The photo of the P76 is certainly most appropiate for such a piece of junk.
Two noteworthy Aussie built cars were exported to the USA over the years, the Mercury (Ford) Capri, and the Mitsubishi Diamante (Verada).
The quality of those exports was damning on Australian manufacturing and both were short lived in the USA. In contrast the latter in its basic trim level was a respected mainstay locally.
I was unfortunate enough to buy a Diamante, positioned as a Mitsubishi response to very highly regarded Acura and Lexus brands that preceded it. The only kind thing I could say about its quality was
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Forbes (US) has done a story on 32 (Lemon) cars to avoidâŠ
No surprises, but there are many Jeep models on the list (I wonder if any of the models didnât score a guernsey?)
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I donât know about the design but I can vouch for quality of the construction. The Leylands factory at Zetland was an absurd old-school edifice of British class struggle and failed industrial relations strategies.
Management did their best to stay distant from workers, they basically never spoke to them, they had different payrolls administered by different staff, at different windows, and different lunch rooms. If a Manager ever appeared it was in white shirt and tie and coat. They issued directions via the foremen who were employed on the basis of having some experience on the chain line and being multilingual. The latter was required because many workers had no English. The workers fragmented into ethnic/language groups that disrespected each other. Management provided a tea trolley, one Spaniard used to ambush it before it got far on to the floor and drink as much milk as possible. Depending on the day he explained this as only his due as Management were such or because he was justified leaving half the crew with no milk in their tea because they were Greek.
The place was noisy, dirty and hot (no aircon) and the pay was poor. The only international effort was the subgroup who decamped to the Zetland pub where they drank as many schooners as possible in the time allowed for lunch. Women could be catcalled in a number of languages and tended to keep together for some degree of mutual protection.
Morale was so low that absenteeism was acute, you got a bonus for turning up at work for the whole week, Management could never understand why they had so many problems.
Build quality was abysmal. In the way of production lines things had to be put on in the right way in the right order. If something wasnât right the next bit didnât fit. Sometimes you would see this problem compound as successive stations failed (within the limited time) to add their component so that the carcase became a moving heap of junk. In some cases standard procedure was to first remove some part (that should never have been there) to put your part on. This climaxed at the point where two lines came together, where the body was dropped on to the chassis and drivetrain. Sometimes they could not be fitted together. There was a special section of the huge parking lot where undeliverable cars were kept until they were cannibalized for parts or brought up to being motile on overtime. One line was often backlogged because near the end was a testing station to make sure the vehicle was weathertight. So many door seals leaked they held up everything, so these went out into the yard. The only enticement offered for good performance was that if you were good you might get some overtime, this was on weekends where the favoured fixed up the cars that the crew couldnât build properly through the week. Think about how that got people to do better work.
There are two words to describe the Management: absolutely clueless.
Edit:
The factory staff used to clock on and off using time cards so naturally (as the Skinner research suggests) cash pay envelopes were received right next to the Clocks, in an orderly line of course. This was right next to the station that employed solvents and degreaser. Smoking was permitted on the site and one of the payday entertainments was brave souls extinguishing their fags in open tubs of liquid as the workers filed past. I donât know what the fluid was but the performance was quite odd. Either it was flammable and there was a pointless risk to all or it was not and the inmates were being conned. Either way Management did nothing. A strange experience.
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The P76 and pub lunches at Zetland.
How would you describe those who stars in their eyes bought one? The P76, not lunch in the Zetland pub!
Unfortunate is one choice. Unlikely to be anyone who had a counter lunch at the Zetland pub, no matter how many schooners?
Style aside, remembering the wedge shaped sharp and edgy lines were in for a while in a clothing sense. There were also the Fiat X19 and Triumph TR7 and TR8! As well as a few other notables. Perhaps a Saab or two. Memory fails me as to what started this whole wedge shaped styling trend off. Perhaps itâs not so memorable after all.
Perhaps one lunch too many, also in the Zetland pub?
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Actually the wedge shape still occurs with many vehicles but in a more curved manner than the straight edges of those yesteryears. Most cars before that had more squared off front ends that had large radiator panels in them, and were a bit more wind resistant. The alloy V8 in the P76 had great power to weight ratio and in many cases provided better PwR than many cast iron engines running in other brands. The alloy engine is much more a feature these days in most cars but was heavily critiqued by GMH and Ford at the time.
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Th e description you provided wasnât just the car industry the same could be said for most large Australian employer organisations of the era. Oh and you forgot the reason these places aspired for mediocrity was because the promotion system wasnât based on skills or merit.
A post I did in another topic in this forum.
And even when the death knell was looming, Leyland (BMC) continued to produce âvehiclesâ with their continuing arrogance.
In their final days in Australia, a couple of their last pieces of crap were the Morris Marina and the Austin Tasman.
They even had a TV ad depicting an Asian man karate chopping the bonnet of one of the pieces of junk and then saying âDevilishly clever, these Australiansâ.
He probably meant that they had managed to prop it up so the karate chop did not cause it to self destruct.
An article regarding the 100 most valuable brands on the planet with Toyota at #7 being the most valuable vehicle brand.
And the full list.
And the vehicles in the full list.
No Jeep or any other FCA junk. What a surpriseâŠ
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Dont knock the P76. They looked good (for their time), had a large enough boot capacity to hold a 200 Litre Drum, and were actually a pretty good car (just never had a good rap in Australia).
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⊠and the shape was really just âpre-magnaâ ⊠oddly enough âŠ
I know a couple of people who owned one and swore by it (not at it)
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Not a knocker? There are enough similar era examples that had major issues, and triumphed in their own way. The Lancia Stratos had equally unconventional styling, reliability and design issues from the beginning (Lancia trait) before going on to triumph as a rally car. The TR7 was a massive step away from the TR6 or cheapish and cheerful basket case that was the Herald. One a leap a little too far, the latter a leap not far enough, unless pushed empty over a cliff?
For the P76, and the brilliant alloy V8 version perhaps there would have been a different future if it had been done well from the beginning?
The design offered many features that more staid and aged designs dared not attempt.
The style was divisive. You either loved it or hated it.
The lack of consistent build quality was legendary.
The design was never 100% effective with poor execution, water leaks, burnt floor carpets from exhaust heat and rear windows that literally fell out all down to inadequate design. And the V8 would overheat when stuck in traffic!
In comparison with todayâs lesser and newer vehicles, are there any that can be said to be even one tenth as woeful as any of the lemons of the sixties and seventies?
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An article regarding the new Jeep Renegade PHEV.
Or should that be PHEW?
And FCA and PSA will merger to form the worldâs fourth largest auto company but do not yet have a name for it.
Based on past FCA fiascos, I can suggest quite a few. They all have only 4 letters.
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Take no prisoners and spread the good humour. 
Every big car brand has itâs favourite jingle. No doubt the merged entity if it comes about will need a brand new one. Opportunity?
But for now, perhaps we should keep it simple and nominate âTen slabs of Corona, sitting in the fridgeâ as our favourite Xmas celebration song? Jeep optional, although after the first few, what ever brand of unreliable car you mistakenly purchased, it might not be of immediate concern. 
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I purchased a KIACerato from National Capital Motors in Belconnen in Canberra in December 2018.
The car supposedly has a 7 year warranty.
I have been back on a couple of occasions to complain about the inaccuracy of the speedometer. When the speedo reads 100kph the actual road speed is just under 90kph. National capital motors refused to fix the problem. I rang KIA and complained and they flat out refused to fix the problem.
When I put my car in for its 12 Month service I again mentioned it, again they refused to even look at it this time.
I also complained about the proximity sensors on the front passenger side, the âmechanicâ said he cleaned them and they now work. I cleaned the whole car the day before I put in in. They still donât work.
The car changes gears for no apparent reason, like going around a corner and it changes back to 1st gear. The âmechanicâ reset the gearbox, whatever that might mean. It is still faulty.
Basically the service consisted of an oil change and cost $259.00.
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Hi @magpie and welcome to the forum. It sounds like you have the makings of a lemon with unacceptable dealer service, but a few points prior to concluding that.
ADR 18 mandates speedos cannot indicate less then true speed but over-indication can be up to 10% actual speed + 4kph. So while your car is travelling at 90 kph the speedo can display 10% (9 kph) +4kph higher, so as much as 103 kph and be compliant. It is appalling there can be that much discrepancy, but it comes from globally homogenised rule making so by definition you do not have a problem. That would be why Kia declines to take action.
That should be an easy one to demonstrate. I had a similar problem on our Renault post service when the sensors stopped sensing. Right back to the shop. They were red faced that a connection was not reinserted properly and it was a quick fix.
Iâd give them another go while keeping the service manager advised it is a return call for the same problem. If still no satisfaction try another Kia dealership and be up front if they do good work, they will get your service business, and follow through.
The reset is probably like a reboot since everything is computer controlled. That sometimes fixes various problems.
To get Kiaâs view on whether it is shifting properly take the service manager for a ride to demonstrate what you claim is faulty, if you have not already. Describing something to a service writer is different from having a mechanic experience (and agree) with your observation, or to claim âthat is how it isâ (and then get a second opinion!)
Good luck getting it sorted, and we would like to know how you go with it.
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Hi @magpie, welcome aboard to the forum.
Just a quick question, how do you know that the speed of the car on the speedometer was over reporting the speed?
If you used a GPS to try and calibrate the speedometer, this may not be the most suitable way to check the speedometer accuracy. This other thread covers this:
From what I understand these are parking senors and work when the car is either in reverse or when the sensors are manually activated by hitting the button on the centre consoleâŠ
Does the senor work under both these conditionsâŠcan be checked by someone else outside the car and moving towards the sensor(s) in question.
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And now Jeep aims to challenge Suzuki in the small SUV segment.
I would be putting my money on Suzuki.
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3 posts were merged into an existing topic: What are the Best Car Makes, Drivability, Reliability, Safety and Support
