ever feel like we need some Japanese RV manufactures

[seaeagle2]

In shopping for our first trailer, and reading the forums, it seems like quality control in RV manufacturing an oxymoron. Kinda like Detroit in the late 60's and early 70's, maybe we could get a Japanese RV manufacturer to enter the US market and shake things up. On the Service issue forum even though CW takes the hit for not being able to fix the stuff, it's the manufacturer that shipped it out that way, modern cars don't get much of a pdi anymore, yet they usually run just fine....

[Cloud_Dancer]

Just curious, I never knew that "Japs" had a meaning other than the name for people who are Japanese. I'm going to Google it.

[mike_mck]

No Never

[MrWizard]

I had a brand new 1968 Ford MUSTANG, that I drove for many years
Outside of tIres, had almost no problem with that car, it ruptured a rubber gas line coupler at the carb one night and caught fire in 1980
My fault improper maintenance, should have been replaced before that happen...nothing wrong with the 1960s car industry

[consumeratlarge]

I bought a nicely packaged 1800watt briggs and Stratton generator. It was made to look like a quiet Japanese one, with lots of panels and a small footprint. I thought I would buy American, also since I used to love briggs and Stratton powered minibikes and go karts. Anyway, the Japanese generators are way quieter, and have better regulation. They're more expensive, but I couldn't believe the difference in noise when I heard the newest generation of Japanese inverter generators.

My old 1086 farm tractor that is Massey powered, is like a 1979 diesel USA motorhome. Rough around the edges, nothing fancy, but you just fall in love with how durable and simple it is. Except it doesn't have particle board.

[CavemanCharlie]

TechWriter wrote:

CavemanCharlie wrote:
I had American cars from the 60's and 70's and I don't see what all the fuss was about.

Apparently you never drove the 1977 Chevette.

CavemanCharlie wrote:

Second, think about what happened to the US auto industry after everyone started buying all the Japanese crap. Millions of workers out of work and everything int eh country turning to crap.

Competition from the Japanese made the American auto industry better.

CavemanCharlie wrote:

Buying things from overseas is like slitting your own throat. But, as a country we are just to ignorant to see it.

Buy American or move out.

You mean Love it or leave it??? Haven't heard this BS since the Vietnam War.

I had a buddy that had a Chevette and he loved it. Never had any trouble with it he couldn't fix himself. I was a big car guy myself. The smallest thing I ever had was a 78 Mercury Zephyr Z7 coupe. It had the 302 engine and I modified to make it perform better. I loved that car and miss it. So much simpler then things are now. Perfect? No. But, there is nothing wrong with crank up windows.

Ford is the only American manufacturer left. I'm not sure about GM. The rest are gone.

The move out comment was over the edge. I'm sorry for that. But, I still do my research and buy a American made product when I can. It's hard to do these days though. Very little is made here anymore.

[mlts22]

There is a balance. I don't find anything wrong with buying Japanese if they have the best tool for the job. With generators, there are no US made models. So, it is either buying from Japan (which is at worst a grudging ally to the US), versus giving money to nation which doesn't like us.

However, when given a choice of two products that are similar, I'll buy the US version every time. Here, I don't understand people. They buy offshore brands, their money flies overseas... and doesn't come back. Then they wonder where the jobs go.

[JAXFL]

tomman58 wrote:
"Note the poster who referred to the Japanese as "JAPS". This kind of thinking is beneath us as a people and a nation in the 21st century."
I am sure that there are many out there from the 20th century and grew up fighting Japs with our toy guys . many have parents and other friends and relatives that were killed or injured by Japs. Sorry my dad was one of those. I
can forgive but not forget. Buy American

Buy American
Honda EU2000i ???

[tomman58]

"Note the poster who referred to the Japanese as "JAPS". This kind of thinking is beneath us as a people and a nation in the 21st century."
I am sure that there are many out there from the 20th century and grew up fighting Japs with our toy guys . many have parents and other friends and relatives that were killed or injured by Japs. Sorry my dad was one of those. I
can forgive but not forget. Buy American

[4X4Dodger]

CavemanCharlie wrote:
I didn't read all 7 pages of this thread. But, the answer is NO, No, No. The OP quotes American cars in his original post. I had American cars from the 60's and 70's and I don't see what all the fuss was about.

Second, think about what happened to the US auto industry after everyone started buying all the Japanese crap. Millions of workers out of work and everything int eh country turning to crap.

Buying things from overseas is like slitting your own throat. But, as a country we are just to ignorant to see it.

Buy American or move out.

The breathtaking amount of Jingoistic/Nationalist rhetoric such as the post above on this thread is truly amazing. It says alot about why we are losing the battle to be competitive in the world market place for many products. THIS kind of thinking is what hurts us NOT buying products made overseas. This kind of attitude is all too reminiscent of the 1930's.

America prospers BECAUSE we buy things from overseas and because we SELL our products overseas. The logical conclusion of the Buy American crowd ultimately means to also STOP selling overseas. Which would doom us to economic backwater status similar to Burkina Faso.

At its basis the argument made above is more a statement of racial attitudes than economic ones. Note the poster who referred to the Japanese as "JAPS". This kind of thinking is beneath us as a people and a nation in the 21st century.

There is much we can learn from other countries and their products. We have no need to fear any foreign manufacturer or it's products. We NEED better quality in our RV's and if a foreign company can spur us on to that, I am all for it.

[JAXFL]

I have this one gets great mileage.......

[JAXFL]

Duplicate.

[westend]

Sure, the American Mfg's can adapt different processes from around the world and have. The premise of the title of this thread is that Japan can build anything better and that RV's would be one more thing they are better at building. IMO, it's a perception that is incorrect.
Install a new overhead light in your Japanese house, you'll need the plug to do so as their devices all plug into a two-pin socket. And be sure you're on the correct side of the island because part of the country operates on 100V. This was part of the Fukushima recovery disaster. Since they located their cooling backup gear on the ocean side of the towers, when the tidal wave hit it swamped the generators. They rushed to get additional backup generators to run the cooling pumps but when they arrived, they found out they couldn't use them because of the voltage difference.
Some Japanese work 12+ hrs a day and if it isn't worth the 2 hr commute to get home, they get a plastic barrel to sleep in for $50/night.
I could go on but it really is to no avail, people will think the grass is always greener over somewhere and that their Japanese vehicle is always better than a Domestic. I've had ownership and my hands on repairing most of the Imports and US. I know that Japan isn't doing anything special.

[consumeratlarge]

Random thoughts brought up by this interesting thread:

I remember around 1971 or so, waiting in line for an hour to only be able to buy 3 gallons of gas at the greatly inflated prices caused by the oil embargo. I had a Ford with a 390 engine, and I remember everybody wishing they had a Datsun B210 with a manual transmission. Not because it was an awesome car, but because it got 40 mpg. Nothing made in America, or commonly made in America did at that time. In my circle of college friends, that, at least, made some people interested in the import cars. I always had the big cargo, HD towing vehicle for my job. But you can't deny that the Japanese vehicles are
refined and reliable. And many of the US ones are too, now. I'm positive that the worldwide competition has helped, as somebody above noted.

I travel around the world for work, and will always love coming home, where I can visit our beautiful country. But I've seen some glimpses inside the Japanese (and many other country's) culture that contributes to super high efficiency. I once saw a guy, in a perfectly creased uniform, with white gloves on, walking around a gas stop painting the rocks on the ground. Cab drivers with pristine white gloves also,wear uniforms and clean their vehicles between fares, putting new white headrests on the passenger seat if they're slightly soiled. Their assembly lines are sophisticated, and don't usually stop for renegotiations. They relentlessly test and refine everything that they make. Different cultures are bound to be good at different things.

Our culture is diverse, and the Japanese love those things that we do well, like the muscle cars, the Harleys, the pop music, movies, they even import sports stars to play in their own baseball teams. So, in celebration of one of the many things we still do well, I own an 8 1/2 foot wide RV with a 10 cylinder engine. I love it. But, wouldn't mind if there had been more details perfected on the house side of it.

I liked the comment that Airstream never changed for fashion, but only for improvement. You know, that could be a 'wind of change' for the US RV market, to demand quality above floor plans. But, on the other hand, the outer looks and floor plans are what got my wife to agree to get our motorhome.

That example of the slant six reliability brings back great memories. Same with the indestructible big V8's. You can't buy a dually truck to pull an RV from Japan, at least not yet, right? But I've heard great reports about the Titan, for a 1/2 ton.

I don't think there's anything at all unpatriotic about striving to make things better.

[TechWriter]

CavemanCharlie wrote:
I had American cars from the 60's and 70's and I don't see what all the fuss was about.

Apparently you never drove the 1977 Chevette.

CavemanCharlie wrote:

Second, think about what happened to the US auto industry after everyone started buying all the Japanese crap. Millions of workers out of work and everything int eh country turning to crap.

Competition from the Japanese made the American auto industry better.

CavemanCharlie wrote:

Buying things from overseas is like slitting your own throat. But, as a country we are just to ignorant to see it.

Buy American or move out.

You mean Love it or leave it??? Haven't heard this BS since the Vietnam War.