I can't speak to Japan, but this has come up a lot with GM with the pickups because some are assembled here in the states and others in Mexico. What I can say is we seem to see better attention to detail and more consistency in the Mexico assembled vehicles than US. It's the little things like how tight the seat material is put on, how clean the wiring is done, how well the bed is aligned with the cab etc. Maybe that's newer equipment, more oversight, etc.

I've always wondered if part of that is also employee satisfaction. For example I looked into it. The median wage in America is about $55k, the average union auto worker makes about $50k (not including benefits, bonus, OT etc. just their median salary x 2080 hours a year). That means the average American putting a vehicle together isn't even making the average wage working 40 hours a week.

However in Mexico, while it seems ridiculously cheap to us, the median wage is only $1600 a year, however the average auto worker at GM is now making about $5000 a year. That's over 3x the median wage, so what i've wondered is if in Mexican assembly plants those workers are much happier and thankful for their jobs because their salaries are so much higher than the average. Meanwhile here in the states the average auto worker is getting paid below the median income and they are probably more likely to be less thankful for their jobs.

It probably doesn't compare to Japan because they have a very strong sense of pride in their work and clearly asian built vehicles/companies sit at the top of the reliability list. Even those that are US build but from Asian owned companies.