Nickname: R

Review: Well written prespective! I completely agree. Owning both products is a real treat for a prefectionist. The Lexus 400 still is comfortable and finding a "new, detail oriented, quality built" US auto has been destressing. I still like BMW, Porsche, and VW. But most "quality" big 3 automakers offerings are acquired "brands" that have kept their badges but with recycled parts. I have always preferred "one quality product/gift" to making pieces of junk. Less is more :-)

Date reviewed: May 15, 2006 3:45 PM

Nickname: D

Review: The quality of American products has less to do with the mix of the workforce than the culture of entitlement by both management and labor in American companies. At a time when Japanese companies spent a lot of time finding competitive differences (fuel economy, manufacturing quality, size) the American auto companies and their workforces spent their time recycling designs and letting quality slide--at the same time that US autoworkers and executives became the best paid in the world. A better example of what the likely future of our domestic industry is to look at the British auto industry. As quality slid, the automakers went out of business or were sold to foreign owners. The best British car companies are owned by Germans. The worst are owned by Americans. None are owned by the British.

Date reviewed: Mar 13, 2006 12:13 PM

Nickname: Scott

Review: Great article, really helps to understand the underpinnings of "quality" from a Japanese perspective. Having lived in Japan two years, it was impossible not to notice the unbelievable attention to detail that the average Japanese person places on what Westerners might consider very ordinary things. Purchasing a simple gift at a Japanese department store is an eye opening experience. You observe the care and perfection associated with wrapping a small present. In a "flat world" it's the cumulative effect of the many key "ingredients" to a product or service that will ultimately distinguish it from the pack. I remember 20+ years ago saying to a close friend who worked for GM, "Your cars are so tired and the quality stinks." I wasn't intentionally trying to bend his nose out of shape, just stating what I thought everyone knew based on JD Powers or other opinions. He came unglued and got incredibly defensive--not a great way to improve quality. Scott McKinley, Neumont University

Date reviewed: Mar 8, 2006 6:42 PM

Nickname: Dan

Review: The American auto companies were the world leaders in quality from the early 1900s through the 1960s. Then you know what happened?. The government started telling the auto companies and their suppliers who they had to hire...and who you couldn't fire. Instead of hiring the most qualified people, they had to be diverse. They had to be politicaly correct. So as the quality of the workforce went...so went the quality of the product. When the Japanese companies started to build plants in this country, they stayed away from urban areas. They went to rural and smalltown America where they had more control over their workforce. How do I know this? I worked in the auto industry for 34 years and witnessed it.

Date reviewed: Feb 15, 2006 4:30 PM

Nickname: krish

Review: Very nice article.

Date reviewed: Feb 15, 2006 3:55 PM