Harsh road package?

[Gasoline Fumes]

I remember some interest here in the "harsh road package" a while back.



I found something interesting at the junkyard:



The 3-stud part came from my sister's '93 Tercel, I think the 4-stud part was from a '91. I don't know if they fit the wagons, or if all '91 Tercels had them, but they're out there. The caster choice isn't lost either, it's still offset so you can rotate it 180º. I'll try to figure out if they fit our favorite Tercels. But I'll probably never figure out why Toyota would even bother making two different parts. Why not use all four holes on every car? It can't be that much cheaper.

[ARCHINSTL]

Gasoline Fumes wrote:

It can't be that much cheaper.

But when you make umpteen-gazillion of them....
Someone a long time ago wrote, commenting on a disparaging remark overheard about Chevrolet Engineering, "Any fool can design a Rolls-Royce water pump, where all costs, complexity, materials, and labor are of no concern for a low-volume item, but it takes a genius to design a Chevy pump..."
And they want the same car to be as reliable in Uzbekistan as in Upper Overland Park.
Tom M.

[Typrus]

1 pennies times 1,000,000... 10,000. $300 profit time 1,000,000... 300,000,000.

A penny worth of stamped metal...... Sure does add up!

[ARCHINSTL]

To which you add extra time on the assembly line, in the order entry system, and then the design time. And contacting the OE supplier and the extra setups on a stamping press and maybe a different bushing. And extra stocking at aftermarket warehouses. And probably more tiny costs I am forgetting.
There IS a reason that cost accountants are called bean counters...
There IS a reason so many low-volume car manufacturers enter and quickly go out of business: Kinda like those old Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney movies: "I know! Let's have a show! We can use the garage in the back and then..." (yeah, yeah, who are those people...). It's sorta like "Let's build this great car and then figure out the cost and then price it." And then later: "OMG - it cost that much? No one will ever buy it." Cost plus only works for Halliburton...
Tom M.
P.S. My grades in Accounting in Collitch were never revealed to the daughter who heads the Accounting Department for a large outfit. When daughters snicker...

[Mac]

who knows why?

why did toyota decide to spend the extra money for aluminum valve covers instead of stamped steel ones?

if you try to save money on every little detail you end up with a cavilier, if you spare no expense, you end up with a McLaren F1. somewhere in between you'll have a toyota.

[ARCHINSTL]

Good point on the aluminum cam cover.
It couldn't have been for a marketing point, as who looks under the hood of an econocar, even a 4WD Wagon?
Overall, the 4-bolt support could be worked into more of a selling feature than an alloy cam cover.
And - in those days, aluminum was definitely not as cheap as it is now, so why the alloy cover? Some tech reason (although it escapes me)?
In the bike biz, aluminum was bordering on exotic in those days of even just 20+ years ago, and alloy frames were not too common then.
Tom M.