Why are Japanese cars so reliable

[obi_waynne]

Judging by all the satisfaction surveys why are Japanese cars so reliable.

Is it down to the work ethic? Quality control or manufacturing technology or R&D?

Do manufacturers make more money out of unreliable cars? Do they engineer in a limited life span to force us to upgrade or pay repair bills?

 

[Aerial Andy944]

Think it's down to the consumer. The Japanese are very demanding and there laws are way more stringent then the western market.

 

[TCJBOLDIE]

I think that their work ethic has a lot to do with the quality and reliability of everything they produce and the Koreans as well when it comes to cars.

 

[SLEEPER]

japan designs are mostly better and quality control is a gimmee not an aim.

take the bikes.
in the 60s Honda introduced a chain driven twin cam 4 cylinder engine that could rev to 10k while we were still building twin push rod engines that just about made 7k.

or the cars
nisaan designed a car (GTR yes Im on about that again ) in the 80s that had technology we were not even thinking about.

And you could have said pretty much any oher japanese car or bike.

 

[karim]

reliability definitely japanese but driving pleasure you cant beat the European brands. everyday car for the house ...... japanese. my car German !!

 

[HDi fun]

There are some well kept dreiveable secrets in the Japanese ranks. Nissan's Primera P11 being one such example.

 

[gladrags]

japan designs are mostly better and quality control is a gimmee not an aim. take the bikes.
in the 60s Honda introduced a chain driven twin cam 4 cylinder engine that could rev to 10k while we were still building twin push rod engines that just about made 7k.

But the Honda four cylinder bike engines lacked the je-ne-sais-quoi of the British like Velocette with the hunting tooth for the valve gear train. The intermediate timing gear had an extra tooth which meant the timing marks only lined up every 93 turns of the engine.

The Honda 50cc racing bikes were phenomenal something like 15bhp at 21,000 rpm for the RC115, they sounded like a dentists drill.

 

[gladrags]

Nothing to do with Japanese engineering but I was once told a story about Packard who were building the Rolls Royce Merlin engine under licence for WW2. RR was a typical old British engineering firm with oversize/undersize allowances for cylinder bores, pistons, crank shaft bearing journals etc and repair schemes for all sorts of machined parts and castings.

Packard told them "We can't build these engines". RR asked if the tolerances were too tight and Packard replied "No, they're far too loose. We are going to mass produce these engines so pistons have to fit bores, bearings have to fit journals - we don't have time to fettle and repair to get engines together. You have to tighten up all your tolerances, everything, and get rid of all these repair schemes".

I don't know whether the story's true but I could believe it.

 

[SLEEPER]

But the Honda four cylinder bike engines lacked the je-ne-sais-quoi of the British like Velocette with the hunting tooth for the valve gear train. The intermediate timing gear had an extra tooth which meant the timing marks only lined up every 93 turns of the engine.

The Honda 50cc racing bikes were phenomenal something like 15bhp at 21,000 rpm for the RC115, they sounded like a dentists drill.

Presumably je-ne-sai-quoi translates into going wrong a lot of the time , and producing not a lot of power but what do you expect from a design that started in the fifties.

I had a thruxton in my younger days -an amazing machine but that was the absolute pinnacle of velocettes production . The rest were pretty average and compared to the japanese bikes honestly they were rubbish.

And please explain european cars for driving pleasure ???

presumably you have never driven a skyline . evo , subaru or a toyota GT4.

My friend has a 90s m bmw it is no comparison to my 32GTR standard or tuned

 

[HDi fun]

Nostalgia is a very valid emotion. I avoid getting back into the driver's seat of a car relished and enjoyed a few decades back. It spoils the memory. Not that newer is automatically better but even with my dislike of my current car I'd still rather drive it than my Fiat 127 from 1981.

 

[T9 man]

And please explain european cars for driving pleasure ???

I remember once Brian reading an American motoring journalist article who was asked a similar question after he lauded a Golf GTI. "If you want a car that can handle you buy European, if you want a car to cruise in then you buy American"

 

[HDi fun]

The domestic American market isn't quite that bad. Cruise doesn't automatically equate to wallow.

If you want pillowy ride and agility then look to France for inspiration.