to the Future is a bit of a joke on the underpowered engine in a heavy car. It’s actually quite a challenge to get that thing up to speed.
DeLorean is a good example. Ex GM designer, decided he’d make his own car company. Killer styling, shitty PRV motor. The 88mph thing from Back to the Future is a bit of a joke on the underpowered engine in a heavy car. It’s actually quite a challenge to get that thing up to speed.
In that example the engine fails the long term quality test due to (among other things) the valley of death, a V shape in the top of the engine where water pools and rusts right through.
The chassis fails maintenance tests because the cooling system uses a combination of hard and soft lines (remember the engine is in the back, radiator in the front) so replacing degraded cooling hoses takes days as you replace 30 different rubber hoses. Both of these maintenance shortcomings only become apparent years later.
So BYD looks good so far. But time will tell. (Will the batteries last? Are the electronics repairable? Are there unexpected shortcomings?)