That sucks. Personally, this is why I want to see prefabs take off, even if the price is actually more expensive. When you buy a car, it is quite rare to find major defects. In houses, defect lists are so common that Brits have a term for it, snagging lists. Prefabs should be quite close to cars in terms of quality as they are manufactured in a factory under controlled conditions. People I have met that bought prefabs from high-end manufacturers confirmed this, and had a more or less trouble-free experience.
In comparison, I have experienced major issues in every brand new house I have rented. I would not like to go through this experience as an actual owner as it would drive me insane. I have only met two contractors that were professional and took pride in their work. The rest were a bunch of wackos that only created chaos. In comparison, my experience leasing brand new cars could not be better. Get keys, drive for two years, return back. Zero issues. Given that a car is way more complex than a house, the construction industry seems terribly backwards.
Back in the 1970s, it was extremely common to buy a US-made brand-new car and have all kinds of major defects. It didn't matter that they were made in factories under "controlled conditions": the factories were poorly run, and the products that came out were junk. Dealers had large lots of cars that had just arrived from the factory and needed repairs before they could sell them. It wasn't until Japanese cars were imported in huge numbers, and had consistently high quality, that expectations changed.
The problem isn't factory vs. non-factory, the problem is culture. Many parts of American society have a culture of lying and cheating and making junk products and then lying to try to cover it up. Just look at Boeing.
For new-build houses? I haven't heard that, but then again I haven't heard otherwise for other western nations. The way the US builds houses seems positively primitive and backwards, but I don't know much about how they're built in places such as UK or Germany. Here in Japan, single-family homes seem to be largely pre-fab, and assembled from modules on-site. Here's an interesting article about it:
One notable quote from the article: "The country’s population is roughly twice that of the UK, yet over six times as much new housing is built in Japan than in the UK each year."
In mainland EU, things are a bit better, but housing is definitely one of the worst industries in terms of customer satisfaction. I don't think I have ever seen a new build that didn't have some serious problems, like roof leaks.
In comparison, I have experienced major issues in every brand new house I have rented. I would not like to go through this experience as an actual owner as it would drive me insane. I have only met two contractors that were professional and took pride in their work. The rest were a bunch of wackos that only created chaos. In comparison, my experience leasing brand new cars could not be better. Get keys, drive for two years, return back. Zero issues. Given that a car is way more complex than a house, the construction industry seems terribly backwards.