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There is a HUGE difference in the build quality of Detroit 3 vehicles and American built Asian makes. The UAW builds the crap that spews out of Detroit. Hard working Americans build the Asian makes. Those workers get promotions and raises if they excel and get fired if they do UAW quality work. The union bosses will go to bat for even the biggest dregs in the UAW, and get them back their jobs. At best, unions breed mediocrity. The greed and corruption the UAW is synonymous for adds more reason to never buy a Detroit car.
An interesting point.
Looked up the VIN on my M.Y. 2007 Toyota Tacoma one day, after noticing no hooks front and rear. Hooks are on almost all (or all?) imports as they come in on ships overseas. Lo and behold, mine was made in the former Toyota Fremont plant. A plant since closed, one of the last heavy industry plants in that part of CA.
The quality of my Tacoma, and indeed most of that line, is stellar in the 110K miles since I bought it new Thanksgiving 2006. The workers were clearly American there in Fremont (majority, I'm sure). Therefore, to quoted post:
1) the manufacturer itself enforces TQM and other quality systems to reward and penalize workers for performance.
2) While I can't answer to the UAW's sins directly correlating to "lack of' quality, growing up in a Detroit suburb us white collar types had very little use for their antics, either.
TQM and similar flows top-down. It has to. I'd sooner be dipped in honey and dropped on an anthill than own, say, a Missouri-built Chevy Colorado from 2007 (roughly analogous to the my Tacoma, in the mid-size PU niche) on a direct comparison of quality, reliability, resale, etc.
No one has definitively proven to me, year over year, decade over decade, with facts and data that Big 3 are in there head to head and toe-to-toe with the likes of Toyota and Honda when it comes to TQM and long-term resale. I'm still just not seeing it. One day, maybe, that will change but that's how it's been for decades now since I became an adult.
I've never had a single problem with my Japanese cars from 0 through 100k miles. Thinking back to the American cars my dad drove when I was growing up mirrors your experience though.
The vehicle which gave me my most trouble was a 2002 Mazda MPV built in Japan. All sorts of niggling things with that one and fixing them was so challenging because you had to take the intake manifold off to get to anything on the backside of the engine - rear spark plugs, multiple O2 sensors which kept failing, etc.
Modern Nissans are rated lower than some domestic makes these days. 20 years ago this wasn't the case. Sure you will still hear from people who have had a great experience with their Nissan but you can also find many who haven't. It's a shame too because they build some nice looking and very nicely equipped vehicles now.
Nissans nice looking? They have the same blob look to them that most other modern cars have.
while I am not a fan of unions and believe that they have contributed to american car reliability in the past, aren't all cars built by robots these days?
Pretty much entirely until you get past paint and some after that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by outafocus
The UAW builds
I only read blah, blah, blah after that and even then didn't get too far.
Looked up the VIN on my M.Y. 2007 Toyota Tacoma one day, after noticing no hooks front and rear. Hooks are on almost all (or all?) imports as they come in on ships overseas. Lo and behold, mine was made in the former Toyota Fremont plant. A plant since closed, one of the last heavy industry plants in that part of CA.
]
Just a little information, My GMC Sonoma purchased new and built in KC has hooks front and rear and my Ford F-250 had hooks on the front.
Looked up the VIN on my M.Y. 2007 Toyota Tacoma one day, after noticing no hooks front and rear. Hooks are on almost all (or all?) imports as they come in on ships overseas. Lo and behold, mine was made in the former Toyota Fremont plant. A plant since closed, one of the last heavy industry plants in that part of CA.
The quality of my Tacoma, and indeed most of that line, is stellar in the 110K miles since I bought it new Thanksgiving 2006. The workers were clearly American there in Fremont (majority, I'm sure). Therefore, to quoted post:
1) the manufacturer itself enforces TQM and other quality systems to reward and penalize workers for performance.
2) While I can't answer to the UAW's sins directly correlating to "lack of' quality, growing up in a Detroit suburb us white collar types had very little use for their antics, either.
TQM and similar flows top-down. It has to. I'd sooner be dipped in honey and dropped on an anthill than own, say, a Missouri-built Chevy Colorado from 2007 (roughly analogous to the my Tacoma, in the mid-size PU niche) on a direct comparison of quality, reliability, resale, etc.
No one has definitively proven to me, year over year, decade over decade, with facts and data that Big 3 are in there head to head and toe-to-toe with the likes of Toyota and Honda when it comes to TQM and long-term resale. I'm still just not seeing it. One day, maybe, that will change but that's how it's been for decades now since I became an adult.
No one needs to prove anything to someone not paying attention.
I noticed this year the Honda Civic is no longer recommended by Consumer Reports (who is actually sometimes accused of being biased towards Japanese cars), but the Chevy Cruze is.
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