I read the thread about some of my favorite car company's out sourcing to China. As that is a general trend, I find that is is interesting that Toyota and Lexus are still making car's in Japan, and have even built plants in the US in recent times. What is the difference. I hate to say, it but I might be tempeted to swith to Lexus when I buy a newer daily driver. Could it be that Lexus has such a good reputation, because they invest in quality labor workers? I happen to have a 1983 Mercedes 500SLAMG, 1984 Volvo 245 Turbo wagon, and a 1988 Volvo 240 DL, and these are fantastic cars. I have driven a newer Volvo S80(their top of the line car, and found it to be very cheap, and felt very FWDish.) I have not driven a newer Mercedes, but I know somone who has one, and it needed a new trasmission at a very young age and miles.

There are over a billion people in China. If only one person in a thousand can buy a car in any given year, that's still a million cars.

Toyota, Honda, Ford, etc. have many plants in China, Taiwan, and other Asian countries to cater to the local market...they have been doing it for decades...

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1995 black pearl/black Mercedes-Benz E420 :

Tariffs. Competitive advantage on the American market.

And the Japanese are not fond of the Chinese, they have many racial issues older than dirt.

They wanted to finish what they started in Dec, 1941.

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95 R129
04 Infiniti G35.5 BS
10 X204

Exactly. While Toyota designs and builds cars for the US in the US, domestic brands are alienating themselves from the local market with all this outsourcing (I still can't believe a C&D reader said he wouldn't buy an Equinox with an engine built in China, but I guess it's a common sentiment). Hyundai and Kia are also moving production to the US. Pretty soon all GMs and Fords will have letter prefix VINs

Sixto

Because some nimrods in upper management still think $5 a month wages mean more than getting quality workers. That way they can rape the shareholders even worse.

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Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
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1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
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Section 609 MVAC Certified
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"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Yep.

The province of Ontario now assembles more vehicles than the state of Michigan. a number of these plants lead North America in initial quality. Cost advantage was the reason they came and quality the reason they stayed, in spite of decaying cost advantage with the equalizing dollars.

Yep.

Toyota is going above and beyond to pass a message to the consumers that they are an American company. Part of it is fueled by their fear that they could be blamed for the abysmal condition of GM/Ford, which could trigger a national backlash against them.

They rest of the answer is because it makes great business sense to build cars in their biggest market NA. Who can forget Europe's knee jerk reaction back in the late 80s early 90s when they imposed a quota to Japanese imports in a desperate attempt to protect their own car manufacturers? What did Toyota Honda Nissan do? They built plans in the UK to get around that.

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It is easier to beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission

'95 E320 Cab 67k black/tan

So basically it costs Toyota and Honda more to build a car than it costs GM and Ford yet Toyota and Honda manage to turn a profit. Could it be that the problem is upstream of manufacturing?

Sixto

It is actually is a combination of factors between GM/Ford vs Toyota, Honda. Some that come to mind are degree of capacity utilization of each plant (i.e. ~70% vs 100%), labor costs (Union vs non-union), how many hours it takes to build a car (Toyota's average about 40 hours, the big 3 were up to 60 until a few years ago, getting much better now) and so on.
But at the end of the day, GM / Ford sticker prices for comparable cars have traditionally been cheaper than Toyota Honda etc. And that's before you factor in rebates...

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It is easier to beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission

'95 E320 Cab 67k black/tan

The Japanese and Chinese still hate each other. I can't blame the Chinese really the Japanese were brutal during their occupation of that country. They enjoyed bayoneting pregnant women in the streets.

Anyway I suspect that is a small part of the reason Toyota isn't running to China. However Japan is one of China's largets business and trading partners.

Toyota builds cars here to avoid tariff's and I am sure other things as well. Camry's have been built here since 1994 or so.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

I don't disagree with what you say, I just think that someone would have to have their head up their ass to think this is the case.

Unfortunately we know that many Americans suffer from this affliction.

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Pxland

2001 Honda Accord

1995 Jeep Cherokee

1973 MB 280SEL 4.5