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I think this whole class action lawsuit thing will be interesting to watch. If you look back 25-30 or more years ago, it was unusual for high revving European cars in the US to have engines that lasted 100K miles without some sort of failure. When I was growing up, we had a 1966 4 cylinder Mercedes that needed a full valve job at 70K miles. The quality Japanese cars really changed the standards for how long small 4 and 6 cylinder engines would last on US highways. Big slow turning American V-8s back then could easily go over 100K miles, which is why they were so highly prized in many places.
Now everyone expects any engine to last forever. Forget about Yugos and all the early imported Korean cars. Engine technology has changed significantly, and so has everyone's expectations.
Here's a good story - my nephew drove down from San Jose to visit us in late June in his hand-me-down 1997 Dodge Intrepid. He had major transmission issues, to the point where his car couldn't make it up my driveway. We did some research and found that a lot of the Chrysler auto transmissions don't last much more than about 50-60K miles, and to get much more than that, you need to do a complete transmission service every 20K miles as well as be lucky. Somehow Chrysler is still in business, but I don't understand why
It's clear that for as much as cars have improved, based upon the high standards and expectations set by the Japanese manufacturers, the reality is that some parts on some cars just don't last forever. Even Porsche has had engine problems throughout its history with the air cooled 911 motors, most recently with 993 engines needing top end rebuilds because of gunked up secondary air injection systems - at less than 40K miles.
I'd like to see this guy win his case, and Porsche have to provide new engines to 986 and 996 owners for free until the end of time (just because I have a selfish, vested interest), but I don't see his case going that way
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