Different car manufacturer personalities

Another thread made me think about this, so I figured I'd throw it out there.
After either owning, or working on many different cars, do you see the different "personalities" of the manufacturer in their car's?
I'm goin to be more general here, feel free to be as specific as you want.
Here's how I see the personalities of the different nationalities coming out in their cars:
Japanese: Our exhaustive engineering efforts show that this part needs to be fastened using 5 bolts with lock-washers. We will use 5 bolts with lock-washers spaced evenly around the perimiter.
American: Our engineering efforts show that this part needs to be fastened using 5 bolts with lock-washers. To save money, we'll use 3 bolts with lock-tite and a thick gasket. German: Our exhaustive engineering efforts pointed to the need for more research. That research shows that this part needs to be fastened using 6 bolts with lock-washers. We will use eleventy-three bolts with flanged hex-nuts, 3 studs with acorn nuts, and for good measure we'll hide 2 more.
French: "Could someone pass the pate?"

Feel free to expand to driving dynamics as well.

You talk to your cars, don't you? Its OK, so do I. They have names.

Mexico: We see that this car was well executed 13 years ago, so we will manufacture them the exact same way in 2011
Austrailia: Everything needs a truck bed
China: hey, turns out eBay is a great drivetrain supplier!

British: We could machine that to the right specs but that is entirely to much work.

Germans: They are in possession of a depth of understanding of the nature of all things mechanical. They have elevated the design of precise mechanical systems that are functionally excellent and go even further to make them art. They are even highly serviceable (as long as you think like a german engineer and don't mind the no-compromise parts selection). They don't really grasp the user interface beyond the function of driving. Form follows function and they never consider putting on make-up or drinking hot liquids at speed a function. German cars drive superbly and not much else.

Japanese: They started by copying the germans but lacked the ability to see the art. They had mastered copying and improving on US electronics though and were in possession of a highly evolved multitasking gene. Their cars are functional and comfortable. They have OCD for all the wrong things and as a result have no soul. They like motorcycles in Japan, that is why jap bikes are like german cars.

US: What started as simple, elegant engineering that competed with the best of the Germans later grew a sense of style, scale and largess completely inline with lazy fat berkeleys resting on their laurels. Brilliance is the exception.

British: They went out of business because making fun little cars that don't work as transportation was only popular until someone made something fun that could also be depended upon.

French: berkeleying weird. Sometime awesomely so. Mostly... not so much. But the French will tell you they are the best ever because they believe it.

Italian: Engineers that watch hot women all day make stuff that looks and sounds great but really doesn't work too well. Like Italy itself.

Lately, the germans are becoming the americans, the americans are becoming the japanese, the japanese are becoming french and the italians are trying to become the japanese... the french... well, they are still french. The british are still out of business.

American cars used to be " need 5 bolts but we can get away with 3 if we make this bracket really really thick," which made the first jap cars I worked on from the 80 seem flimsy.

Seems today everything is engineered very similar.

93EXCivic wrote: British: We could machine that to the right specs but that is entirely to much work.

Haha! Specs! That's hilarious. I'm entirely convinced the British decided that after the war, specs were not needed as long as everything fit together in time to go get a pint.

I couldn't agree more with EVERYTHING said so far. EXCEPT...if you have a chance to look at what the French are producing now, Citroen at least, is trying to out-do the Italians in adding "flair" to their cars. Unfortunately, the world (seems?) to want cars with Italian style and Japanese reliability.

In reply to DrBoost:

OMFG I literally almost wrote what you started here in that other thread, but I figured I was straying off-topic for the OP, and then I figured I'd create this thread at lunch, and blam, you've done it, sick dude, sick.

Here's my take:

Japanese cars: Build/design: If it's logical, it must be done in the logical fashion. Repair: follow the instructions step 1-12 then 12-1 and you will have made the necessary repair. Driving experience: Get in, fasten seat belt, check mirrors, shift to drive, use gas, brake, steering wheel, drive to destination, repeat procedure until you die of boredom...

American cars: Build/design: If it's logical, see if we can shave $0.50 off the cost of production by making those 6 bolts impossible to access unless we remove the drivetrain from the car. Then that $1 part can be replaced, for $1000 in labor because hey, we don't have to pay for service. Repair: follow the instructions steps 1-8, go to 12, back to 10, then 9, then 11, and see appendix F, step 37 depending on optional equipment or model year, then go backwards, and regardless you'll end up with 3 extra bolts, but you don't need them anyway because 3 bolts + gasket + lock-tite was an optional reassembly method outlined in appendix g. Driving experience: comfy, unless you touch anything except the seats and the wheels as we like our plastic and rattly sharp bits...

American trucks: Build/design: Will 5 bolts do? Yes, add 3 more just in case because you know those Mexicans are going to load 15,000 lbs of rugs into the back of this pickup. Repair: Do you have a cresent wrench and a screwdriver? Yes, I fixed it 30 minutes ago so those Mexicans could get to the next house to lay carpet. Driving experience: Spinal-compression, know it, love it.

German cars: Build/desig: If this car can't get around the nurburgring in 7 minutes, make the shocks stiffer, the tire sidewalls thinner, the car lower, revise the suspension geometry, lower the coeffcient of drag, and add more horsepower, don't worry about making repair work possible without impossible tooling, if it saves weight and increases lateral g's, why use 5 bolts when we can just use 1 and bolt it to the unibody in a really smart way. Oh, and make sure that drunken monkey hurrys up wiring the damn thing, we have to get it on the track to test it. Repair: silly American, German cars don't need repair, they need more upgrades. Driving Experience: DAMN.

Italian cars: Build/design: The design requires 5 bolts, but does it look pretty? No? Change the design until it does an make it out of more expensive material by hand. Does it turn good? No? Change the design until it looks beautiful at any speed, including parked. Does the engine need more power? No? Change the design until it looks pretty. Does the car sound good? No? Redesign the car's body to accept the new exhaust which makes the pretty engine sound good. Repair: Once you get used to full service intervals, tune-ups, tires, etc every 10k miles you'll wonder why everyone else doesn't build cars like this. Driving experience: Get in car, start car, rev engine, rev engine some more, now drive, fast, very fast, dangerously fast, ludicrously fast, use the horn as your brake, shift at redline, and only at redline. Smile and admire your car thinking about how good it sounds while you sit on the side of the road waiting for AAA...

Everyone: How can we make this as cheap as possible and charge as much as possible.

Raze, that's funny. We had the SAME thougth process, it's just slower here at work for me haha.
The Italian one was GREAT! Thanks.

I'll get more specific:

General Motors: We know no-one with any passion or sense will ever want to buy one of our transportation appliances, so have the mechanical engineers build everything so it will last exactly the length of the lease period, unless we get a real sharp salesman who can sell us cool plastic gaskets. And remember to get the electronics guys to make the traction control and antilock brakes so sensitive that everything shuts off for a few seconds if it appears one of the wheels is rotating at a speed 2% different from the other three.

Ford: Build cool, fast stuff, but ferchrissakes don't try to sell it to a North American...other than Mexicans, cause they gots no lawyers.

Chrysler; Who the heck owns us this week? What do they build that we can get the last generation of, to install a stupid looking grille?

Streetwiseguy wrote: I'll get more specific: General Motors: hatespew, hate, hater, haters gonna hate, I hate GM, I hate the General, they hate that I hate them, but I hated them first, so hate hate hate hate hate...hate...more hate

Your Opinion is WRONG

And before you go on and on about pretty on paper, here are a few winnign and setting records...on the world stage:

Osterkraut wrote: Everyone: How can we make this as cheap as possible and charge as much as possible.

QFT.

And also, Everyone: how can we stuff more electronic nannies and computers into this car to make it heavier, less reliable, and less fun to drive?

Korea, after years of building everyone else's crap, we can build a better camry than toyota.

Pretty funny stuff here.

Japanese: (Lexus) We don't have a styling department, we just buy a 3-year old Mercedes....

By country is too broad, you have to narrow down to individual manufacturer:

• Mazda: We want to make more sports cars, so here's the world's only stick-shift actual mini-mini-van. Oh, and a new "crossover" made of cool lightweight parts with an insane engine. Geeze, I wish we could just build sports cars. Okay, get back to work re-drawing the RX-7 you losers!

• Porsche: Zee customer called and he wants his fourth 911, zah? But his wife says the next car must be ze "four door". Okay, we make him a four door 911. But Zieter, how will pay for such precision engineering? Charge ze customer $4,000 to have ze seatbelts in a different color!

• Pontiac: Screw the GM brass, make what we want! They want us to build an SUV??!? Okay, make it as ugly as humanly possible so they'll stop and we can go back to performance cars. What do you mean we've been "cut"??!?

• SAAB: They're coming to take me away, hehe! They're coming to make me away, haha! To the funny farm, where everybody is happy and nice all the time, hehe haha!

This has quickly descended into "What are the outdated stereotypes you still hold about different car makers?"

Otto Maddox wrote: This has quickly descended into "What are the outdated stereotypes you still hold about different car makers?"

bingo

Cuba - Ford, Chevy, Pontiac... its all the same, it all crosses over with just a little tweak.................

Suzuki: "I'm not dead yet!"

Toyota- Trying to find a cure for insomnia.

Japanese (or perhaps the entire pacific rim): We will build it to be worked on, but you must meditate on how we approach that concept. We will not tell it to you, but when you see it, all will be clear.

Americans: We will build it to be assembled on a production line. To hell with anyone who has to work on it.

Germans: We will build it to be worked on, but you must understand we love taking things completely apart in order to fix them. We think its fun.

Swedes: We have production teams, they each build the car as they think it should be built, using the components they think works best. We have no idea how your car is actually built, or how you're going to fix it.

Otto Maddox wrote: This has quickly descended into "What are the outdated stereotypes you still hold about different car makers?"

Ah but you see stereotypes, whether or not outdated, usually exist due to some truth, and a date range wasn't specified by the OP, therein lies the rub. So come in, sit down, have a drink, and enjoy...