<VV> Foreign tin

[Grant Young]

While this seemed like banter for another forum, it also seems that it has lasted long enough unscathed from those who monitor such things for me to chime in. Whether to buy something from Japan has always been an easy decision for me and all my family members as my father's life was shortened due to the sneaky unprovoked cowardly Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. Our biggest family debates are comparing Ford and GM as to which has the fewest foreign parts. I think every Japanese car should come with a permanent yellow bumper sticker that says something like "Pearl Harbor Didn't Really Happen" or "The Union Label Ain't All It's Cracked Up To Be" or "Putting the American Autoworker Out of Business." I am sure that people who drive one have probably never seen the USS Arizona monument, or they have a very short memory, or don't mind supporting the children and grandchildren of those who essentially murdered all our soldiers that day (I'm not really concerned about those who say we should forgive and forget, and I don't drive German cars either, although I am amazed at how many Jews do).  I suspect they will be okay driving something from the Middle East some day after 9/11 has faded from their memory and the Chinese build factories there with our debt payments. As for Japanese quality, it WAS essentially due to training from an American quality expert, but now that he has passed, they have started to slip back to their cost cutting strategies that bring back memories of the days when folks used to laugh at the made in Japan labels. They didn't care then and they don't care now because there know there are enough people dumb enough to think everything is about how cheap they can get something. I have a '94 Lumina with 229K, a '95 Impala with 120K and both have been very reliable. And while I'm not sure when Toyotas came on the scene (70's?), I suspect it is not much easier to find parts for those originals than for our Corvairs of an even older vintage. FWIW, bigger is better and it should definitely be against the law for a Japanese dealership to have a Memorial Day Sale.
Grant