One of the questions I routinely get asked is if I could reach out to this engineer and ask them a question. Often it is a truck or SUV has been in the shop for whatever issue and they are frustrated with the local dealer. They want the engineer who built the engine/transmission/whatever to fix it now!
The reality is I don't have any engineers contact information and frankly I don't want it. Why? There's a process I need to follow and asking the engineer without going through the official channels can get that person in trouble.
Instead, I work through the public relations person for that brand and they forward the question to an engineer. Engineering and PR decide IF they are going to answer.
Why wouldn't they answer? Legal reasons.
For example, GM's had a lifter failing issue on their V8 engines. I'd like to know if they fixed that problem and I'm sure customers would like to know as well. PR and engineering won't answer that question over email. If they do, they would then be admitting there was a problem in the first place and that is a problem from a legal standpoint. If they say they fixed it, then owners would ask if they fixed it on their engine or if their engine is going to have this problem. Owners who had the issue fixed are going to wonder about that fix and want to challenge the engineers on the who, what, when, why about that fix. Pandora's box is opened.
What's strange to me is if I interview the engineer at an event, they will tell me on camera if they fixed it or not. I still haven't figured out why they will answer on camera but not over email. My guess is the automaker could argue in court the engineer was wrong or something and bring up other documents and engineers to refute what was said.
Now if you email me with an issue on your vehicle and you want me to reach out to an engineer, I'll just forward it on to public relations. They will forward it to their customer service team and sometimes the issue is resolved faster. Often not. Just depends on what the issue is, parts availability and if there is a fix for it. I don't have a magic wand to fix it and I don't have engineering contacts, sorry.
Why would PR forward it to customer service and not THE engineer? That engineer or someone from the team is monitoring the issues already that the dealerships technicians submit. This is why I often tell people the first thing to do when they have an issue is to take it to their dealer. That will alert engineering.
Now engineering could send in a regional guy to look at it or if you got lucky like I did, they would send in several engineers from HQ to address it (like the 2022 Tundra I bought with the door lock issue). Either way, they are alerted to it already and they are tracking the number of issues they are seeing, learning about the when/where/why the issue came up and are either developing fixes for it or instructions on what to do if a dealer sees this issue. Those instructions are technical service bulletins and every brand has them for all sorts of things that come up.
Hope that helps.
The reality is I don't have any engineers contact information and frankly I don't want it. Why? There's a process I need to follow and asking the engineer without going through the official channels can get that person in trouble.
Instead, I work through the public relations person for that brand and they forward the question to an engineer. Engineering and PR decide IF they are going to answer.
Why wouldn't they answer? Legal reasons.
For example, GM's had a lifter failing issue on their V8 engines. I'd like to know if they fixed that problem and I'm sure customers would like to know as well. PR and engineering won't answer that question over email. If they do, they would then be admitting there was a problem in the first place and that is a problem from a legal standpoint. If they say they fixed it, then owners would ask if they fixed it on their engine or if their engine is going to have this problem. Owners who had the issue fixed are going to wonder about that fix and want to challenge the engineers on the who, what, when, why about that fix. Pandora's box is opened.
What's strange to me is if I interview the engineer at an event, they will tell me on camera if they fixed it or not. I still haven't figured out why they will answer on camera but not over email. My guess is the automaker could argue in court the engineer was wrong or something and bring up other documents and engineers to refute what was said.
Now if you email me with an issue on your vehicle and you want me to reach out to an engineer, I'll just forward it on to public relations. They will forward it to their customer service team and sometimes the issue is resolved faster. Often not. Just depends on what the issue is, parts availability and if there is a fix for it. I don't have a magic wand to fix it and I don't have engineering contacts, sorry.
Why would PR forward it to customer service and not THE engineer? That engineer or someone from the team is monitoring the issues already that the dealerships technicians submit. This is why I often tell people the first thing to do when they have an issue is to take it to their dealer. That will alert engineering.
Now engineering could send in a regional guy to look at it or if you got lucky like I did, they would send in several engineers from HQ to address it (like the 2022 Tundra I bought with the door lock issue). Either way, they are alerted to it already and they are tracking the number of issues they are seeing, learning about the when/where/why the issue came up and are either developing fixes for it or instructions on what to do if a dealer sees this issue. Those instructions are technical service bulletins and every brand has them for all sorts of things that come up.
Hope that helps.