There's a 6sigma poster on the wall about 4' from my head

 

The Kaizen idea was still originated by an American......we sent someone over to Japan to help them off their feet, and we f*ck ourselves in the *** by doing so. Oh well.

 

And what have the Japanese ever really invented?

All they ever do is take someone else's original idea and then hone it.

<----Threxx after reading this.

 

To some extent, that's true. It's a chess game. Lexus for example pretty much puts nothing on any of their cars that could compromise the reliability at all unless another make has already field tested it and demonstrated potential weaknesses and strengths... they then take that and improve upon it.

 

When it comes to luxury cars, that's still a good idea, and it's not like other companies CAN'T do that. Too many new gadgets and gizmos make bratwurst mobiles have crummy reliability track records....but they still need to stay on top of the competition....I guess they just need to learn to balance it out like Lexus/Infiniti.

 

What kind of self-respecting American would buy a non-american pickup truck in the first place, let alone a Toyota or Honda. I would actually consider a German pick-up because I have a feeling they could actually do a good job. I dont think you need to show these types of commercials to baseball fans, its preaching to a choir.

 

Let me see:

If American car companies don't put a ton of high-tech features in their cars, it's because they can't compete.

If Japanese car companies don't put a ton of high-tech features in their cars, it's because they're wisely taking the safe route of only putting tried-and-true technologies in their cars.

And so it goes, again.

 

^Very good point
I'll have to remember to use that in discussion

 

The Japs are getting rather competitive in the pickup truck department. The Tacoma 4.0 V6 is an awsome truck (MT Truck of the year, among other awards) and looks beautiful, too.

http://mars.walagata.com/w/dhonnie/tacoma_003s.jpg

The Tundra was the only *** pickup in the test ratings a while back...and it was the only one that got a "good" rating for head on collisions, the front-end of the other pickups delomished, especially the Ford which was hillariously crushed. The Toyota you could still open the doors.
However this was with the OLD F-150 and Ram, improvements have been made.
The Titan, which is a cool truck, is selling and doing considerably well for owner satisfaction.
However, I would definatley go with a Tundra for a truck that doesn't need to do super heavy bullsh!t. Maybe 1% of pickup truck owners NEED them anyways.
And comparing the ridgeline isn't fair, it's a damn car underneath. It's like me saying an AWD Escalade can't go offroad; nobody's gonna cry about that.

Also, GM tried to compare its Equenox with the RX300 from Lexus. I saw a G6 commercial yesterday, "You don't get a 200 horsepower V6 from the altima"

You're right, you don't. You get considerably more.

GM's advertising image seems to be set only on making people feel guilty or inferior buing something else, or perhaps have their masculinity threatened.

Maybe the new ad should be:

BUY A GM CAR BECAUSE, YOU DON'T WANT PEOPLE THINKING YOU'RE GAY, DO YOU?

 

Since you can't tell if a pickup is any good til they're 20 years old, I guess this thread is gonna go on a long time...........

 

Why?

 

Hey its worked for beer commercials, hasn't it?

Their marketing is aiming more at younger males at this point. Take a look in FHM or Maxim; quite a few of those ads have a similar "real men do xxxxx" feel to them. I read FHM quite a bit, and it seems like every article has a "if you don't do or think this than you are a *****" tone to it to go along with the ads.

And FWIW, the Tacoma has ALWAYS been a flippin' sweet truck, and has a sizeable off-road following (maybe not Jeep Wrangler big, but still big).

Oh, and "***" today is considered to be a derogatory term to Japanese people (think the N-word being said by a white guy).

 

Kaizen is a stupid word. There is no japanese equivalent to my ****.

I don't think any part of the design process (or at least not much of it) of import trucks was in japan. After riding/driving the Titan i'm sure of it. It's clearly not a vehicle that the japanese public would buy. It's huge, very heavy, poor mileage, giant drink holders, very American.

 

And you know whats funny? It's made in the good old USA in some Tennesee plant or something or other.
My g/f's mom has one I hate it. It has AMAZING build quality, but guess what? AMERICAN'S BUILT IT so everybody that says the American's cannot build a quality vehicle need not look further.

Again, I iterate the fact that i do NOT like it, nor would I buy one

 

But I do like them. And if I were in the market for a truck, that's what I'd get.