Why don't American cars last as long as Japanese cars?
My family has owned a Ford Taurus and a Nissan Altima of similar model years. Both cars are still running, but the Taurus has very low mileage (it's a 1999 with only 85,000 miles) and the interior is in horrible condition and the plastics Ford put in have been known for breaking. None of this has happened with the Altima, even though it has more miles. Why?
When japanese cars started to take over the world, they had the benefit of cheap labor and a more efficient build mentality. Rather than offering many optional extras as american cars did, Japanese had a simple model of using trim levels. You could have the base model, the upgraded model or the top level model of a car. That's it. American cars had a lot of customization. You could choose the engine, gearbox, interior, exterior and other features.
this meant that japanese cars could be mass produced a lot easier and faster and enjoyed the benefits of scaling production. Japanese manufacturer labor was also much cheaper. They didn't have to pay their workers as much nor deal with unions where american manufacturers did. More expensive labor meant that to remain competitive, american cars had to decrease the quality of build materials and processes. In reducing these costs, product quality suffered quite a lot. Combine that with the fact that the fuel crisis of the 70 and the traditional american car which was large and heavy with a powerful V8 engine was not as attractive to buyers anymore when smaller, lighter japanese cars could provide much better fuel economy.
anyways, as time went on, these effects lingered and you can still see some of them today.
Maybe you should take better care of your vehicles.
The Altima is about as Japanese as enchiladas; they're built in Tennessee or Mississippi. The question you should be asking is "Why was this Ford so utterly godawful?"
- Why would people buy older foreign cars instead of brand new American cars? I see it all the time, people driving 7-8 year old Mercedes or BMWs that they paid probably paid around $20,000. They could of easily gone out and bought a brand new Ford or Dodge, but they didn't. They bought a Mercedes with over 100k miles. All worn and torn on the inside. But aslong as they're shining on the outside I guess.
- Why do Republicans get upset when Americans buy superior Japanese vehicles? The only somewhat decent US manufacturer is Ford but nowhere near the quality of Honda, Toyota, Subaru, or Nissan.
- Should i sell my japanese car to feel more American? One day i woke up and i realized i was born in America, so it would make sense to drive an American car. It feels more natural. I own a Honda but i want to buy a Ford. But i don't know if this is a good decision because asian cars are more reliable than american cars. Is this a good decision or do you consider this stupid, just a phase, and unnecessary in your opinion? The whole point of this is just to "feel more american"
- Isn't it hard to force the EU to buy our cars? Ford announced they'll stop making regular cars, and they don't want our gas guzzling SUVs? Or huge trucks. That's what part of this trade war is about fyi, our products that they don't even want. Interesting, but 10% vs 2.5% isn't exactly earth shattering on cars. Plus that article's talking about OBAMA'S proposed free trade not Trumps.