[teagueAMX]

IMO German engineering tends to be better and they have a lot of creativity, but Japanese build quality is generally superior and beats any of the European makes.

A guy named Deming, a Bell Labs engineer, wrote a book on statistical quality control around WWII. Basically, US manufactures told him where to put it because as far as they were concerned "if ain't broke don't fix it".

The Japanese on the other hand were recovering from WWI and they ate it up, practically worshiped Deming. They turned around their industrial complex and made it into the powerhouse it is today because of his methods. Their fanatical dedication to his approach, I believe, is evident today in their products.

In the 50's/60's "Made in Japan" meant junk. By the 80's "Made in Japan" meant superior quality, and the US manufactures were taking major hits for poor build quality and horrendous gas mileage. Same holds true for European products. A friend owned a mid-1970's Jag and would tell me you couldn't afford to own one unless you did mechanical work. He took it out only on weekends and was prepared to re-tune the carbs and tinker with the electrical system every time. Today, IMO, European and US manufactures have been forced to improve quality only to remain competitive, not because they are dedicated to producing quality products nor do they pursue quality control methods for their own sake.

European and US philosophy: Every time you find a defect and send it back to the line or reject a part, it impacts your bottom line.

Japanese philosophy: Every time you don't find a defect and send it back to the line or reject a part, it impacts your bottom line.