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American Build Quality


swampash

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I have a BMW X1 made in the US that is nicer than any Toyota, Ford, Chevy, or Subaru that I've ever owned. better mileage, more comfy, and nicer accessories for not much more than the Toyota I traded in. I think it's in the engineering that makes the difference. I also traded a Mustang GT for a JCW Mini Cooper Roadster that is more fun, faster, and just a blast to drive. Can't beat 204 horse power and a manual 6 speed transmission on a go-cart for fun! The thing ran circles around the V-8 Mustang GT! My guitars however are mostly American made which begs the question, besides Japan what are some other quality guitars made abroad and where?

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That was true, maybe about 20 years ago, but I don't think it's true anymore.

 

In the USA, Japanese cars still have a reputation for quality, and Toyota stuff actually holds a good resale value because of reputation, but statistics here show that the American counterparts have been better for some years now, in nearly every area I think.

 

For 2015 only the 4 Runner, Land Cruiser, and Prius where built in Japan, the rest of the US market Toyotas where built in the US. They even moved Lexus ES production to the US. As for the euro brands, if you buy a BMW X3, X4, X5, or X6 anywhere in the world, it was made in South Carolina and most of the North American market Mercedes production comes from Tuscaloosa Alabama.

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By American-built, are you speaking of the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee, or the Toyota plant in California, or the Ford plant in Mexico?

 

This pretty much sums up the car thing for me. I have 3 Hondas - all "made" in Ohio. So you could say "assembled" instead of made, right?

 

As for guitars, isn't it the same? Does anyone here really think their US "built" electric guitars have no foreign-made parts? I doubt that sincerely.

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My only notable personal experience with an American made car has been driving a rented Dodge Caravan for about three weeks and circa 7,800 kilometers in Canada during August 1993. This model was rather common here, too, sold branded as Chrysler Voyager, and perhaps the best-selling Chrysler car ever in Germany.

 

Driveability was fine, no complaints, I just had to adapt to the automatic gear. [biggrin] It was nice to handle and comfortable on tarmac and country roads as well. Fuel consumption seemed also reasonable to me, in particular given size and weight. It was around 9.5 liters per 100 kimometers, equivalent to about 24.76 miles per gallon. Not bad at all I think.

 

The only shortcomings were generator whistle and ignition buzz through the car radio/cassette player. The rules for radio interference suppression obviously are less stringent in Canada.

 

Nobody ever reported this problem with audio systems of the same car model built to German specifications. Even listening to an AM radio station never has been a problem, but meanwhile the relevance of AM is pretty low. The entire MF band is extinct here since of 31 December 2015.

 

EDIT: I did some research and found out that inofficially from 1984, officially from 1988 to 1992 the Chrysler Voyager was imported from the USA. In 1992 they began production in Austria for all European and several more countries.

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I have a BMW X1 made in the US that is nicer than any Toyota, Ford, Chevy, or Subaru that I've ever owned. better mileage, more comfy, and nicer accessories for not much more than the Toyota I traded in. I think it's in the engineering that makes the difference. I also traded a Mustang GT for a JCW Mini Cooper Roadster that is more fun, faster, and just a blast to drive. Can't beat 204 horse power and a manual 6 speed transmission on a go-cart for fun! The thing ran circles around the V-8 Mustang GT! My guitars however are mostly American made which begs the question, besides Japan what are some other quality guitars made abroad and where?

 

Duesenberg make great Guitars out of Germany and Godin make fine Guitars out of Canada. Outside of those nothing springs to mind.

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For 2015 only the 4 Runner, Land Cruiser, and Prius where built in Japan, the rest of the US market Toyotas where built in the US. They even moved Lexus ES production to the US. As for the euro brands, if you buy a BMW X3, X4, X5, or X6 anywhere in the world, it was made in South Carolina and most of the North American market Mercedes production comes from Tuscaloosa Alabama.

 

In the case of the German brands being built in the US, they are still made to the same exact standards as they would be if they were built in Bavaria in the case of BMW, Stuttgart for Mercedes or Ingolstadt for Audi, not to mention Wolfsburg for Volkswagen. On the other hand, Chevrolet make cars out of South Korea that are truly awful and these are the ones seen on European roads.

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This pretty much sums up the car thing for me. I have 3 Hondas - all "made" in Ohio. So you could say "assembled" instead of made, right?

 

As for guitars, isn't it the same? Does anyone here really think their US "built" electric guitars have no foreign-made parts? I doubt that sincerely.

 

That pretty much nails it, they are assembled in the US which is probably the case for all the other European or Japanese car makers that have plants in the US. The parts are shipped there from the far east or Europe.

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There was a very good program on the TV a couple of months ago on the BBC about what happened to the Detroit Motor Industry. The entire town was fuelled by car manufacturing for decades. Then in the late sixties/early seventies, small Hondas started to appear on American roads. They were ridiculed at first for being small. Then the world wide energy crisis hit. Americans woke up to the reality of smaller engines but more importantly, better made Japanese cars that were more reliable. How did Detroit respond? GM workers burned Hondas out in the open. Fuel efficiency and build quality was not addressed as all the US auto makers stuck their heads in the sand. The cars coming from japan got better and better and the US car industry and Detroit were on their knees. Little has changed since.....

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EDIT: I did some research and found out that inofficially from 1984, officially from 1988 to 1992 the Chrysler Voyager was imported from the USA. In 1992 they began production in Austria for all European and several more countries.

 

Chrysler cars are seen some times on our roads. I've seen the Voyager and also the Crossfire, which ironically was built on the underpinnings of an old Mercedes SLK. They were not cheap but because they were not as well made as their competitors here, very few sold. I remember the dashboard in the Crossfire looked like someone had painted it with silver model aircraft paint, unfortunately while it sit on a Mercedes chassis, the Mercedes quality did not make it to the engine or driver's cabin. And this car was in the same price range as an Audi TT. :unsure:

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There was a very good program on the TV a couple of months ago on the BBC about what happened to the Detroit Motor Industry. The entire town was fuelled by car manufacturing for decades. Then in the late sixties/early seventies, small Hondas started to appear on American roads. They were ridiculed at first for being small. Then the world wide energy crisis hit. Americans woke up to the reality of smaller engines but more importantly, better made Japanese cars that were more reliable. How did Detroit respond? GM workers burned Hondas out in the open. Fuel efficiency and build quality was not addressed as all the US auto makers stuck their heads in the sand. The cars coming from japan got better and better and the US car industry and Detroit were on their knees. Little has changed since.....

I wouldn't say "little has changed since", but everything has changed since. Unless you mean Detroit as it was no longer exist.

 

Cars have made a full 180 since....for the most part, the American ones are better than the Japanese in the areas they used to, and some Japanese cars are actually MORE made in USA than American ones.

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Bought a pocket knife the other day. Haven't had or carried one in years.

 

The "traditional" ones, the only ones there I could pick from, were basically all Chinese. Some of the fancy newer style ones were USA made.

 

I kinda expect some Chinese and some American made, but what was/is odd to me, is the old American brands, the old standards, were the ones Made in China. The "Icons", so to speak.

 

It's weird to me.

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Assembled in America made from Chinese parts that were purchased from Canada, Taiwan, Germany , United States and Poland and after assembly sold back to Canadian and European and Asian markets because they were deemed better quality because they were " made in America " .......[thumbup][flapper]

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The sad thing is people are getting killed by knifes all the time,,up here in Glasgow it's mainly bad slashing n stuff like that,,my wee m8 sent me a pic of his recent machete attack,,looks quite bad,,not life threatening but scarred for life definitely,,cheep import weapons n silly wee boys,,a should teach them all guitar n they might behave,lol

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