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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
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(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?