If you have ever been to Japan you must have noticed the intense attention to detail paid to even the tiniest item. The smallest thing seems to have importance and is given it. The mundanest item is decoratively presented or arranged, an item you or I wouldn't give a second thought to, yet someone has thought it important enough to merit consideration. On top of that is the formality with which customary processes like serving food or greeting someone is carried out. Translate that to the automobile and why is it surprising?
It's all there in the culture. Maybe not for you and me with our upbringing but it sure results in some good cars.
But the Japanese can be naughty......recently here in the Land of Sun and Fun emissions testing has been introduced and your vehicle is now tested when you take it to the traffic office registration each year. The highest rate of failures in relatively new vehicles is with Mitsubishi's, that's Pajero's, Pickups, the L200 series and so on. The motoring press took a look at this and discoverd that all Mitsubishi diesel engines imported here for assembly (vehicles are a mix of local assembly and imported parts) are a 1970's design which is dirty and inefficient and must have paid for itself over and over again R & D wise, but would not pass muster in a more developed market.
I doubt we shall see mass hara-kiri at Mitsubishi Philippines Corporation but it must have dented that company's spoutings about their role in environmental blah blah.
Having said that, the damn things still don't go wrong!
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The local Far-East boys have it right - big smiles, excellent service, boring, bland but reliable products...
Example: Father phones around for a new car for mother. A cash deal.
Requirement: automatic gearbox.
VW - we'll get back to you with a price/delivery. No follow up, ever. (0/10)
Opel - Auto's only start at Omega level here. Too big, sorry. (2/10)
Ford - don't return initial call.
Renault - ditto
Pug - no small autos available
Toyota - Take a corrola to the house, let mum potter about in it for an hour. She doesn't like it. (some feminine whim -she can't say WHY she doesn't like it, she just doesn't...) No problem, says salesman. Thank you for considering Toyota. (10/10)
Daihatsu - Same as Toyota, BUT took her out to potter about, left car with her overnight, came back next day, yes, she's happy. Took specs, left with car, phoned back - yes, there is a car to your requirements available, when may we delivery it?
Arrives two days later, with full tank, bunch of flowers,etc. Sales fellow shows her all over the thing, what lever does what, how the filler caps work,what each switch does, how to check oil/water etc.
Phone back a week later - is all well with the car?
Phone back 6 months later - have you forgotten your free first service? (No, she hasn't logged up enough miles for it yet!)
Send round bloke, take car away, back later in the day, service book stamped, washed/ valeted etc. 10/10.
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In terms of plant location, my Japanese-built IS200 is *much* better screwed together than my previous UK-built Avensis.
Peter
PS Toyota was the company whose cars spent less time being built than Mercedes spent in rectification.
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Yes, the attention to deatil is almost obsessive.
A few years ago now, the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch railway loaned a couple of locos to Japan for a garden festival and one of their drivers went out there to shw them the ropes. Lighting up the boiler in the morning required some sticks of wood an oily rag and some coal. Not rocket science!
"How long should the wood be?"
"No longer than 30 cm"
"No, exactly how long should they be"
"Okay then 30 cm"
So all the firewood was cut to exactly 30cm. Perfectly good kindling 29.75 cm long or less was discarded!
Terry
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I have done some work with a large international Japanese Component Manufacturer and have visited their UK operation.
Whilst touring the various sections as part of the consultancy project I noticed that in the inbound goods sections some boxes of supplies were opened, checked and counted and some not. When I asked how they determined which one and how many to open I found out that
a) only supplies from non Japanese manufacturers were opened and checked
b) Japanese produced supplies went straight to the production lines
The reason for this was explained to me as being experience showed only non jap supplies produced problems with quality or quantity.
as ever
Mark
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The paintwork quality on my Sunderland built Micra is poorer than that of a typical similar aged Jap built Nissan, (e.g. Almera), and I'll go as far to say I've seen much better paintwork on some earlier version (K10) Micra's (Jap built) which are 5 years older than mine.
Otherwise very satisfied, I have to say.
But I intend to go for a 'proper' Jap built Nissan (Almera) next time around.
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the old joke goes that UK factory places parts order on japanese supplier
X million widgets
Size Y
Shapes P,Q and Z
Acceptable failure rate 0.05 %
The Japanese factory looks at the order and breaks 0.05 % of the stuff coming off the end of their production line to meet the UK requirement, ie they were 100 % ok before that...
sounds funny with a few beers in you anyways
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The question must be why do we continue to buy the same old poorly built and unreliable junk from the likes of Renault,GM,Peugeot,Fiat and Citroen etc.
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Because some isn't that bad and its cheap?
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I would hazard there is also the traditional Japanese xenophobia at work here as well. It is important that the perception of Western inferiority/Japanese superiority is maintained at any and all costs. The complex culture dictates latter must be reinforced at all times. Face would be lost if Japanese products were thus checked, since it would imply they were no better.
This is a hard one to explain if you haven't worked there. Every single thing is about the giving of, or ensuring no loss of, face.
I recall an instance of an Asia-wide IT investment roll-out planned and managed from my company's base in Hong Kong. The hardware platform envisaged was a household Western name and the programme was in part designed to harmonize across a geographical area a motley array which had grown like Topsy over the years. Much development and testing time and money was involved to demonstrate the set up worked and met the business needs under all conditions. The Japanese simply would not accept the foreign hardware and moved heaven and earth with enormously creative subterfuge, not to mention dirty tricks, to avoid taking onboard the rollout plan for their country. They had to have a Japanese hardware provider at any cost.
In the end politics, face and pragmatism converged and they got what they wanted, for once, with a less superior Japanese product. It all simply came down to the "disgrace" which would have befallen the local management had they accepted a foreign hardware supplier, by implication admitting their country could not produce the best there was.
Sorry off motoring slightly, but the dynamics behind why Japanese stuff is the way it is a study in itself!
But they do make some blunders: after WWII they designed the rebuild of Tokyo street configuration based on that of Manila, which their army had just recently occupied! That's given them a traffic problem like ours.
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