North American Honda Fit to be built in Mexico in 2014

[CR-Z.ealot]

Production to shift from Japan to Mexico

Honda to build new Fit factory in Mexico in 2012 - MarketWatch

Just FYI...

[TwoZs]

Hope they can keep quality up as I wonder how well Japanese bosses will deal with the cultural differences they'll find in Mexico.

[dripkit]

Originally Posted by TwoZs

Hope they can keep quality up as I wonder how well Japanese bosses will deal with the cultural differences they'll find in Mexico.

What cultural differences are you referring to

[holeydonut]

Originally Posted by Yurinid Yat

Honda is making a BIG mistake with this one. I won't buy a Honda made in Canada. I sure wouldn't buy one made in Mexico.

Wow dude, that first part of your post is ridiculously racist - I'm not going to quote it, but I hope you update your post or something. It's your prerogative if you want a car made in a certain country (it was part of the reason I chose the CR-Z). But those comments you made are unnecessary.

Having worked with some folks at the Toluca, MX assembly plant ... I'd have to say the effort and skill involved with making cars in Mexico is about on par with what I saw in America and Canada (the labor costs however, were much cheaper).

One of the benefits of cars made outside of the NAFTA region is that the line speed tends to be slower.

[Yurinid Yat]

Originally Posted by holeydonut

I'd have to say the effort and skill involved with making cars in Mexico is about on par with what I saw in America and Canada.

Go ahead and quote it. I won't buy a car made in the USA anymore, either. Is that racist, too? After owning mostly American cars all my life, they still owe me for all the garbage they sold me. Nothing racist about it, just my experience.

[Scotty001]

nothing to really add/say.. just - eh - watching...

But.. if the thread keeps going this direction.. will need to take it out.. please adjust post accordingly ... Thanks..

[varg]

It's always scary when production is moved. For example when Mercedes moved production to Spain, cars were falling apart all over the place. Had one car here in Norway that could have ended badly when the engine came loose and dropped onto the road on the highway.

Also Honda moved production of the Accord to GB in the late 90s. Let's just say the quality went up by miles when they moved production back to Japan in 2003.

Ofc these are just the worst cases. For all I know the cars coming from Mexico could be just as good, but I prefer my cars to come out of Japan.

As a wise man once said "What do you mean, Doc? All the best stuff is made in Japan."

[holeydonut]

Originally Posted by varg

It's always scary when production is moved. For example when Mercedes moved production to Spain, cars were falling apart all over the place. Had one car here in Norway that could have ended badly when the engine came loose and dropped onto the road on the highway.

Also Honda moved production of the Accord to GB in the late 90s. Let's just say the quality went up by miles when they moved production back to Japan in 2003.

Ofc these are just the worst cases. For all I know the cars coming from Mexico could be just as good, but I prefer my cars to come out of Japan.

As a wise man once said "What do you mean, Doc? All the best stuff is made in Japan."

I think the quality of vehicles has much more to do with the investment and manufacturing process and less to do with the workers/culture of the employees at the plant. Obviously I'm not saying that the workers have absolutely no impact... rather I'm pointing out that the vast majority of the perceived quality is due to factors beyond the race of employees in the final assembly plant.

For example, Chrysler used to build Grand Cherokees in Detroit as well as Graz, Austria. The Graz ones were destined for Europe and Asia, while the Detroit ones were sold in the Western Hemisphere.

The problem is that America/Canada/Mexico are the dominant markets in the West, and they are very low margin countries when compared with Europe and Japan. Look at the transaction prices of vehicles across the world (even before the British VAT and other local taxes); the USA is the cheapest market for a comparable vehicle.

So the line speed at the Detroit plant is about double that at Graz. And it shows. The investment (robots, paint shop, etc) was comparable - but the Graz ones just came out much much better. The Diesel motors and Transmissions for those Graz units were also coming out of Europe - and the manufacturing process for those components was slower as well.

Basically the automakers need to keep cutting-cutting-cutting to sell cars in the USA; and the first thing that is cut is usually the manufacturing hours needed to assemble your vehicle together. They'll also change suppliers of components to local providers - and the same thing will happen there as well.

So you're right - the Mexican built Fit will likely be worse than the ones coming out of the Pacific Rim... but it has less to do with the laziness of the worker and more to do with the corporate requirement to turn profit. And automakers have shown they all want to make cars cheaper for sale in NAFTA at the expense of quality.

[TwoZs]

Originally Posted by dripkit

What cultural differences are you referring to

Looks like I unintentionally opened the proverbial can of worms here! There are cultural differences between societies and it's something to be aware of to help make the ever expanding global business community work more efficiently. Cultures evolve their own unique and complex blend of behavior, problem solving tecniques, and social interactions. I've not been to Japan, but one of my sons speaks Japanese and has spent time there. I used to speak better Spanish than I do these days, and I did work in Mexico many years ago. Comparing and contrasting different cultures has always been an active topic of discussion in our household as I'm a Canadian married to an American with kids we brought up on 3 continents.

In answer to Dripkit, I meant that there will be cultural differences in business practices and communication which may cause some unanticipated problems such as Japan's love of quiet order and conflict resolution contrasting to Mexico's more outgoing way of negotiating and debating. No slur was meant to either culture. I found during a recent 3 year stay in the Middle East that quality did suffer initially when North American expectations and business practices met Middle Eastern expectations and business practices, but that with time, good will and effort on both sides, things resolve and function quite smoothly. An initial period of adjustment is something we should expect and allow for.

[TwoZs]

Great points about assembly process, Holeydonut - I was composing my reply as yours was posted so didn't see your post until just now. I was unaware of assembly line speed being such a large variable between markets.