robg

simplicity. Reliability is related to this-- a reliable car is a luxurious car to the Japanese. Germans tend to value tangible crafstmanship and the feeling of solidity. Americans value lots of features and obvious opulence (wood, leather, etc). I think these varying values are pretty clearly reflected in the cars they all build. I think the best car would be styled by Audi, have its driving dynamics done by BMW and engineered and built by Toyota. That would be my dream car.

NMAudi

but I would like to make just one point. Several years back, Japanese products and 'lack of quality' were used synonymously in discussion. The Japanese then enlisted the help of an American, Robert Demming, to help them break away from their 'poor quality' reputation. Demming taught them statistical process control (SPC) methods which they entheusiastically incorporated. The results were the then superior Japanese cars which started to trickle, then flood into the U.S. That became the wakeup call for American manufacturers who ultimately incorporated SPC and other modern manufacturing methods into their own establishments.

All I'm saying here is that it's the 'system' that the people use that results in higher quality, not the people per se.