Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site ucdavis.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!ucbvax!ucdavis!ccrse From: ccrse@ucdavis.UUCP (Steve Ehrhardt) Newsgroups: net.auto.tech Subject: Re: Re: Toyota problem (Japanese auto quality in general) Message-ID: <187@ucdavis.UUCP> Date: Thu, 24-Oct-85 17:18:06 EDT Article-I.D.: ucdavis.187 Posted: Thu Oct 24 17:18:06 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 26-Oct-85 03:45:19 EDT References: <316@g.cs.cmu.edu.ARPA> <557@cylixb.UUCP> <380@sesame.UUCP> Organization: University of California, Davis Lines: 38 (I'm re-posting this, since it didn't seem to make it the first time...) > > >... I wonder if Japanese > > reliability is suffering now that their cars are getting more > > complex. Oh well, it still drives beautifully most of the time > > although I am thinking of replacement (it is nearly paid for > > and I cannot live without new car payments). > > Perhaps it has to do with the fact that a lot of 'Japanese' cars are > now made in the good old US of A? > > [Lets hope they still keep making some in Japan that will meet US > EPA regs, &c, or we will be back to square one :-( ] > To my knowlege, the only car being sold by a Japanese company in this country which is also assembled here is the Honda Accord. From my experience, and according to Consumer's Report, there is no noticeable difference in quality between the Japanese and American-built Accords. It is, of course, only *assembled* here, with all of the mechanics still being made in Japan, though I've heard that they've had such good luck with their American plant that they're planning to start building the engines here as well. Nissan has a U.S. plant for assembling trucks, and Toyota has the California plant that they operate in a joint venture with GM, but the latter has all of its production sold under the Chevy 'Nova' name for now. Mazda and Mitsubishi have plans for U.S. plants in the works, the latter in cooperation with Chrysler, but none have been built yet. All are planned only as assembly plants, with the mechanics coming from Japan, but enough parts and labor from the U.S. to make them just more than 50% American made, thereby avoiding any future trade barriers (hopefully). As regards the topic of the original posting, I had been wondering about the same thing. I seems that the Toyota owners I know don't rave about them as much as they used to. My suspicions were further aroused when checking the Consumer's Report buyers guide indicated a slow but steady decline in Toyota's frequency of repair record (referring to the Corolla in particular). Anyone else notice this, or have any further comment on the topic in general?