oceanblue1
Active Member
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2009
- Messages
- 42
- Reaction score
- 0
I have not gone mad and I realise this a German automaker forum, but bear with me
I remember reading alot of MB literature emphasing the german precision engineering (e.g. how each components is laser cut to the accuracy a 100th of a human hair etc etc)...
But the truth is Japanese cars are simply more reliable at a much lower price point. When I was in Japan, I was looking at the price of Honda, Toyota etc and notice that it was only 2/3 and even 1/2 of the price in UK! My Japanese friends said that this is because US and Euro are scared of fair competition and slap huge tax on Jap car and heavily restrict the number of cars they can sell abroad each year.
Now he is bound to be biased and surely not £9000 import tariff on some of the car prices I saw.
I know it is not simply a wage issue as the average Japanese wage is quite a bit higher than Europe and most car makers outsource to other country for the actual manufacture anyway. There are little to zero government subsidies unlike in the US. And while they are not as plush or fun to drive as the German makers; they are catching up fast.
It troubles me why they can make such reliable cars at such low cost. And this is across the whole range of Japanese cars, not just one or two brand. In fact, it probably applies to all areas of Japanese goods, not just cars. I know there have probably already been huge amount of university study of this, but I am interested in the opinons of the car enthusiasts on this forum.
I remember reading alot of MB literature emphasing the german precision engineering (e.g. how each components is laser cut to the accuracy a 100th of a human hair etc etc)...
But the truth is Japanese cars are simply more reliable at a much lower price point. When I was in Japan, I was looking at the price of Honda, Toyota etc and notice that it was only 2/3 and even 1/2 of the price in UK! My Japanese friends said that this is because US and Euro are scared of fair competition and slap huge tax on Jap car and heavily restrict the number of cars they can sell abroad each year.
Now he is bound to be biased and surely not £9000 import tariff on some of the car prices I saw.
I know it is not simply a wage issue as the average Japanese wage is quite a bit higher than Europe and most car makers outsource to other country for the actual manufacture anyway. There are little to zero government subsidies unlike in the US. And while they are not as plush or fun to drive as the German makers; they are catching up fast.
It troubles me why they can make such reliable cars at such low cost. And this is across the whole range of Japanese cars, not just one or two brand. In fact, it probably applies to all areas of Japanese goods, not just cars. I know there have probably already been huge amount of university study of this, but I am interested in the opinons of the car enthusiasts on this forum.
Last edited: