June 20: When was your car built?

My last car was a 2009 Acura TL AWD. I really liked it, but strange, that it being my first Japanese car and one from Honda, that I should have had so many problems with it. Typical? Not by a long shot. Just one of those things. Once when I was telling someone about it, they said, "Must have been a Monday or a Friday car." What were they talking about?

They were talking about the old days and those old days are not too far back in the car manufacturers' pasts. Look at these guys working on this old car assembly line. They were in a huge complex like this one.......

......the Ford Motor Company's River Rouge assembly plant. You want stats? It took ten years to build, comprised of 93 buildings, 16 million square feet, 2.4 by 1.6 kms. Biggest manufacturing building in the world. My point? The assembly workers' jobs were sheer drudgery and because of this, many took Mondays or Fridays off, by calling in sick or whatever. Hard to fire a hard working union member for being "sick". With so many people off on those days, the work had to be done by fewer workers and so some things weren't done, meaning a car would leave the plant not quite ready for prime time. A Monday or a Friday car.

Things change, although that River Rouge plant still pumps out Fords, the assembly line has a different look these days......

Think any of these robots care whether it is Monday, Wednesday or even Sunday? Probably not, at least not yet, but who knows what will happen in the future (HAL 9000 are you reading this)? So the old idea of a Monday or Friday car has gone by the wayside, although that thought still comes up from time to time.

But apart from those robots, the assembly process has been made more humane or at least a little more interesting. Sometimes the workers follow one car from start to finish, so that they are not always installing the same five nuts minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day. Great job? Not sure, but definitely better than before and nowadays, with much better quality.

Camaro's Oshawa, Ontario plant

Speaking of quality........our Canadian plants have just been named leaders in global quality rankings by JD Power  -  yeaaaaa!!!

So, if you ever hear a Monday or Friday car comment, you can speak with authority, that Barry has said there is no such thing anymore. Makes you feel better, doesn't it?

Until next time........