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A while back, my brother, a dyed in the wool gearhead, showed up at a family gathering in a rental car (he had to fly in). I just happened to be outside when he drove up, and I asked, “what is that, a Toyota"”
“No, it’s a Kia,” he replied. “Proving once again that Korea is Japan’s Japan.”
It was a pretty smart observation rather comically put.
Shifting Roles
As the Japanese auto industry has matured, it’s not exactly like they abandoned their roots. You can still buy things like a Toyota Yaris; entry level cars that are very well screwed together, loaded with features, and at a more than reasonable price; but, on a whole, the Japanese manufacturers have slowly moved upmarket. Where it used to be that much of a Japanese company’s products were aimed at that entry level demographic, now it seems to be totally swapped. It seems that only a limited amount of their output is focused on things like the Yaris and such.
Korean companies, Kia, Hyundai, and the like, filled that niche for a rather long time. But they too have slowly gravitated upmarket. (I have a theory that eventually entry-market cars will end up being made in some completely unexpected place like Mongolia, and then Mongolia will be Korea’s Korea, Korea will be Japan’s Japan, and Japan will be America’s Japan. We’ll still be America, because somebody has to make the world&...