Scoundrel, you're probably right! Checking only every 100th one, isn't that part of what happened years ago to vehicles from Detroit? Lack of Quality Control? My nephew's father in law just retired as one of their QC managers at BMW in SC. He goes ballistic when we start to talk about quality controls in manufacturing.... (Easy way to get his blood pressure to come up!)
When I went to the Cummins Mid-Range Engine Plant in Columbus, Indiana last summer, they explained to us that they have several sound controlled and engine test cells where each engine produced is powered by an electric motor, and rotated without fuel being injected and the engine firing. While being rotated, the computers listen and record every aspect of the engine. With the sophistication of these test cells, they can find something as small as an improper finish on a timing gear tooth, or a valve lash being off by 0.001"! Each test cell costs about $5million. Every single engine they produce is tested, and they are capable of producing 2,000 engines a week at that facility. QC for them is truly priority one. It was very impressive.