Why do Asians make better cars?

[Yardjass]

Originally Posted by why?

if they figured out how to fuel it with a tiny nuclear reactor so you would never need to refuel it either I would buy it right now.

I don't need that evil in my life. You would still have to do maintenance an I get enough of that at work. I did just have a little laugh though thinking about someone saying, "S6G swap, bruh".

[synchromesh]

I don't mean to be a douche and have like some sort of summer rain on a parade but I notice there are a lot of old folk, respectfully.


Unfortunately, I will wager that some appliances today will out last your brand new condo but comes with used Maytag washer and dryer. In fact, there are some appliances today requiring a receipt that has more than impressive warranty.

[MountainCruise]

I think it was actually an American named Dr. Deming that came to Japan and taught them CONI - constant and never ending improvement which really helped with the quality of the automobiles they were making.

[Scrappydoo]

Originally Posted by DAEMANO

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.

You've never been outside of the USA have you? Maybe not even out of State....

[DAEMANO]

Originally Posted by Scrappydoo

You've never been outside of the USA have you? Maybe not even out of State....

[krayzie]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSYD4a3RzW4"]Clarkson's Car Years - How Japan Took Over The World... And Then Lost It. - YouTube[/ame]

[nikitopo]

Lol
First half of video is truth and second half is full of lies. You need to sound honest in order people to believe you and follow you. I never liked this guy. So, now the Europeans/Americans know how to build quality cars?

[krayzie]

Originally Posted by cdrazic93

Thats such a great QA test hit it with a hammer.

There used to be a video on YouTube showing the last step of the assembly line at Subaru Indiana where the dude would hit various spots on the bottom of the car with a big mallet. If nothing falls off then it gets the Subaru OK window sticker.

[ericwudi0830]

If only every test was that easy

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by krayzie

There used to be a video on YouTube showing the last step of the assembly line at Subaru Indiana where the dude would hit various spots on the bottom of the car with a big mallet. If nothing falls off then it gets the Subaru OK window sticker.

You tube videos are well know for their reality and technical accuracy.
I have been through that plant a few times (I think Steve still carries a quote from my first trip as his sig) now and can assure you that hitting the car with a mallet is not part of the quality control methods. If it can not be qualified, measured and documented it is not an actual test. Pretty hard to qualify a mallet blow. We should have taken a longer tour of my plant and I could show you how many times just a rotor is gauged and recorded throughout the process. Everything from coating thickness to balance are checked several times. Each of these checks is recorded and the records available at anytime in case of an issue.

We got away with that stuff back in the 90s but not since that Subaru plant was built.

[krayzie]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

You tube videos are well know for their reality and technical accuracy.
I have been through that plant a few times (I think Steve still carries a quote from my first trip as his sig) now and can assure you that hitting the car with a mallet is not part of the quality control methods. If it can not be qualified, measured and documented it is not an actual test. Pretty hard to qualify a mallet blow. We should have taken a longer tour of my plant and I could show you how many times just a rotor is gauged and recorded throughout the process. Everything from coating thickness to balance are checked several times. Each of these checks is recorded and the records available at anytime in case of an issue.

We got away with that stuff back in the 90s but not since that Subaru plant was built.

The guy took the video with his phone just to show what he did at work. He only had a few minutes to use that rubber mallet under the finished car until the next car comes along horking the horn. It was a Legacy / Outback production line. I remember seeing that video many years ago on YouTube.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by krayzie

The guy took the video with his phone just to show what he did at work. He only had a few minutes to use that rubber mallet under the finished car until the next car comes along horking the horn. It was a Legacy / Outback production line. I remember seeing that video many years ago on YouTube.

Nah. I don't care what his claim was I am not falling for it. Every bolt and fitting is torqued to a set spec. If that reading is too high or too low then it will fail, red lights start to flash and people will appear out of no place to fix the issue. There is nothing to fall off by hitting it with a mallet.

[krayzie]

Well it seems like Lotus is gonna be Made in China soon.