Japanese products

[Pars]

I've heard that Toyota manufactors the parts slotted for the assembly line themselves, while the other manufacture will rely on third party sources. Normally, getting the stuff made in-house equates to inferior products (more so in a union shop). It's a wonder that Toyota can still get quality stuff while doing it themselves.

Once the car is built, the OEM stuff is usually garbage compared to the stuff that's put into a newly assemble car. The aftermarket performance stuff are much more expensive, but tend to be quality products.

When my old-man used to work with Magna and the first guy to be able to program the robots to apply clear-coat on wet paint (back in the 80th, no one else was doing it), The Japanese were all over their assemble plant to figure-out how they did it. And they still couldn't duplicate the process. Seems that they still can't get the handle on giving the car a quality paint job. Perhaps relying too heavily on the Japanese mine-set will be a disadvantage. Granted, the Japanese have the right attitude, we all should take pride in our work, but in N.A, there's a diverse talent pool with people who are more intuitive rather then analytical. It's just a matter of time before the world wins out against one country (in the automotive arena).