13 replies to this topic

[BMR]

Wouldn't it be nice to buy a new slotcar and not have to replace the gear set and axle bushes ?
Yep new car same old problems , I won't mention the brand of car but as one of the oldest 1/32 scale brands around on the market you would think they could get the gears to mesh properly by now. Wheels are supposed to be round aren't they ?
The sidewinder motored Ferrari I have just purchased has a gear mesh that makes my grandads 50 year old cement mixer look like it runs as smooth as a Swiss watch. Once again if I want a car to run nice I will be buying axle , rims and a gear from the after market people.
Yes these cars are only toys that are primarily sold as Xmas presents and when they run on a plastic track that goes click clack click clack every lap around and a magnet holds the car on so well it disguises the fact that the manufacturers quality control is practically non existant. When will the makers learn that beyond the Xmas present for little Johnny there is a huge market of people that have way more than 4 or 5 cars and we keep on adding to our collections , HOW ABOUT SOME QUALITY ? Is that too much for us to ask for our $50.00 ?
I send the maker of my Ferrari slotcar an email , nice and neat , not a nasty complaint just a few questions , the reply was ..." We have many checks done in the process of manufacturing but sometimes some problems do slip through " mmmm

Im interested to know how many of you fellow slotcar freaks have bought your new machine home only to find its a lemon with a twisted chassis or factory cracked rims or worse ?
What the worst problem you have had on a new car ?

Edited by BMR, 06 September 2007 - 11:10 AM.

[kalbfellp]

I had a look at one of these the other night and the mesh was good,that company usually has the best gear mesh of the cheaper brand! matbe you got a "monday" car. It is a nice looking car.

phil

[rick1776]

Stop complaining Steve, every single car Ive ever bought has always been 0.3 seconds slower than the lemons you have bought. Now I know it cant be me, so it must be the damn cars

On a more serious note, yes it is frustrating, especially when its a basic design fault that is giving you grief. I suppose when its a large company with many layers between shop floor and top management its just too easy for management to stop any "fix" dead in its track if its going to cost money. Back in the early 90s the commadore front end geometry was not as good as it could have been. The holden engineers redesigned the ball joints and mounting positions to overcome the "design flaw". Technically it worked a treat. Management wanted a costing on the fix. It was going to cost an extra AUD$5 per car on a 30,000 car. Management killed the fix dead in the water. So a fix thats going to cost 5 cents on a 50 dollar car, same deal.

cheers
rick1776

[BMR]

kalbfellp, on Sep 6 2007, 02:03 PM, said:

I had a look at one of these the other night and the mesh was good,that company usually has the best gear mesh of the cheaper brand! matbe you got a "monday" car. It is a nice looking car.

phil

It is a nice car but I think my car has had the wrong pinion put on it by a tired Monday morning worker possibly there is way too much back lash in it , All of my cars from that company have had good mesh out of the box . I will count the pinion teeth and see if someone out there can comfirm how many teeth are on there car Ferrari F430

[Stevo41]

Hi there,

According to the Armchair Racer website - the gearing is 11/36. Hope this helps.

I guess I've been pretty lucky with new cars I have bought. I have had my fair share of probs with cars during their life-span, but I have put it down to my son and I learning to drive. Now that we are through those woods (and having bought a variable power supply) hopefully our cars will go better and last longer.

Cheers,

Steve

[BMR]

Stevo41, on Sep 7 2007, 04:50 AM, said:

Hi there,

According to the Armchair Racer website - the gearing is 11/36. Hope this helps.

I guess I've been pretty lucky with new cars I have bought. I have had my fair share of probs with cars during their life-span, but I have put it down to my son and I learning to drive. Now that we are through those woods (and having bought a variable power supply) hopefully our cars will go better and last longer.

Cheers,

Steve

Thanks for that info on the gearing I will go and check to see if a absent minded person at the factory slipped on the wrong pinion by mistake. Variable power supply is a great addition to any track especially if there are young kids playing with our adult toys

[chenglaw]

Maybe I've been lucky, but of the 60+ or so of this company's cars I've bought, none have been a lemon. In fact most of them have been running very competitively straight out of the box as I run with magnets on plastic track. In fact, I've never experienced so much as an "out of round tyre"! Maybe it's my Lady Luck or the shop where I buy them from are getting the "Thursday" cars but whatever, I don't have any complaints

[terry]

At least you had the courtesy of an answer from the importer,obviously it wasn't a SCX,the local NSW distributor doesn't reply to emails or letters.

terry

[azzav8s]

Scx in Australia don't reply at all. Scx in spain are rumored to be very good. One person on this forum sent a letter/e-mail to spain and had a misplaced manual delivered to his door free of charge. I think the lack of action in Aus is due to the main importers lack of action.

[Eno the Wonderdog]

ONe thing I've found is that 'cause I try to deal with local "slot car shop' guys I've always had very good support when things are buggerd from the shop Pete (Mr SLotcar) and Jurgen (Slotcar Heaven) in Melbourne have both had to deal with "Dramas" for me..

The other thing I've done is try to use guys that people here have recommended like Jim & Roland and Slot Shop and Armchair Racer's.

Does anyone know if jurgen's still going actually? I haven't been able to get over tehre for a hell of a while now.

[BMR]

chenglaw, on Sep 7 2007, 02:35 PM, said:

Maybe I've been lucky, but of the 60+ or so of this company's cars I've bought, none have been a lemon. In fact most of them have been running very competitively straight out of the box as I run with magnets on plastic track. In fact, I've never experienced so much as an "out of round tyre"! Maybe it's my Lady Luck or the shop where I buy them from are getting the "Thursday" cars but whatever, I don't have any complaints

I have had a good run out of this brand as well over the last few years but many of the items / cars have been not so good wheels not centred in the wheel arches , bent chassis , flag guide posts pointing upwards and downwards instead of level and buckled rims , cracked motor retaining tabs and now badly out of mesh gears again . Makes me wonder where they are being manufactured - are the manufacturers sub contracting to some real cheap little factory in the back blocks of china / spain etc with no toilet let alone quality control measures in place.
Just a note on running on magnetic track with the magnets still in the car - it hides many problems , on a timber track the cars must handle much smoother , I had a racer from W.A. come to race on my track a few years back , he was no bragger but he was very confident ,he had not driven on a timber track as far as I know. Anyway after he rammed the wall most of the night he was amazed at how we were all getting through corners so fast without magnets . Different style racing and different set ups on the cars. I would like to try some of my better cars on a magnetic track with magnets re installed . It would be interesting to see how they would go by comparison.

[BMR]

azzav8s, on Sep 7 2007, 04:55 PM, said:

Scx in Australia don't reply at all. Scx in spain are rumored to be very good. One person on this forum sent a letter/e-mail to spain and had a misplaced manual delivered to his door free of charge. I think the lack of action in Aus is due to the main importers lack of action.

I have seen inside the toy importers warehouse in Adelaide they seem to be in no control of there stock and going by some feed back from a retailer there service is not real good for spare parts for any of the brand slotcars they import . As you say the lack of action is mostly due to the importers lack of service it seems. Its a bit hard on our local retailers but if the warehouse can't supply the retailer I will have to shop online for spare parts I think.
To get back onto the original post topic I tried to buy a Ferrari 312 t Grand Prix today and out of 4 cars in stock not one had a decent set of back wheels on it ! all the rear wheels on all the 4 cars were buckled so badly I think even on a magnet track the cars would bounce out of the slot . Again very bad quality control . As you can guess my money stayed in my wallet , pity because the car looks great.

Edited by BMR, 08 September 2007 - 06:00 PM.

[grego]

I had to replace my A1gp car recently and could not beleive the gear train slack and the "wobbles" in the wheels.
There was absolutely now way i could true the tyres on this lot.
Furthermore, when one holds the car in a certain way , one can clearly see that the whole rearaxle assembly is not 90 degrees to the centre line of the car, but is "out" by between 1 -2 degrees.

$ 40 is not a lot of money for a machine like that and I have now idea why I expect better, ""But I do"" !!!!!

Maybe it is because I have been involved with engineering and manufacturing in one way or another most of my life and know that it does not take a lot more effort to do it "right" and therfore i cannot help but come to the conclusion that the manufacturers """Don't give a s#!t ""!
And this is probably what disappoints the most.

Having said all that, the A1GP goes like a bat out of hell

grego

[BMR]

To update my complaint about the gear mesh on a couple of new cars I bought.....
New axles , bushes , gears (1 crown - 1 spur ) and four alloy wheels later its all running like clockwork , my pocket is lightened by about $55.00 not including the new tyres but at least the two cars are now competitive. However at around $25.00 per car to get them to run nice on top of the purchase price I will be looking at the other brands a little more closely now . Brand loyalty only goes so far huh.