The Pros and Cons of Japanese Cars

Introduction
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The recent Toyota, Honda and Ford recall episodes served as a catalyst to share the obviously minority opinions based on the personal experience helping friends reviewing, selecting, purchasing and repairing numerous vehicles of various models from an 1.3 Liter Toyota Tercel to a 4.4 Liter BMW 5 Series during the past 20 years in the States.

Pros
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The interior ergonomics fits the stature of average Asians. Consequently everything inside is conveniently reachable and outside objects are easily visible.

It saves gas. This is particularly true before mid 2000’s when domestic cars improved their gas mileage. Nevertheless the gas saved has a cost which is either on performance, or on safety, sometimes both.

Higher resale value. If you count the inflated initial purchase price over comparable domestic models, however, you get about even, not to count the lost of interest which may be enough to cover the difference in gas consumption.

Longer service life over domestic models. Very true between early 1980\'s and mid-1990\'s. The difference started to shrink in 1993 when Ford started to catch up on quality followed by GM in late 1990’s. Currently the deviation within a manufacturer, domestic or foreign, is larger than the average difference between brands.

Reliability. It has become a legend. The legend is formed like this. Initially as a struggling student bought a used domestic car between early 1980’s and mid 1990’s. That was the quality dark age of domestic auto industry. Tired of repair bills, followed the advices from Consumer Reports. Bought a new Japanese car between early 1990’s and early 2000’s. That was the peak quality period of the Japanese auto industry. Then reached the conclusion of superior reliability of Japanese cars. Apple to apple? No. This is a comparison between a fresh apple and a rotten orange.

Better interior design and material. Making good seats are way easier than producing good engines or transmissions. When a neat interior is used to accompany a nice drive system, this is called luxury. When employed to deceive the driver from an under-designed machine under the hood, it’s another story. Average buyers spend far more time checking the passenger cabin than looking under the hood when evaluating a vehicle. It’s like buying a book by only checking the color of the cover. The car makers take advantage of this evaluation process.

Image of a successful person’s vehicle. This is true for those without the historical knowledge that Japanese cars entered the US market as low-end vehicles. Even 20 years ago, the images of Toyota and Honda were about the same as what Hyundai enjoys today. Although efforts were made in the following years to create luxury divisions and brands like Lexus, Acura and Infinity, and to distant the luxury brands from the budget manufactures that produce them, it is hard to erase history, not to mention many shared parts underneath the sheet metal.

A low risk purchase as everyone you know buys it. Following the crowd is generally safer than venturing alone, except when the subject is complex, and there is misleading marketing influence. Now the music has stoped. Each of those 9 million owners of recalled cars could have to face hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars of potential loss of resale values of their vehicles due to the negative publicity in the media. The risk can’t be higher.


Cons
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Weak engine. That is a convenient way to reduce manufacturing cost and to improve gas mileage. Reduced engine noise coupled with the super light over-assisted gas pedal (the key to the recent recall) deprive the feedback a driver needs to receive, hence give the driver a false impression of an engine with enough power. Check the tachometer, you will be surprised.

Weak structural integrity due to the ultimate goal of reducing vehicle weight. This is typically not visible until an accident happens or a repair is needed. Classical examples can be found in the auto recycling centers a.k.a. junk yards where some post-accident vehicles are available for post-mortem review.

Almost every component is trimmed to the bare bone without much spare for possible contingency. It does save weight, hence gas, but when a little extra is needed to either sustain a bit heavy duty task, or to protect you from an accident, sorry, it is not there. Just-in-Time delivery of parts is a revolutionary contribution to the manufacturing world, but just-barely-enough design is merely better than cutting corners.

Gross weight is usually lighter than comparable domestic, due to the same goal of reducing weight. A big disadvantage in safety. Crumple zones help deliver good results in collision tests. But in real life, a heavy vehicle with a crumple zone is far safer than a light one with a crumple zone. Laws of physics say the deceleration, hence the injury to the passengers, is reversely proportional to the weights of the two colliding vehicles. See further discussion of collision safety in the following link.

Overpriced than comparable domestic thanks to the perceived reputation. Rarely a discount is offered. Even in a tough economical situation, the incentive is typically $2000 – $5000 less than what a comparable domestic model offers.

The manufactures target those who either don\'t like car maintenance or don\'t know cars, and produce products with a superior passenger cabin but employ lower standards outside of the cabin. Disk brakes, Alloy Wheels, and Brake Override Systems have been standard on most mid-size domestic cars for years, yet are still optional or non-existent on many major Japanese mid-size cars being sold today.

Group Image. In January CNN reports a typical buyer of these cars is someone who is willing to pay $5000 extra for something that has no good performance, no attractive or exciting looks, not fun to drive, less safe than its peers, but was said to be reliable several years ago.

Wrong bet on gas mileage. With the current global economical conditions, the awareness and publicity of global warming issues, the revisit of nuclear power plants, and thanks to the millions of hybrids on the road, the demand for oil has been and will be lowered. Another era of low oil price could occur in the foreseeable future when the speculators abandon the commodity market and shift to the next booming market.


Useful Links:

About Car Collision
http://www.yump.net.cn/Article/HTML/Article_2439.shtml

About Car Repair
http://web.wenxuecity.com/BBSView.php?SubID=auto_best&MsgID=1077

About Toyota
http://news.wenxuecity.com/messages/201002/news-gb2312-1018929.html

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