Visual Entertainment and Technologies Forum

What i was wondering recently, is how much influence the quality or design of the components in a vehicle actually effect what people think of the vehicle in Gearcity and the Real World.
I know there are a few stats that often get thrown around, such as HP and kw, but im not really sure how much people care about whether their car has a good Gearbox or Chassis for example.

The reason the question came up is i was looking at the stats thinking that the component quality really wasnt having a huge effect on my overall vehicle quality, but this got me wondering whether that is actually a reflection of the perception of consumers in general.

Does anyone want to share their personal experience on this, or say whether they think it matters much to people in general?

If you've ever driven a vehicle with a poor gearbox, you'd really care about gearbox quality!

To give you some real world examples: Mitsubishi 3 speed automatic, smoothly shifts, great fuel economy for an automatic, but HORRIBLE performance. It's hell on the highway as it makes the engine redline at 82mph! (132km/h). Such a gearbox would lower the vehicle's performance stat, and increase it's fuel stat...

The dodge version of the same transmission is plagued with issues in the mid 90s Grand Caravan. As such many of those models are considered crappy cars to buy. Durability and Quality ratings have decreased.

Ever driven an automatic with a jerky shift? Or how about Alfa Romeo and their weird second gears, certainly the comfort ratings of those gearboxes are lower... As an effect they effect the overall perception of the driver.

From my days working in the auto industry, 10% of the population don't even know what brand of car they drive. So no, they don't care what gearbox the vehicle has, but they do care how it effects the vehicle.

So yes, components should effect all stats of the vehicle. BUT they're not the only stats to factor in.

You bring up quality for instance. Well this is the quality of, Materials, body panels, interior, design, chassis, suspension, engine, fuel, gearbox, gears, design focus, so on , and so forth. Your "Gearbox quality" probably only plays a few % into the grand scheme of things, so no you probably wouldn't notice any more than a half star between the best and the worst. (The consumers will know though )

I think for Joe Blow hp and kW don't really mean anything as long as the car doesn't feel like a slug. ftlb and Nm generally mean a lot more in practice because they give a car get up and go where as the other two are more about km/h or mph and most people never go much more than 10% above the speed limit anyway.
Gearbox, chassis and suspension quality I think are generally more important because they play a much bigger role in the driver's comfort and safety. People can easily feel a clunky gear box or a floppy chassis much more than they can a sub-par engine.
All of the above however is much less important than how the parts are put together or what the bits they can touch and see are like ie: the body work and interior.
So, I think it's fairly accurate that the components used in the car have a relatively small effect on its overall rating than the settings on the sliders in the vehicle design screen. They should still have an effect just not as big.


Note: all of the above is merely my opinion and are very general statements. Obviously the quality of an engine will have a much bigger effect on people's opinions if a super car compared to a hatchback for example.... Etc.... Etc....

(02-11-2014, 12:57 AM)Eric.B Wrote: [ -> ]If you've ever driven a vehicle with a poor gearbox, you'd really care about gearbox quality!

To give you some real world examples: Mitsubishi 3 speed automatic, smoothly shifts, great fuel economy for an automatic, but HORRIBLE performance. It's hell on the highway as it makes the engine redline at 82mph! (132km/h). Such a gearbox would lower the vehicle's performance stat, and increase it's fuel stat...

The dodge version of the same transmission is plagued with issues in the mid 90s Grand Caravan. As such many of those models are considered crappy cars to buy. Durability and Quality ratings have decreased.

Ever driven an automatic with a jerky shift? Or how about Alfa Romeo and their weird second gears, certainly the comfort ratings of those gearboxes are lower... As an effect they effect the overall perception of the driver.

From my days working in the auto industry, 10% of the population don't even know what brand of car they drive. So no, they don't care what gearbox the vehicle has, but they do care how it effects the vehicle.

So yes, components should effect all stats of the vehicle. BUT they're not the only stats to factor in.

You bring up quality for instance. Well this is the quality of, Materials, body panels, interior, design, chassis, suspension, engine, fuel, gearbox, gears, design focus, so on , and so forth. Your "Gearbox quality" probably only plays a few % into the grand scheme of things, so no you probably wouldn't notice any more than a half star between the best and the worst. (The consumers will know though )

Thanks for the examples and explanation, that was interesting.

Judging by your explanation, i suppose the answer is that its debatable, unless the component has a noticeable effect on the vehicle.

I wonder if its decreasing sales in my current vehicle, which has good ratings but low quality on most of its components (trying to reduce cost)

(02-11-2014, 01:13 AM)Arakash Wrote: [ -> ]

(02-11-2014, 12:57 AM)Eric.B Wrote: [ -> ]If you've ever driven a vehicle with a poor gearbox, you'd really care about gearbox quality!

To give you some real world examples: Mitsubishi 3 speed automatic, smoothly shifts, great fuel economy for an automatic, but HORRIBLE performance. It's hell on the highway as it makes the engine redline at 82mph! (132km/h). Such a gearbox would lower the vehicle's performance stat, and increase it's fuel stat...

The dodge version of the same transmission is plagued with issues in the mid 90s Grand Caravan. As such many of those models are considered crappy cars to buy. Durability and Quality ratings have decreased.

Ever driven an automatic with a jerky shift? Or how about Alfa Romeo and their weird second gears, certainly the comfort ratings of those gearboxes are lower... As an effect they effect the overall perception of the driver.

From my days working in the auto industry, 10% of the population don't even know what brand of car they drive. So no, they don't care what gearbox the vehicle has, but they do care how it effects the vehicle.

So yes, components should effect all stats of the vehicle. BUT they're not the only stats to factor in.

You bring up quality for instance. Well this is the quality of, Materials, body panels, interior, design, chassis, suspension, engine, fuel, gearbox, gears, design focus, so on , and so forth. Your "Gearbox quality" probably only plays a few % into the grand scheme of things, so no you probably wouldn't notice any more than a half star between the best and the worst. (The consumers will know though )

Thanks for the examples and explanation, that was interesting.

Judging by your explanation, i suppose the answer is that its debatable, unless the component has a noticeable effect on the vehicle.

I wonder if its decreasing sales in my current vehicle, which has good ratings but low quality on most of its components (trying to reduce cost)

Short answer is yes, but only if there is something better for nearly the same price.

The buying system works by giving the vehicle a rating, this takes into consideration what the consumers are looking for, divided by the price. (Really layman explanation of the formula ) Gearbox qualities do play a factor. If the gearbox is crap, but the rest of the vehicle is better than the competition and cheaper, it may be enough to justify the sale.

So to sum it up, if you put the aforementioned 3 speed in a Minivan, and your competitor puts a much better quality gearbox in their minivan, everything else equal. Just the quality ratings are different by 2 or 3 points. Then the the competitor will have a slight edge when it comes to sales.

(02-11-2014, 01:06 AM)Frankschtaldt Wrote: [ -> ]I think for Joe Blow hp and kW don't really mean anything as long as the car doesn't feel like a slug. ftlb and Nm generally mean a lot more in practice because they give a car get up and go where as the other two are more about km/h or mph and most people never go much more than 10% above the speed limit anyway.
Gearbox, chassis and suspension quality I think are generally more important because they play a much bigger role in the driver's comfort and safety. People can easily feel a clunky gear box or a floppy chassis much more than they can a sub-par engine.
All of the above however is much less important than how the parts are put together or what the bits they can touch and see are like ie: the body work and interior.
So, I think it's fairly accurate that the components used in the car have a relatively small effect on its overall rating than the settings on the sliders in the vehicle design screen. They should still have an effect just not as big.


Note: all of the above is merely my opinion and are very general statements. Obviously the quality of an engine will have a much bigger effect on people's opinions if a super car compared to a hatchback for example.... Etc.... Etc....

Thanks for sharing, your explanation on components/vehicles made a lot of sense to me.
On your last comment/Note, thats a very good point. I suppose we should expect it to vary quite a bit depending on what type of vehicle it is.

(02-11-2014, 01:06 AM)Frankschtaldt Wrote: [ -> ]Note: all of the above is merely my opinion and are very general statements. Obviously the quality of an engine will have a much bigger effect on people's opinions if a super car compared to a hatchback for example.... Etc.... Etc....

Speaking of which, Eric, is there such a weighting of components that varies with style/model type?

(02-11-2014, 11:29 AM)Geredis Wrote: [ -> ]

(02-11-2014, 01:06 AM)Frankschtaldt Wrote: [ -> ]Note: all of the above is merely my opinion and are very general statements. Obviously the quality of an engine will have a much bigger effect on people's opinions if a super car compared to a hatchback for example.... Etc.... Etc....

Speaking of which, Eric, is there such a weighting of components that varies with style/model type?

Consumers generally look at two main stats for a vehicle type. In super car's case it's Performance and Power. The rest get merged into a generic formula. The performance and power stats get amplified in the final buyer rating.

So in a way yes, in a way no. The components themselves don't get weighted but the rating as a whole does. Some things are more important to ratings as well, Engine and Gearbox Ratios is more important than chassis when it comes to "Power" ratings for instance. When it comes to the buyer's rating, Power being the second quality of a supercar, it'll get a 5times boost... Which means a maxed out power rating is worth 5 maxed out other ratings...

Okay, that sounds reasonable - I didn't think you'd individually weigh every single thing for every single car, but...that is nice that there's some sort of meaningful difference between vehicle types aside from a flat modifier for what each market desires.

(02-11-2014, 12:06 PM)Geredis Wrote: [ -> ]Okay, that sounds reasonable - I didn't think you'd individually weigh every single thing for every single car, but...that is nice that there's some sort of meaningful difference between vehicle types aside from a flat modifier for what each market desires.

I found this guide really helpful when designing cars.

I might be a little late for the conversation here, but what the heck. Components can have quite a lot to say on how individuals experience the quality of a car and even whole brands. Though I only have anecdotal evidence for this, I think it applies to a small percentage of costumers nonetheless.

My step father lived in France for 27 years and is still to this day in love with the language and culture, and he travels there every summer to visit the places he loves. He also owned french cars for over 30 years until the gearbox in his Citroën C5 broke down during rush hour, and cost $1000 to repair (couldn't afford to replace it). And a couple of months later it broke down during rush hour once again. This time they wanted $4000 to fix it, and he decided that french cars was something he could live without from now on. Now he even refuses to rent french cars while on vacation.

Is it 100% logical? No. Did he base this on statistics and empirical evidence? No. It's still very human to let things like that rule how one might perceive a car/brand. He was so pissed off. And I laughed so hard

An amusing anecdote Tridon, specially if I ever visit Europe, I'll be doing a roadtrip in a short term lease French car... Maybe I should just stay home.