Should the Japanese makers merge?

[robr2]

Originally Posted by lepoisson

LOL, I think you are proving my point. A couple of check engine lights and an AC relay is pretty bad for a car that's only 10 years old.

I sold my 2002 Toyota Corolla a few years ago with 150K miles. The only thing I ever did to it was brakes, tires, oil changes, and typical maintenance. Never had a CEL or anything like that.

My mechanic friend loves Audis, but he admitted he would never drive one if he wasn't a mechanic.

That Passat was better than the last two Hondas I owned. AC compressors, regular check engine lights, bad EGR valves, et al. That Passat was one of the best cars I ever owned.

[wamer27]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/half-japa...040100077.html

Say this today, goes along with what the OP is asking...but it's just a prediction of someone.

[AlfredB1979]

Originally Posted by outafocus

Competition breeds quality. There once were many American makes. Virtually all were good. The Detroit 3 set out to run off the competition and through undercutting prices and other dirty tricks, succeeded in putting the competition out of business. With so little competition, quality of the Detroit 3 plummeted. Now Detroit junk has been trying to catch up with Asian quality for decades and still haven't begun to catch up. I shudder to think how dismal the quality Detroit would spew out if they didn't have competition.

Truth. I remember hearing some years back that the Big 3 (more or less) should merge, which I thought was ludicrous for what should be obvious reasons. Not too long back, Ford and GM joined up for a 6-speed auto trans. Big piece of junk and reaffirmed my thought.

Originally Posted by robr2

Ah yes - the infamous focus group of 1.

I just traded in a 2005 Passat with 130K miles on it. It was not an electronics disaster. My coil packs and window regulators were fine. I did have a couple of check engine lights but nothing out of the ordinary and I had to replace an AC relay.

The problem is that all VWs should be like that. You'd think the Germans could pull that off, though maybe not as much with their Mexican-made vehicles...my sister's Jetta had a bad AC condenser from the factory. This shouldn't be rocket science for all the practice VW should have at this stuff.

[SethGrayson]

Economies of scale is why part sharing occurs. Lexus vehicles making their own parts would jack up the price too much against the competition. The bread and butter of Lexus is their RX crossover, which has no true Toyota equivalent.