Autocar UK – 28 August 2019

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Some people feel using the phrase ‘perceived

quality’ pulls punches, but it isn’t a cop out

a

The perceived quality

is high, but the actual

quality? Time will tell

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The birth of Bristol

3 August 1945

TE STE R ’ S N OTE S

Matt Prior

Polished mahogany

isn’t necessarily a

s i g n of g o o d q u a l i t y

X

ESTABLISHED 1895

90 AUTOCAR.CO.UK 28 AUGUST 2 019

efine ‘quality’.

I got asked it once,

during a lecture about

materials or production

or s ome t h i n g. I for ge t e x a c t l y.

But I do remember the lecturer

and his love for the way metal coat

hangers were made. It was his

favourite topic: he was fascinated

b y t h i s lon g pie c e of w i r e , c omple x l y

b e nt t o m a k e a c he ap, r e l i a ble a nd

efficient product. He thought it was

one of the world’s greatest inventions.

And I think that, in relation to the

quality question, its relevance was:

how would a basic wire coat hanger

fare if you asked people whether it

was of good quality?

Answer: it wouldn’t do well. Wire

coat hangers are cheap. You can buy

50 of them for £7. They’re very basic

and there are far more luxurious

e x a mple s of c oat h a n ge r s t h at do a

better job at hanging. You can get

wooden ones, or padded ones, or ones

with little clips on. Go to pretentious

hotels and they’re so worried about

you nicking them that they tie them

to clothes rails. So they must be good

to use something pithier, but use

of ‘perceived’ isn’t a cop out, it’s an

important clarification.

The thing about assessing a car

interior is that ‘it feels well screwed

together’ is very different from ‘it is

well screwed together’. One says it

has high perceived quality, the other

suggests it has high actual quality,

and short of disassembling a car and/

or h av i n g a hu ge c on s u me r s u r v e y

once the car’s in general use, you can

only know one of those is true.

Some very expensive cars,

which might feel of high quality,

routinely finish bottom of customer

satisfaction surveys. They feel

great, but they’re actually rubbish

to own and, ultimately, these are

surveys of quality.

If I wrote that a car ‘has a good

quality interior’, it would be an

explicit endorsement of not just how a

car feels, but how it is made. And then

when it fell apart after three years,

you’d call me a lying toad. And I’d

rather you didn’t do that, so I won’t

take the chance. I will, though,

bet the wire coat hanger is the

highest-quality thing you’ll own.

THE BRITISH AND Colonial

Aeroplane Company was founded

in Bristol in 1910 by electric tram

pioneer Sir George White after an

inspiring chat with Wilbur Wright.

After producing aircraft for 35

years, the firm decided to “extend

to various related branches of

high-class engineering”.

So came our story on 3 August

1945 that Bristol had bought AFN,

the parent firm of pre-war BMW

builder and importer Frazer Nash.

Come September and we could

detail the 400, a sports saloon with

the chassis of BMW’s 326 and the

80hp engine of its 328. “Steering,

braking, and roadholding are just

as the enthusiastic driver would

specify,” we later wrote.

Bristol had some success, the

car division gaining independence

in 1960. It survived bankruptcy in

2011 and now maintains old cars.

quality, no? Good quality is nice, As for the new one, all’s gone quiet.

bad quality is basic: that’s what

we all thought.

Ah. Not so, said my lecturer.

Because in production, that’s not

what quality means. When you have

quality control in a factory, it’s there

to ensure they build the same thing

to the same standard, every time.

T h at ’s it. I s it t o s p e c i f ic at ion?

Then it passes.

The quality control at the wire coat

hanger factory doesn’t reject every

w i r e c oat h a n ge r b e c au s e it do e sn’t

smell of lavender or have a yellow

bow tied around it. Well, I assume it

doesn’t. I imagine it passes the vast

m ajor it y of w i r e c oat h a n ge r s a s f it

for purpose because they’re built

like they should be.

To g i v e s a id le c t u r e r h i s due ,

they are fantastically durable.

Unlike plastic or wooden or padded

coat hangers, I haven’t had to throw

a wire coat hanger away since

turning one into a makeshift car

aerial two decades ago.

Which brings me to car interiors

and the phrase, which some of my

colleagues have taken a dislike to,

‘perceived quality’.

The ‘perceived’ bit is the important

bit. S ome p e ople fe e l u si n g it pu l l s

punches, that it’s weaselly, that we

shou ld me a n w h at w e s ay. Me , I t r y

D