Originally Posted by Red__Zed

Interesting juxtaposition of opinions there.


There's certainly a lot of variance in terms of what is built by different companies. I think a lot of the impressions many people have regarding cars have more to do with the fact that Japaneses manufacturing was 15 years ahead of the rest of the world throughout the late 80s and early 90s, coupled with the fact that the US was quite a few years behind. It extends beyond cars and continues to pretty much everything--be it electronics or whatever else.

It's less of an inherent quality and more of a fluctuating quantity than most people realize. A less favorable yen and domestic manufacturers ramping things up has certainly changed the landscape from, say, 99. Japanese manufacturing techniques have been studied, copied, and improved worldwide. Everybody runs a lean, JIT manufacturing operations and undergoes DFM and DFSS studies on designs before production.


It's crazy to believe that the Honda of today is the same company as the one that was pushing a smoking s2000 years ahead of it's time...just as it's hard to believe that Ford survived pushing their new edge mustang back then. It's a shame that Nissan is really the only Japanese company pushing anything worthwhile these days, but market conditions dictate most decisions.

My old Hondas were comparative works of art against other cars of their time, but there's definitely been a shift. Back then, you'd have to be a raving nut to choose a Ford Focus over the Civic...today, you'd probably have to be nuts to choose the Civic over the focus.

It takes a long time for public perception to shift, just as it did from 82-85. It takes years to build a reputation, and then the bean-counters decide to run it into the ground to maximize profits for a few years, and you get to start all over.