Accountants versus Engineers

2006 Chrysler 300C

 The reason for a private company to exist is to create value/wealth for its owners. Those owners might be a mom and pop owning a small store or a huge company with millions of shareholders/owners. 

Car companies are no exception. They want to make as much money as possible to increase shareholder value. They have to do that by making cars people want to buy. But they have to make the cars cheaply enough to make a profit. And there's all sorts of regulations requiring more expense which is passed on to the buyer. 

So the company wants to make the car as cheaply as possible. With cars you get what you pay for. The cheaper the car the less amenities it will have.

I had a 2006 Chrysler 300C. It had the 5.7 liter HEMI V8 making 340 horsepower and 390 pound-feet of torque (looked a lot like the one pictured). It was also a big, heavy car. With that engine I could get going fast very quickly for a car its size. I really enjoyed that car. Except one thing. I think the accountants won over the engineers who designed it on the matter of brakes. For a big, heavy car you need really good brakes and the 300C had barely adequate brakes. Scared myself sometimes trying to stop that car. 

At the time, Chrysler was owned by Mercedes. The 300 was built with some Mercedes components but I doubt even Mercedes engineers would have put such bad brakes on that car. 

Other examples of accountants winning include the latest Corvette. While mechanically it is apparently brilliant, I've read complaints about a "Malibu interior" on a car that can cost close to $200,000 for the top models (base models are still about $70,000). Also, I've seen videos of people showing the dash bubbling on relatively new Corvettes. Not good!

Do you know of any instances where the accountants won over the engineers? It doesn't have to be in cars. Let me know in the comments below.