“Weren’t alot of these Toyotas built in the S. US?”
...yes...and that was Iacocca’s point...they built brand spanking new factories that were OSHA compliant, and hired a work force of young people....meanwhile, he was trying to make cars with older workers in a patched up plant...he believed that in time the Jananese would start to experiance the same problems as Detroit....looks like his prediction is coming true.
After what the “Big 3” did to Tucker I say “Let ‘em crash”!
Iacocca's theory was based on aging plants and aging workers. This was a design flaw, not a flaw of management or workmanship, based on too much reliance on computer emulation during engineering and testing.
Good process works. Firing non-compliant workers works. Both are quite difficult in the face of hide-bound union work rules.
And the fact that Toyota has a $1000 profit advantage on every vehicle means that they can afford to keep their plants updated, while Ford can't.
Iococca was wrong in identifying the Toyota/Honda advantages, and so the current situation does not validate Iococca.
Actually what is coming true is the fact that the dimwits in the administration and the compliant media are waging war against the non-union, non-government owned vehicle manufactures. They are starting with Toyota and they will increase this war against other manufacturers as the momentum builds. Ford will be the last one on the hit list because they are American owned, but they will have the "defect" campaign waged against them.
This isn't about Japanese vs American it is about Government motors vs Private ownership.