Awhile back, I was talking to a MD flight test engineer and pilot and he confirmed the MD-11's performance and reliability problems. He also said the quality control at the factory in Long Beach, CA left alot to be desired at the time. Customer carriers had to do alot of work on the delivered airplanes in order to make them serviceable.

On the other hand, the B-717s seem to be very well built and very reliable. Maybe the takeover by Boeing was a good thing? The "Fly DC Jets" is still up and lit at the Long Beach facility acting to remind people that Long Beach was once a viable major airliner manufacturing city. Now, if AA had kept TWA's 717s and scrapped those krappy Fokkers . . . .