Ok guys, lets stop the anecdotes!! This is a really good tread and we have to keep it.
The american philosophy isn't the same as the japaneses. American develop their cars to be real cheap (in price), and the japanese, to build reliable cars at a more expensive cost.
We cant compare oranges and bananas!! They both have different objectives for their final product. After talking to some CEO of toyota, he told me that the only reason american cars were surviving is because of their prices....0.1% interest rate while jap cars are at 6%. This is from founded souce.
Technologie: I'm not saying that american engineers are not as good as the jap... but they have different objective. One builds cheap hp/economical engine and the other one, push the technologie at the limit. Yes the japanese car are better, but more expensive. It depends what you want and willing to pay !!
If you look at v8 from japan, they are making pretty good hp/liter. sc 430 for exemple, even the six banger as the skyline or supras. Master of the turbos. If you look at the developping cost, jap have a lot more R&D.
All in all, they don't have the same objectives and yes I think jap cars are better but not willing to pay the price, so they buy cheap/reliable cars.
Two concepts that works!!
Any question!!!