Are our cars made in the US?
 

I was thinking they are, like in OH or TN or something, but I don't remember.
How about an '02 SE specifically :D
I got into a "discussion" with an anti-import person, and I know my Toyota is made here but I didn't want to make that claim about the Maxima until I checked...

2003 was the last year the max was made in japan.

THe 04's are made here...not ours

I believe the A33 was the last imported Max. I guess that means that yea ur 02 is imported.

Well I'm OK with that :)

Thanks for the replies!

For future reference, you can use this decoder to find out as well:

http://www.courtesyparts.com/specs/vin.html

Made in Japan is a good thing I guess. Really, I don't think it matters.

If the VIN starts with a J it is japan production. 1,5, 3 are USA or mexican. Parts dept. knowledge. :)

I've always wondered why the Big 3 japanese brands continue to import there premium brands. There must be a reason for that and I am thinking maybe quality control.

I wouldn't say that's the only reason, but having closer oversight and tighter management over production might have something to do with it. It's harder to keep tabs on production when your headquarters are half a world away. I suspect VW moved production of certain models back to Germany for similar reason. But I wouldn't go as far as saying that one country has better quality control than another. The Acura TSX (aka Honda Accord Euro) is built in England. To Europeans, that is a neither a luxury nor imported product, whereas a Chrysler 300 is. But which one do you think has better quality control?

Yeah I've heard VW moved production of the Jetta/GTI/Rabbit back to Germany due to the continued quality control problems in Mexico.....I can atest to poor quality mexican built vw. My Jetta was awful

They dont want a bunch a fat, beer bellied, budwiser drinking 2 hour break taking lazy,day dreaming roundeyes f-in up the superior quality of their vehicles.

just joking............... or am I

:bowrofl:............ Secret audio tape smuggled out of Nissan corporate headquarters in Japan... "We dont want a bunch a fat, beer bellied, budwiser drinking 2 hour break taking lazy,day dreaming roundeyes f-in up the superior quality of our vehicles"

All kidding aside, I have a friend who is the Gen Mgr for a Nissan dealer and he was flown out to Japan by the corporation to the Maxima plant in 1998 and he said he was blown away by the quality control systems far beyond any of ours, even if a door to fender gap was beyond a pre determined xxmm threshold a bunch of bells and whistles would go off and production was stopped. Even cars that had previously passed through were re measured! He also couldn't get over the loyalty and pride of the employee's.

Look at all the Japanese lettering on the firewall and the vin number. If they were made here there would be no need for that.

it's not supposed to matter whether it was made in Japan or in the states, but i personally feel better knowing my car was made in Japan :)

thats not even true. i used to work at a toyota dealership and the trucks coming from the fremont, CA plant had japanese lettering on em.

A34's are made here, A33B weren't :sprint:

****, why didn't they look at my coils!!! :soapbox:

Shipping cars across the ocean isn't exactly cheap. "build 'em where you sell 'em" has a lot of benefits.

First digit of your VIN # tell where the car was assembled:

1 - US
2 - Canada
3 - Mexico
4 - US
9 - Brasil
J - Japan
K - Korea
S - England
W - Germany
Z - Italy

i think the price isnt that bad if you send a couple thousand at a time. it was obviously better if they did it. i bet the japanese work for cheaper, and if they have more quality control then that probly makes it equal price for a better quality car.

where have you been? everything in Japan is a few times more expensive than here in US. and obviously people get paid a few times more... Do not mix China and Japan. It makes sense sending jobs overseas to China, because they do make a lot less than us, but Japanese people need to be paid a lot more that us for the same work. :chuckle:

Hey I hear you, this was back the 4th gen days, at least you can get new coils and be done! How about us oil burners?

You bet wrong.

Japanese companies take care of their employees and their employees are very loyal. With US automakers you'll be lucky if you get to park in the company parking lot if you don't drive a car made by the same company. Regardless if it makes more sense for you to drive a Hyundai because of the price and warranty.

What's funnier is that Japanese manufacturing facilities and techniques were based on American manufacturing practices taught by the Navy during the rebuild after the war. It's not about where the car is made that determines the quality of the product, it's the quality of the people. Example: An average Japanese manufacturing employee has a high level of education compared to a HS graduate here, if that.

i been in the US, thats why i said i bet. you need to relax before you have a stroke

The shipping is nothing compared to the tariffs. That other genius of a president we had a while back actually went to Japan to ask them to not make their cars so good so that we could compete. How embarrassing! When that didn't work (and I'm sure throwing up on their prime minister didn't help), he decided to tax the snot out of them. Well, that just brought them to our backyard. Smart move. I'm glad it turned out they way it did, but I bet the ex-pres and his advisors never even saw that coming.

i was going to say something about the tariffs, but it would have hurt my cause lol. all car companies do it the same way though, it must be smart. trannies made in mexico, dash made in siberia, wheels made in china, blah blah

lol, i think we've all been to the US

in =/ to, it does in some occasions, but not this one

You need to stop talking out of your @ss.

no man, i am sorry to ask, but what the hell did they teach you in High School if you do not know that Japan is probably the most expensive country to live in the world? It is scary that higgh school graduates nowadays are not required to know basic information about economy and politics. but hey, they teach everyone how to put on a condom and use lube... :chuckle:

thats the most important part isnt it?

i know economics, we just dont learn about the economic situation of japan. the only time ive needed to know that so far is in this thread, schools dont care about that. they teach us more important things like the econ of the US, calculus, physics, drafting, blah blah blah, all things you actually NEED to know. plus i live in california, we have one of the worst high school systems in the country

i went to 6-12 grades in U.S. too... (in san francisco to be exact)

I saw a program on the Discovery channel regarding Japanese automakers and they do take way more pride/quality in there vehicles then the US. It's to bad that it's this way, but that's the reason so many people buy japanese brand automobiles. Even the ones built in the US are still better than most US automakers.......I've owned 2 japanese cars, a Mazda protege built in Hiroshima Japan is this car was rock solid. Never a problem out of it. And now the Maxima an 02 which is totalled but was rock solid, now my 03 which hasn't had a problem so far 60k and running strong. My Ford escort GT was garbage, my VW jetta was garbage......I'll stick to the japanese auto makers if you don't mind

I know it's a movie but "Gung Ho" with Michael Keaton is a good flick that shows the difference between Japanese and American work/ethic/culture. It's funny too.

REALLY?? he asked me where ive been (in other words where have you been hiding the past 18 years) so i said ive been in the US, cause thats where ive been. i can tell youve been california schooled cause you didnt get that. you cant avoid the facts buddy, schools here are terrible. you can read about it places if you like. you probably learned about japan being more expensive since you graduated. and WHO REALLY CARES?

Keep in mind the japanese continue to excel in math, physics and engineering in general, while the number of US born engineers continues to decline. You can witness this firsthand by visiting many of the strong engineering campuses around the US. The Engineering programs are loaded with Asians.

The US continues to lose ground in the mathematics and engineering fields, which was always one of our competitive advantages. Good ole American Ingenuity is no longer the case. This may be part of the reason why the build quality out of Japan seems to be superior, although I do believe many of the new imports (built in the states) still boast high quality.

wtf are you talking about? the only reason US had normal engineers back after the WWII is because they all migrated here from Europe (most of them were Jewish and opressed). And the good American-born engineers just stole all ideas from Germans and signed their own names on blueprints (which i could do also).

One of the first steps to boost American engineering strength is to do away with Nascar and any engines over 4.0L...