Fair Comparisons

[jimfoz]

Originally Posted by 408Berlin

I wonder why people treat the quality of Bristols so high. They rust like any other car, they have technical problems like any other car. If I look at my Mercedes 220 SE from 1960 I see no difference in the quality compared to a Bristol. I guess the value will rise if Bristol is willing to open themselves a little bit more to the public like other companies producing such expensive cars like Königsegg or Wiesmann.The funny thing in Germany - I raise far more notice with my frog or my Rover P4 than with my Bristol 408 because nobody knows the company and has no idea about the car. A DB5 is well known from Bond - so people know what to expect. Hans

You wouldn't see any difference in quality. Mercs were built to last in those days and you really could see the vast difference in quality compared to any other car on the road. It no doubt equalled or even exceeded the quality of Bristols. You could also tell the difference in price. Even if your 220SE was the saloon, it was probably twice the price of a 3.4 Mark2 Jaguar. Coupe's were perhaps three times the price! Today however, other manufacturers have caught up as quality control has become much more importance and good quality parts can be produced more cheaply. It's well known that Mercedes have almost taken a backward step in this field as people's perception of Mercedes Benz quality has gone downward and you get many 'They don't make them like they used to....' comments.
I borrowed an ML a few months back and the quality of the interior palstics was risible and out of place in a £45k car.

[Kevin H]

Originally Posted by lansdownplace

Hi Kevin, I think you need to look at the top notch 411 restorations and S6s to appreciate why the press at the time thought that Bristol had a seat at the very top of the build quality tree.

Paul,
I have no doubt that some restorations of Bristols and the 411 S6 upgrade, result in a car that was better than new. But you can take almost ANY classic car and restore/upgrade it so it is better than when it originally came out of the factory.

However, when you were talking about why people buy Bristols I thought you were talking more in a general sense.

I bought 411 because I considered it to be a "practical" classic which can comfortably transport 4 people. The anonymity also appeals to me and the fact that I will never see another one pull up beside me at the lights (there are only 2 or 3 411 S5s in Australia - when I bought mine I think it was the only one).

I must admit I thought I was also buying something special in terms of engineering and quality, mainly due to reading Setright's 'A Private Car'. However once I started working on the car I soon realised that engineering and quality were nothing special (apart from the panel fit, which is excellent).

I would describe the engineering as relatively simple and robust - nothing wrong with that, because it does the job. Fortunately most quality issues can be addresses retrospectively, albeit at some expense.

Originally Posted by 408Berlin

I wonder why people treat the quality of Bristols so high.

To a large extent it is the "link" with an aeroplane manufacturer, combined with the new purchase price and exclusivity. In other words, it's largely perception. In reality I suspect quality started diminishing shortly after the car business became detached from the aeroplane business.

Getting back to values. It's ironic that while other classic "prestige" cars, particularly sports cars such as Astons, fetch much higher prices today, they were usually cheaper than Bristols when they were new.

Most of the other manufacturers went bust, (Aston went broke several times), probably because their development costs were much higher and they did more in-house. They also spent more on marketing and they also sold through dealer networks.

Bristol Cars of course is still going today, still in private hands.

I wonder what Bristol 407-412 values would be today if Bristol had developed the prototype BMW V8 engine as Aldington suggested back in the 1940s ...

[mendelo]

"As an aside, the vast
majority of Bristol Owners seem to use Macs, which I think reveals an
individual streak where utility and quality are more important than
following the masses."

I find this statement alarming as I always assumed the ownership of a Bristol to reveal a truly individual character with some mechanical acumen whereas a Mac is a product of an entirely design and marketing driven firm with very little actual engineering, quality and creativity and whose products provide even less expression of individuality than PCs. Sort of like Bose.

[Kevin H]

see here

[julf]

Kevin Howard wrote:

Hey guys, how about we discuss the merits of the various computer
operating systems over here
(http://www.bristolcars.info/forums/o...le-linux.html)

Absolutely - the problem is that the email interface to the
forum is so slow that I posted my responses long before the
message about the new topic got into my inbox.

Julf

[Kevin H]

Originally Posted by julf

Absolutely - the problem is that the email interface to the
forum is so slow that I posted my responses long before the
message about the new topic got into my inbox.

Julf

"slow interface" - what do you mean?

When anyone makes a post in one of the forums on this site the email notifications to subscribers of that forum* go out within 30 seconds (max).

You posted your responses 2 hours BEFORE I created the new thread about computer talk and suggested people use that thread.

* this applies only to people who have "instant email notification" set for that forum

[julf]

- You posted your responses 2 hours BEFORE I created
- the new thread about computer talk and suggested people
- use that thread.

Thanks! That would explain that delay then...


- When anyone makes a post in one of the forums on this
- site the email notifications to subscribers of that
- forum* go out within 30 seconds (max).

Well, great, but... Your reply arrived here quite a bit before I
received my own message that you replied to. Most of the time
bristolcars.info messages arrive badly out of order, with some
messages quite delayed.

Looks like my message actually took something like 24 hours
to get back to me.

So somewhere between nsau.net and my mail server there is
a serious (and spurious) delay loop.

Julf

[browning l]

Julf - I can not help with the messaging part, but I think you need a different word than "spurrious," which means "false, bogus, faked, etc., etc."

[Kevin H]

Originally Posted by julf

Well, great, but... Your reply arrived here quite a bit before I
received my own message that you replied to. Most of the time
bristolcars.info messages arrive badly out of order, with some
messages quite delayed.

I haven't noticed it myself. But I can assure you that a few seconds after a post is made on site I can see the email notifications going out from the mail server.

Looks like my message actually took something like 24 hours
to get back to me.

So somewhere between nsau.net and my mail server there is
a serious (and spurious) delay loop.

Julf

I'm sorry Julf but I cannot be responsible what happens to mail once it leaves my server.

You of all people should be able to interpret the SMTP headers and see where the delay is if you are really that bothered by it

We're probably boring most of the people on this forum to tears now, so I suggest we continue this discussion off line or in the About This Site forum.

Regards,
Kevin