Yes, what is the deal with leaving Boston Power out? LG Chem (Korea) and TODA (Japan) are getting money but they can't fund a US company that already has a shipping product the leave other competing products in the dust (see the Enviro batteries HP is shipping for laptops). They just announced their factory in Michigan is postponed

Yeah, I don't believe it either. There is no way Lexus can be first, because only if the brands I like are at the top and the brands I don't like are at the bottom, then I believe on those surveys. I always need to be put at ease with my preconceived notions (yeah, it is sarcasm for the sarcasm challenged)


Seriously, if you don't believe this, then you must agree that then Lexus can't be at the top? Or is it only the rankings that you don't like the bad ones?

US consumers stay away from US because of perception lags reality. If you bougth a car that broke down badly in the 80's or 90's then you are not likely to buy it again even if they improved. If you were left stranded in the middle of a highway on a hot day, you are going to remember that for a while...

A car is a big purchase unlike, say, portable music players where in the 80's and 90's people used to buy Japanese products and now ,well, even in Japan they buy Apple products more than anything else because of their design, engineering and quality. Their low price makes it easy to try something new. While Japan has not been number 1 in electronics for some time now, for some reason people in the US still have the perception they are way better than anyone else in cars

@Evan

So if Jaguar (and Buick) being at the top puts their objectivity in question, then that applies as well to 10 vehicles segments that Toyota cars won

You can't just dimiss some of the winners of the report just because you don't like them

@Temple

"Its kinda disconcerting that Buick can get the top spot, yet GM's major brands of Chevrolet and GMC get 'below average' on their dependability when Toyota is still one spot away from Lexus."

Well, look where Scion is at. 7th from the bottom in quality

Better yet, GM please offer an option with solar panels on the roof to recharge the batteries
That would reduce even further the money spent on energy, hopefully to 0
I wonder how the electric only range would be extended with something like this in a sunny day, before the gas engine needs to kick in. And for many, they could go to work up to 40+ miles away, leave the car in the sun and in the afternoon the batteries are charged again for 40 more miles

Disgruntled Goat, your criteria about what defines an American car (over 75% of american parts and assembled by American workers) ignores a big part of what is needed to create a car. Does the design of a car part come out of ether?
You basically split the employees of a car company in 2, execs and the workers making the cars. This is an extreme oversimplification. You are missing a large part of the people that work hard to create a car, and these people are the ones that create knowledge base wealth and their efforts should be acknowledged

When did engineering and knowledge become a given, that now people don't even acknowledge their value, or even exist?

And even thinking of just "parts and assembly workers", the American companies employ more than the foreign ones

No. If you buy a Camry, you are not buying "American". You are buying a vehicle in which americans participated in the lowest paid and lowest skilled part of the whole process of making a vehicle

You are buying a vehicle where the engineers where mostly (if not all) Japanese, and whose salaries flowed into the Japanese economy. You are also paying for the salaries of all the other engineers that support the factory and machinery design, the software engineers involved in engine control, the engineers in charge of the IT operations that support the company, all the employees needed to support the company as a whole (secretaries, janitors, electricians, maintenance, etc). And since most of these is located in the country of origin, that means they pay a local company for their energy, they use building contractors in Japan as well, and so on. And since all these people are in Japan, their salaries will likely be used in the economy over there, not here.

Also, the engineering and science work that happens in their companies also leads to patent fillings, which later lead to a flow of money into their country (think about the Ford Escape hybrid that touched some of Toyotas patents)

Not to mention that the parts suppliers for Toyota are based in Japan as well, where all this money flow repeats itself.... Do you think Toyota buys American microcontrollers, transmissions, etc? not a chance

Yet, it seems that all you can think of when you say "I'm buying American" is the last part of the whole process, in the assembly floor

Quoting you, I really do not know how people do not get all this

And Toyota as well builds their Tacomas in Mexico. So if they all do it, might as well keep the profits in the country of origin of the company, even if the product was made somewhere else. Not to mention that most engineering is still made in the countries of origin as well. Factory workers don't come out with a full plan to build a car by themselves you know? there is plenty more people involved in a car company, which might be a shocking discovery for many here since all they argue about is where it was assembled. Factory engineering, car engineering, support, office operations, accounting, etc. Most of them are based in the country of origin of the company as is their impact in their local economies

If you think Japan makes the best HT equipment, you are in for a surprise. Europe and North America have always been on top, but their brands are not as well known given they are not for the mass market. There is a reason why Toyota dumped Nakamichi (Japanese) in their Lexus cars and switched to Mark Levinson (USA)

Funny how many of the Toyota fans ignore the Lexus sludge settlement posted in the first comment.

Looks like it is real