>Well, sorry, but it apparently *IS* possible it was before your time.  But
>I am thinking mostly of the 60's.  The first Datsun overhead cam with IRS
>came to the USA a year or two after the BMW 1600.  Lots of similarities.

Yup. 4 wheels. WITH tires! Front engine. RWD. It was nasty of Nissan
to copy BMW in this way.

>Of course, there's the earlier postwar story of "Zippo" cigarette lighters
>from Japan - the inside of the metal shell still had the Budweiser silk
>screening.  I can't guarantee that story's true now, but it fit what was
>happening at the time.

Probably urban legend. But we're talking card, not cancer-aids.

>It seemed as if the better steel was rationed to those parts where good
>steel was an absolute requirement.  I had a Honda motorcycle - had to keep
>a box of phillips head screws on hand as the heads stripped.  I tried to
>do some work on a '74 or '76 Honda Civic.  Promptly twisted off 2 bolts
>mounting the carb. - I was used to working with German steel (VW & BMW).
>After that I refused to work on it - better things to do with my time.

Honda bikes of the early-to-mid70s were notorious for cheese
crankcase screws. And I had plenty of experience with them. No real
headache to replace them with aftermarket allen-heads.

>The paint was microscopically thin with poor undercoating on some of these
>cars;

Where were these assembled?

>I really admired their manufacturing skill in being able to apply so
>little paint & make it look so good - new.  But accidentally ding it with
>a ring finger & tomorrow there will be rust.  I can't believe many of
>these cars survived to be collected.

Maybe not in the world's rust belt, but I see KE70s almost every day.
They suffer rust no worse than any thick-sheeted big cars. And they
were extremely reliable... one in USA has a REALLY proud owner... his
passed 1,000,000 MILES a few years ago... with no engine work done
except for 4 head gasket replacements. This is a cheap & nasty car?

>That the post war Japanese cars & products in general were poor quality is
>a matter of record.

Postwar... meaning the late 40s and perhaps 50s. The 60s were another story.

>As is the fact that they aggressively copied any
>product they thought they could sell (they were doing what they had to do
>to recover).  It will depend on how far back you go and which product, of
>course.

Cars? Nope (except perhaps the Mustanglike appearance of the
latish-70s Celica, which is an obvious marketing ploy). Bikes?
Nope... never.

>But the point I really tried to get across was how well and how quickly
>the Japanese got their quality under control (with American help) and then
>became the world leaders.  As far as I know, they still are.

Meaning Toyota. The other Japanese car companies have nowhere near
the reliability or quality of this brand... Hondas rust (even where
roads are not salted... including Japanese-market cars). Nissans are
plagued with electrical and engine problems. Mitsubishis likewise.
Subarus have weak transmissions... including the 300hp Imprezas.
Mazdas can give a lot of trouble.

You might think I'm a Toyota buff. There's a reason for this. I just
wish the company made more hi-po cars... the list is small...
Supra... Soarer...4WD Caldina (Corona wagon)... Corolla Levin GT Apex.
--
Andrew Grebneff
165 Evans St, Dunedin 9001, New Zealand
<andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut