In this hypothetical, you are the head designer and engineer in charge of every major decision on a vehicle. Your resource allocation represents 100%. You have very talented teams of designers, R&D, developers, etc. But you have to allocate your resources between reliability versus performance.
Reliability would infer using a tried-and-true off-the-shelf product that has the bugs worked out, using more expensive and/or heavier stronger materials, perhaps less attractive or modern designs at times so some designs might suffer from appearing aged or dated.
For example, this category would represent the "best of the best" older designs, like the Jeep inline 4.0L, older Audi or Mercedes engines, the Ford 4.6L, or some of the famous Honda or Toyota engines, etc. and some of the best older transmissions, or other designs that worked well, heavier better quality materials (metals vs. plastics, thicker leather vs. pleather or thin leather, high quality plastic parts less prone to break, etc.) but are now dated and anemic by today's standards. Gradual improvements can be made here, to continually develop these older designs to make them ultra reliable and durable with incremental performance improvements. This category tends to give us 150-200 HP daily drivers cars and 250-300 HP trucks, but these older reliable vehicles seem to have a nostalgic lure in spite of anemic performance numbers.
On the other hand, Performance means pushing the limits, increasing horsepower or torque specs with new untested designs, changing the appearance of function to a new untested one, using new untested and often cheaper and weaker and lighter materials to save weight and cost (such as using plastic parts where aluminum or alloys were previously used), etc. This could represent the huge advances in engines and transmissions, etc. What we see in this category is modern cars that push incredible performance numbers with 300HP daily drivers and 600HP trucks and muscle cars, but seem to fall apart around year 10. The cheap plastics break, the paper thin leather seats and appointments wear through and tear off, etc.
What % of 100 would you allocate into each category? For me, personally, I am mostly nostaligic for the older designs that work, and would like my team to focus on making the most reliable and durable vehicle possible, with incremental improvements in performance. In other words, I place reliability as primary and performance as secondary. I would allocate my resources about 80/20 Reliability/Performance.
What about you?
Reliability would infer using a tried-and-true off-the-shelf product that has the bugs worked out, using more expensive and/or heavier stronger materials, perhaps less attractive or modern designs at times so some designs might suffer from appearing aged or dated.
For example, this category would represent the "best of the best" older designs, like the Jeep inline 4.0L, older Audi or Mercedes engines, the Ford 4.6L, or some of the famous Honda or Toyota engines, etc. and some of the best older transmissions, or other designs that worked well, heavier better quality materials (metals vs. plastics, thicker leather vs. pleather or thin leather, high quality plastic parts less prone to break, etc.) but are now dated and anemic by today's standards. Gradual improvements can be made here, to continually develop these older designs to make them ultra reliable and durable with incremental performance improvements. This category tends to give us 150-200 HP daily drivers cars and 250-300 HP trucks, but these older reliable vehicles seem to have a nostalgic lure in spite of anemic performance numbers.
On the other hand, Performance means pushing the limits, increasing horsepower or torque specs with new untested designs, changing the appearance of function to a new untested one, using new untested and often cheaper and weaker and lighter materials to save weight and cost (such as using plastic parts where aluminum or alloys were previously used), etc. This could represent the huge advances in engines and transmissions, etc. What we see in this category is modern cars that push incredible performance numbers with 300HP daily drivers and 600HP trucks and muscle cars, but seem to fall apart around year 10. The cheap plastics break, the paper thin leather seats and appointments wear through and tear off, etc.
What % of 100 would you allocate into each category? For me, personally, I am mostly nostaligic for the older designs that work, and would like my team to focus on making the most reliable and durable vehicle possible, with incremental improvements in performance. In other words, I place reliability as primary and performance as secondary. I would allocate my resources about 80/20 Reliability/Performance.
What about you?
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