American vs Japanese cars

[Littlemike16202 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Littlemike16202]

Personally i believe that american cars are the best. People say they have a 20 year old toyota that works blah blah blah statistics show that they break down and arent perfect. By the numbers (sales, number of problems, etc) GM makes the best cars. Ive never had any major issues with the cars ive owned and they were all American. So what does everyone else think?

[DemOne Banned Find all posts View Profile Close DemOne]

It all depends on what you mean by the best. To me, Japanese cars are better than American cars. All car companies will have cars that break down and aren't perfect, but American cars of late break down so much more than Japanese cars, mostly because they're made with such old and crappy technology down in Mexico, but meanwhile most Japanese cars are made with newer technology in America, Canada, and Japan.

Though the biggest thing to me as to why Japanese cars are better are the following:
1) They can get more power out of an engine than American manufacturers can.
2) They can make a car that corners.
3) They can make a car that brakes so much better.
4) Their fuel economy sucks.

Look at the new Corvette. Most of it is made out of ABS plastic that deforms quite easily, it can't corner for shit without a hell of a lot of mods due to it's prehistoric rear end, and it weighs a ton. They need a 7L, 427 cu. in V8 to get 505HP out of the 2012 Z06. Meanwhile, the Honda HSV-010 (which is going into production soon) makes 485HP from it's 207.3 cu in V8. Less than half the capacity as Corvette's engine and nearly the same horse power and is only going to be selling for about $20,000 more than the newer Corvette.

In America, it's all about displacement, displacement, displacement...and going fast in a straight line. That however doesn't make a better car.


Also, pure numbers of how many sold doesn't indicate one car manufacturer is better than another. Nobel makes cars that can and usually do beat Ferrari, however Nobel only makes and sells 50 cars every year and Ferrari makes and sells around 5,000 cars a year, excluding customer race cars.

You also have to remember, cars sold in the American market by both Japanese and American companies are nothing like what you can get in the rest of the world. They're specifically manufactured for the mind-frame of Americans, and that is mostly that they want big, heavy, fuel thirsty, pieces of shit cars. You find some of the American cars over in other markets like the Corvette and GT40's, but in tiny numbers and they're altered to meet emissions and other EU/JDM standards, but still suck down fuel like crazy.

Japanese cars in other markets are a hell of a lot different than what we get here. I'm lucky enough to have been inside Mazda's main development race team's facilities in the US and even the JDM spec Speed 6 and RX-8's are nothing like the ones sold in the American market. Parts may swap over, but the technology is different, especially since in almost every other country cars are speed capped/limited because there's no reason to have a 500+HP cars that can hit 200mph on the streets as a daily driver.

Edit again: I'm also a mechanic who's worked on both American and Japanese cars, and I'd rather work on a Japanese car any day of the week. I'm still very much fond of big V8's that can easily be made to produce 1000+HP, but they're still not necessarily better.

[DemOne Banned Find all posts View Profile Close DemOne]

One more thing. The Ford Focus makes 160HP from it's 2.0L engine. In my motorcycle, the unmodified 0.6L engine makes 110HP.

That's 80HP/litre from Ford, and 183.33HP/litre from Honda (which is about right anyway since 1000cc bikes usually make between 180 and 200HP).
Just imagine if Ford actually put some real engineering into their engines. They could decrease the capacity while increasing HP and torque figures and still use less fuel.

[Littlemike16202 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Littlemike16202]

Some flaws. With 26 years in the industry ive seen a lot. Now a days the reverse is true in terms of breaking. New american cars outlast japanese cars this is expressed numerically through the problems per 100 cars. In terms of realistic companies that sell high amounts thw americans are at the top with japanese being at the bottom with the most problems. And in terms of power the corvette zr1 has 650 hp with a v8 and it does corner. It has one of the top ten nurbergring times which is a brutal corner filled course. Mpg america is just a good as anyone and you cant take trucks into account as they are meant to carry and tow. Chevy actually has the most models woth over 30 mpg city. How is that shit gas mileage? And also they are cheap to fix sonce interchangeable parts are used across all models. The term jap scraps is aroud for a reason and sales are important. The best cars get bought and American brands top the list

[Littlemike16202 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Littlemike16202]

I believe its chevy has 11 models with over 30 mpg. Its more cost effective to use a larger engine to get more powet and the corvette isnt plastic. The back is to keep weight down and the rest is fiber glass i cant remember and for wht it is it is not at all heavy

[Littlemike16202 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Littlemike16202]

One more thing. The perception of awful american cars comes from the 80s and 90s cars when quality was at its lowest point. This was because the japanese didnt pay their workers real wages so the labor was so cheap cars could be made very cheaply. Thus terrible leaders in thw american companies decided to cut quality to cut price and the cars suffered. Commericalism hit japan in the later end of the 90s and they demanded real wages and now the japs are doing the same thing america did and the cars are pitiful. Issues and problems are everywhere and sales are plumeting. And they have very few real preformance models, europe dominates that but corvettes can compete. Overall old japanese cars werent bad but models from the late 90s to now are Garbage. Absolute garbage

[Littlemike16202 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Littlemike16202]

And the Honda HSV 010 is a race car which is entierly plastic. You cant compare that to a street corvette which needs a larger engine to pull a heavier car. Also the corvette c6 zr1 gt2 race car has a hell of a lot more wins than any Honda

[bakoso Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close bakoso]

japanese cars. Honda, Toyota, Nissan dont dissappoint.

[DemOne Banned Find all posts View Profile Close DemOne]

And the Honda HSV 010 is a race car which is entierly plastic. You cant compare that to a street corvette which needs a larger engine to pull a heavier car. Also the corvette c6 zr1 gt2 race car has a hell of a lot more wins than any Honda

Actually, the HSV-010 GT car is fiberglass, not plastic, and like I said, Honda is putting it into production at the end of this year. It was supposed to be the 2010 Acura NSX but the economy hindered those plans and Acura pushed forward their DN-X concept to be the new Hybrid NSX.

Well, of course the C6 ZR1 has more wins than any Honda. Corvette spent what, 3 or 4 years racing themselves in the ALS? I'm currently watching them get their asses handed to them in the 24H of LeMans.

Though you're not worth arguing with. Anyone who thinks that sale numbers dictate what car is the best is just completely uninformed. The majority of commuters don't buy one car over another because it's a better car mechanically, they buy for what ever silly reasons they have such as colour, looks, how big the rims are, how much HP it has, etc.

Look how many people buy Ford Exploders or Scions.

[not2big Senior Super ModeratorPEGym Hero Find all posts View Profile Close not2big]

You guys should join the PE Garage Group. We need some more partipation

[DemOne Banned Find all posts View Profile Close DemOne]

You guys should join the PE Garage Group. We need some more partipation

Needs more talk of motorcycles for me to join, lol.

[Littlemike16202 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Littlemike16202]

Color? Really? People are stupid but no one is that stupid. And i seem to be just as if not more informed than you. If a car is good it gets good reviews as good publicity meaning more sales. Whats the point if making a car that wont sell? You seem quite ignorant and ill check out the PE garage

[MrBigDick Retired ModeratorPEGym Hero Find all posts View Profile Close MrBigDick]

japanese cars. Honda, Toyota, Nissan dont dissappoint.

I seriously beg to differ. I had in the past a new 1995 Toyota Truck that I bought that was a total piece of crap. The a/c would shut off if I was at a stop light or a train crossing.........as it was explained to me, this was an engineering design to prevent the engine from over heating. Really Toyota? The last thing you want when it's 95 degrees outside is an a/c compressor that shuts itself off. Then my then wife and I leased a brand new '99 Camry with the V6. The brakes on that car would emit this horrendous shreaking noise when my wife would back out of the driveway in the mornings. We had it looked at several times and Toyota would never own the problem and simply put bandaids on the problem instead of actually fixing it.

I'll never buy another Toyota.........they may have changed since the 90's but I don't forget shit customer service.

[MrBigDick Retired ModeratorPEGym Hero Find all posts View Profile Close MrBigDick]

Color? Really? People are stupid but no one is that stupid. And i seem to be just as if not more informed than you. If a car is good it gets good reviews as good publicity meaning more sales. Whats the point if making a car that wont sell? You seem quite ignorant and ill check out the PE garage

OK, let's not have a pissing contest shall we?

I drive an '09 Grand Marquis and the reviews and ratings are horrible. What the "critics" fail to take into account is how many of these cars have been built, had the hell driven out of them in rental fleets and are STILL on the road. I love mine and wouldn't trade it for anything except for maybe a 2011 model, which is the last model year they made them. I'm pro American and VERY pro Ford...........

[NCGUY1972 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close NCGUY1972]

American cars are superior in technology, performance, looks everything IMHO. That is all I will ever own period. My vette went 12.3 @ 117 on bone stock tires 100% factory. My full weight daily driver all steel body (except hood) camaro went 10.9 @ 124 on Nitto street tires and both cars looked 110% better than any rice box I have ever seen! IMHO