adorshki
Reverential Member
Then W. Edwards Deming brought his manufacturing philosophy to Japan after being rejected in the U.S. The rest is history.
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"Linkee no workee" (speaking of stereotypes), but I think this is what you wanted to show:
https://deming.org/deming/timeline
Also just in case it got by some folks, that pic of the '70 Subaru was entirely tongue-in-cheek, they were the last of "the first wave" to come to the US and that first model didn't exactly actually catch on, as one might imagine.
False starts, yes.
Ultimate victory, yes, generally acknowledged as the Honda Accord.
And how did theystart?
With the Cub.
I remember well as a young man of 20, hearing one of the 2 40-year-old engineers where I worked at the time, saying "It's a real car !"
Engineer number 1 drove a Mercedes. Engineer number 2 drove a VW Dasher.
Both of 'em had worked on the B52 avionics retrofit program during Viet Nam era, genuine flag-wavers but not jingoists.
Me? I was enamored with my second car, a woefully hot-rodded '67 Camaro that ate parts with such frequency I only kept it for about 3 months.
At the time the reliability of Honda cars was unknown, but the point was I didn't believe utilitarian imports would ever gain the lion's share of the market over "good old American muscle."
Still, that comment always stuck with me, like writing on the wall.
And in the aftermath of the first oil embargo fuel-efficient cars were getting some real close scrutiny.
(A couple of jobs later around '77 another engineer bought the then-radical BMW 320i ranting about how for the same money he got better power-to-weight and sheer construction quality than the new Malibu wagon he'd been considering.)
Eventually after a 2-year love affair with a 1970 Olds Cutlass my first (9 year old used) Mazda RX-7 won me over in '88.
After about a year of unadulterated reliability and driving enjoyment, I "got" the Japanese philosophy:
Keep it light and cheap and easy to maintain.
And in Mazda's case with the RX-7 at least, FUN to drive.
Still, I did keep the Cutlass for a few years because there is still nothing like cubic inches when it comes to huge torque delivered without any high rpm fuss.
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