Well....no real argument here (2 LBC's in the garage),
but a little self defense - The 2 japanese cars I've
owned were not Japanese design. According to Arnie
Johnson, president of Lotus Cars USA, my 1st gen MR2
was the Lotus M100, taken from Lotus by Toyota when
Toyota owned a chunk of them in the '80s. And the
Miata was in fact designed in a studio with a Spitfire
and an Elan in the shop for inspiration, but it was
done in California, with an independent design done in
parallel in Japan. The California design won, and went
to market with little change.
That said, I will never own a japanese car again
(discounting wife's people haulers - I have no say in
her cars :-( .
--- Larry & Sandi Miller <millerls@ado13.com> wrote:
> You'll get no argument from this quarter.......
>
> Larry Miller
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <Herb_Goede@amsinc.com>
> To: <spridgets@autox.team.net>
> Sent: Friday, September 17, 1999 3:02 PM
> Subject: Cars and Culture (No Real LBC Content)
>
>
> >
> >
> > Car Folks,
> >
> > It has been way too long without controversy. So
> here we go.
> >
> > In my opinion the Japanese can engineer and build
> good reliable vehicles.
> > However, with a very few exceptions such as the
> first and last Mazda
> RX7s,
> > Japanese cars lack the character of European and
> even American motor cars.
> > My belief is that this is due to a fundamental
> characteristic of the
> > Japanese culture that does not place a high value
> on being unique.
> >
> > There is on old Japanese proverb that states: The
> nail that sticks up
> will
> > be hammered down. The result is a culture of
> copiers and improvers but not
> > innovators. Even such significant cars as the
> Datsun 1800/2000, 240Z and
> > even the Miata are revised versions of European
> sports machines - Triumph
> > (pick one), E-type, and Elan respectively. Lets
> face it, the CRX would
> not
> > exist if not for the Mini and the NSX is a
> Far-East Ferrari.
> >
> > Ready, aim, fire away.
> >
> > Herb G.
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
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