I understand the Geordieland factory is one of the most efficient car plants in existence. The Nissan Note that I have is nailed together very decently indeed. I firmly believe that given an even break the British worker is the equal of any.

So in 25 years you have had 15 Japanese cars, this avereages out at under two years a car, thats a lot of car changing. Why do you get a different one so often?

1994 Prelude - Jap/Jap - apart from consumables and servicing no repairs in 3 years

1995 Civic Coupe - Jap/USA - 7 years 94K - apart from consumables and servicing no repairs. Engine blew up in 2009 @ 154K with 2nd owner (we know them) - lack of servicing/oil changes and short runs!

2001 Civic Jap/UK -sold in 2007 93K - 1/2 electrical issues covered by warranty in first 6 months (door open light stayed on even with doors shut, wipers would not self park)

Apart from consumables and servicing no repairs that I paid for.

1998 to present - Mazda Xedos 6 - Jap/Jap - Apart from consumables and servicing the total cost of repairs in 13 years has been around £800+ including parts and labour. (handbrake cables, anti-roll bar bushes, pulley, 3/4 light bulbs............still on original battery)

2007-Present , Nissan Xtrail -Jap/Jap - 2 bulbs, wipers, no warranty repairs, no repairs out of warranty BUT it failed to start in the deep freeze 12 mths ago - waxy fuel was suspected by the breakdown man.

Next car - Honda/Subaru/Nissan likely when SWMBO gives in

Do not ask about the Mercedes C Class, and a multitude of Vx,Fords, Peugeots prior to my finding out that Japanese cars were built to a much higher standard

Edited by Falkirk Bairn on 24/01/2012 at 22:55

"This shows that there's nothing wrong with a British workforce if they're properly managed and follow proper quality control procedures."

Agree. Nissan (Qashqai, Note, Leaf and Juke), Toyota (Auris 5 door and Avensis) and Honda (Jazz, Civic and CRV) make up the majority of the UK's volume vehicle production.

Vauxhall only makes the Astra, the Vivaro van, and shortly the Ampere in the UK. Ford only makes the Transit over here - and that seems to be under threat.

I think one of the breakthroughs the Japanese made was to make a car easy to build consistently. I understand from reading about it was the revelation of building the Triumph Acclaim (Honda Ballade) under licence - I think road testers and consumers were slightly shocked by the consistency of build and relative trouble free nature of these cars, coming so soon after (and actually been sold alongside) BL cars of highly variable build quality (good to downright terrible).

I remember all my relatives talking about "Friday afternoon" British built cars in the 60s and 70s that they had just been unlucky to be lumbered with when neighbours might have been lucky to get the one that came off the line right first time. It always amazed me that the British manufacturers did not ever understand that those "friday afternoon" cars or the ones built in the first 6-12 mths of a new model where the owner had to do the final testing set the popular viewpoint on the merits of a model - bad news/poor reputations took months to create and years/decades to counteract.

At one time Primeras were exported to Japan because they were made better than the Japanese ones.

However, I've heard (from a friend in the trade) UK produced Jap cars are not as good as Jap produced Japs, because UK produced ones use some UK produced components.