bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

a shock to very few...

believe it!

they already make the rx in canada with impeccable quality, and the camry is made by the zillion, also with impeccable build quality (even if some design aspects are 'cheap'), so there's no reason the es should suffer.


anyway, good move toyota/lexus!

excellent quality vehicles can be made anywhere if managemet has a commitment to state of the art capital equipment, strict processes, training, quality control, and ongoing improvement.

BNR34

iTrader: (1)

2000 hp, 8 wheels drive, all CF construction with curb weight of 1000 lbs all for the price of a new Corolla? Super Veyron fighter?!

Another game changer for sure, sign me up!

The ES350 being built in the U.S........another one bite the dust, it already had material cost cutting, now is lower quality assembly, bye bye ES, we had fun and will miss the good memories, RIP

PhilipMSPT

iTrader: (5)

Speculative nonsense.

Blackraven

Lexus RX vehicles made in Canada are not as good in quality compared to any of the Japan-made ones.

I kinda expect the ES to be the same.

That's trade-off of: cheaper to produce = cheaper quality

BNR34

iTrader: (1)

Is not speculative, is reality of the opposite work ethics and the general attitude of the people in Japan and the U.S.

The Japanese take their work very seriously and very professional with a sense of credibility, Americans smokes marijuana at lunch.

Sulu

2015 is likely the time for ES' mid-cycle refresh, with the usual facelift, nip and tuck, and the chance to fiddle with the interior materials, especially with the move to local, North American suppliers.

LexBob2

IMO the sky isn't falling. We'll have to wait and see....

rominl

iTrader: (4)

something i knew would come sooner or later, though this is sooner than i thought. can't say for sure good or bad yet, maybe they will up the quality here.

but i have to say this is quite a lame excuse

"Lexus was founded in the United States, so it is only fitting that we are bringing the production of luxury sedans for our U.S. customers back to where the brand was born"

just like my friend said when i told him the news. "if that's what he said, then why not make all the lexus in the US now and all toyota in the japan?"

Joeb427

iTrader: (1)

bit,the early '10 RX350's made in Canada has some quality issues.

SW17LS

The early ones but they figured it out.

spwolf

so did any early lexus models built in japan... 2IS, 3gs and last es too...

i used to work for toyota and never saw a problem related to factory, they were all model related.. in fact, usually same suppliers build parts in different factories, they build around toyota....

its all abouz QA and Toyota is best there... i would have no problems buying lexus made in china....

Joeb427

iTrader: (1)

That may be true but owners of the Japanese built '10 RX350 didn't have the problems like rear shock issue,front bumpercover loosening and dropping down some etc early builds...
I had a Canadian built '10 and it was fine but the '10's were out 7 months or so when I bought it..

spwolf

from personal experience, we had corolla/auris coming from 3 different factories - british, turkish and japanese, and there was no way to ever tell a difference, only japanese had different (worse) closing door thunk... never ever had an issue where it was due to build from factory, if there was an issue, it was across all of the models. And I have been there for 8 years, we had multiple models like that, so I can safely say that it doesnt matter.

and as I said before, 2IS, 3GS, ES, all had issues in early builds, from Japanese factories. Squeaks and rattles in those early models are legendary now :-).

UDel

Wow, generalize much. You sure have a lot of faith in America and American workers. So all American autoworkers are potheads just because a handful of Chrysler UAW workers were caught on camera smoking? Why such negativity? It does not take some sort of super special person or ethnic group to build a good car. Car reliability and quality has far more to do with design, tolerances, and materials over some of the workers screwing parts together of fitting pieces together. If it is just the workers screwing or fitting parts together then it will be cheap and easy to fix if they did not screw something in fully(impossible because the screwdrivers/wrenches have electric set torque monitors in them).

I would rather have a well designed car with tight tolerances and good materials built by less trained workers then a cheaply designed car with loose tolerances/cheap materials built by highly trained workers.

7 in 10 Japanese cars sold in the US are made in the US, the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry/Avalon, Acura TL, etc are made in America and are very well built and reliable especially for their prices. Mercedes SUV's, BMW, Z4, SUV's are made in the US. The 350Z, G35, G20, FX, Murano, Cube, RAV 4, Insight, Civic, 929, etc are/were made in Japan and are not known to be very high quality cars, most are known to have just okay quality. The current and last generation ES are known to have taken a dip in quality, the 3rd Gen GS and LS460 have taken dips in quality. Since it is so expensive to build in Japan now, being built in America may allow more quality to be designed/put into the car. Quality is not going to go to crap if it is built in the US unless they really cheap out on the design/materials which is very doubtful.

This is good news for the US and it will provide many jobs and more money into our economy and it should be a lesson that giving tax breaks to bigger companies to build in the US works and is good for America.

cino

iTrader: (1)

Honda/Acura can make the best fit and finish cars in the business, so can Lexus/Toyota. Being built in the US doesn't make quality drop. The matter is TQM of the production. If being built in the US, make a car worse, stop... I mean stop praising BMW and Mercedes anymore.