Quote:
Originally Posted by Ericlobster
We all understand that Japan makes great stuff but the recent success of Kia (Korean car btw) has thrown US car manufacturing way to the back of the line...
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I'm sorry but the premise here is flawed.
Both historically but especially currently auto design and manufacturing is a global business that relies on the strengths and advantages of production in nearly all industrialized nations. For this reason cars are rarely produced
fully with the skills and labor of one locale, region or sometimes even one continent anymore.
Asia
Thoughts about effective car manufacturing in "Asia" (notably Japan & South Korea) immediately jump to business process improvement techniques ("Lean" and the TPIS (Toyota Process Improvement System)) in Japan and Japanese' companies willingness to compartmentalize nearly every aspect of the vehicle production life cycle is legendary. In S.K. inexpensive labor, a strong infrastructure and favorable trade policies of the last 25 years allowed Daewoo/Hyundai to produce cars for the globe. Design has been imported to SK from Germany only after they've cleaned up their mfg processes and improved supply chains.
You left out new competition from India (TATA) who's acquisitions of Jaguar and Land Rover have brought new energy for both companies. The hard manufacturing push in Asia is coming from China now. Parts production is being moved to Vietnam. Through the next decade these companies will become world players.
Currently the greatest strengths from "Asia" are it's global approach to the mfg business (which it began to develop in the '90s) that have netted continuous ability to produce stylish higher quality budget-to-midrange cars cheaper than most foreign competitors. The majority of auto parts are mfg'd in Asia and will likely continue to be in the future. Another advantage.
U.S. & Italy
Design & Styling have historically been and remain the strengths of Italy (Italdesign, Pininfarina, Bertone, Guigario, Ghia) and the U.S. (many) Transportation design as a field of study is heavily reliant on the big 3 transportation design schools in Michigan (UofM, Lawerence, and CCS). Of course The Art Center in Pasadena, CA is pretty much Juliard for Auto design. Most auto mfgs rely heavily on the talent pipeline coming from the U.S. (including for all Asian mfgs). So many of the cars we love are designed in California. So deep is the pipeline in CA that
15 Auto mfgs have CA studios (including all of the major German, Asian, and North American makes.)
Importantly the most important transportation trends are often identified in North America first and developed and spread throughout the world from there. The large family sedan, the muscle car, modern mini-van, and now the SUV were born in the U.S.A. The U.S. still produces some of the best in the world in these categories. Asia makes impressive models here, but nothing like the U.S. (example Jeep sold over 1.2 million SUVs worldwide in
2016 with another 500K Ram trucks moved for FCA alone.) Additionally FCA, GM and Ford send more highly profitable trucks and SUVs to the world's population than all Asian & European auto mfgs combined.
Germany & the rest of Eurpoe
Long has been and remains the German engineering edge with transportation design. Aside from the VW's diesel issues, Europeans are able to produce luxury performance cars with their own unique identity better than any mfgs in the world. The Japanese may rival Germany's quality in the low and mid-range, but for global mind-share, relatively few people look to Asia for their $100k+ Luxury sedan or super/hypercar (despite the fine examples of cars Asia produces in this range.) Europeans own this category and likely will for the foreseeable future.
Modern cars are produced globally and tailored to local tastes. This is fact. For this reason objectively "Better" is kind of a silly notion if attempting to assign a car some kind of rating based on the location of a company headquarters. The modern day "Japanese" car is likely designed in the U.S. and manufactured in 3 plants worldwide with Chinese parts. There's no shame in that. It's globalization. The inevitable result when the industrial age meets the jet age and the finally the information age. The future will leave little room for ethnocentrism, xenophobia or nationalism with what we buy and where it's from. That day has come and is forever, gone.