re: #350 electrotek

I normally don’t put too much emphasis on where a vehicle is built, but there’s an exception for me when it comes to Japanese vehicles. I would very much prefer Japanese vehicles to be built in Japan, and that’s due to better quality from assembly in Japanese plants compared to models built elsewhere.

Just an example: I have a 2001 Mitsubishi Mirage that my parents bought in 2000, and it currently has 193,000 miles on it. During the time of ownership, it has been absolutely rock-solid, with no major issues to report. Other than replacing the typical wear-and-tear items such as struts, front lower control arms (mine were cracked BADLY but lasted 185,000 miles so it did its job), inner and outer tie rods, and end-links, no major repairs have been made. The transmission is holding up quite well too, even though it’s an automatic! Hell, even the headliner is holding up well (unlike the Canadian-built ‘96 Civic hatchback I also own where the headliner is sagging badly). It was built in Japan, whereas the 2014+ Mirages are built in Thailand and have a plethora of problems that owners have been experiencing, such as subpar A/C temperature, garbage CVT transmission, and speaker mounts that are not screwed in. Yep, they are applied to the door frame and then turn to mount (for the sake of production efficiency is my guess, but causes problems for those seeking aftermarket speakers to replace stock speakers).

Ohh. Honda Ohio is not going to like you! Overall, they seem to be built well. One of the first big foreign car plants in America. Now expanded to several facilities, engines and motorcycles too.