Just something that was passed around the office today. Maybe a little humor will make me feel better sitting inside on a gorgeous Indiana day that I could be out driving around...
This speaks a lot about the quality of Japanese products and their standards:
They're still laughing about this at IBM. Apparently the computer giant decided to have some parts manufactured in Japan as a trial project. In the specifications, they stated that they will only accept three defective parts per 10,000.
When the delivery came in there was an accompanying letter. It said, "We Japanese had a hard time understanding North American business practices. But the three defective parts per 10,000 have been separately manufactured and have been included in the consignment. Hope this pleases you."
Last year at this time, I was in a full blown battle with my Cadillac dealer to get problems with my brand new CTS taken care of. Not a pleasent experience.
I traded in my CTS for a new Lexus on Oct 1st of last year, and nothing, and I mean absolutley nothing has gone wrong with it. No squeeks, no dashboard or sunroof rattles, no defective scratched up paint, no rear differential whine, etc.
A very pleasent ownership experience. What a difference a year makes.
I was in Japan for 2 year and I was amazed at the quality they sell. You can even buy a 100 yen kitchen knife (100 yen is about 1 dollar) and the 100 yen knife works better than $30 knifes they sell here in the U.S . I say that because I have a 100 yen japanese kitchen knife and it works better than all my american knifes I have in the house. My wife is Japanese by the way. Anything she is getting ready to buy at any store she checks if it was made in Japan.
I was in Japan for 2 year and I was amazed at the quality they sell. You can even buy a 100 yen kitchen knife (100 yen is about 1 dollar) and the 100 yen knife works better than $30 knifes they sell here in the U.S . I say that because I have a 100 yen japanese kitchen knife and it works better than all my american knifes I have in the house. My wife is Japanese by the way. Anything she is getting ready to buy at any store she checks if it was made in Japan.
Last year at this time, I was in a full blown battle with my Cadillac dealer to get problems with my brand new CTS taken care of. Not a pleasent experience.
I traded in my CTS for a new Lexus on Oct 1st of last year, and nothing, and I mean absolutley nothing has gone wrong with it. No squeeks, no dashboard or sunroof rattles, no defective scratched up paint, no rear differential whine, etc.
A very pleasent ownership experience. What a difference a year makes.
Well then, why don't you just make like a tree and leave.
Anybody remember the early 70's when the Mazda RX2's were becoming popular? The rotor seals were inferior and would fail usually around 50k miles. My dad bought one used, third owner, the seals went south, it turned into a steam engine. We had it towed to the local Mazda dealer who cheerfully replaced the engine at no cost to us. No hassle, no arguing, no problem. The car was three years old at the time.
__________________ .. ~~ Kev ~~
The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help.
- Ronald Reagan
Anybody remember the early 70's when the Mazda RX2's were becoming popular? The rotor seals were inferior and would fail usually around 50k miles. My dad bought one used, third owner, the seals went south, it turned into a steam engine. We had it towed to the local Mazda dealer who cheerfully replaced the engine at no cost to us. No hassle, no arguing, no problem. The car was three years old at the time.
The japanese were not always known for quality. I remember reading about the first Toyota brought to this country. The Toyota people were going to drive it coast to coast to drum up excitement and dealer support. The thing broke down so often that they had to give up and go back to Japan.
They learned from their mistakes though, and came back with a much higher quality product. GM has never learned that. Some of the problems with the CTS , such as the rear differential whine, have been ongoing now for three model years. I have to conclude that GM certainly could fix that defect if they wanted to, they are the largest car maker in the world after all, but they just don't care enough about quality to make the effort. That is so very sad.
Japanese Quality 
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