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Wasn't that basically why the Japanese cars got popular way back? Because they were cheaper and more efficient (and gas was getting expensive)?

This time around the Japanese have been assimilated; it looks like it'll have to be the Chinese to make useful cars.

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Quality was at least as important. Cheap cars that break down and rust out aren't a bargain.

Right you are - if cheap was all that matter the Yugo would have been everywhere https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a21082360/a-quick-hist...

Japanese cars were never particularly rust resistant. Even some more recent Japanese models have been notorious for rusting.

https://carfromjapan.com/article/industry-knowledge/the-hist...

Probably just about everyone is a lot better than they were a few decades ago. I had a Honda Del Sol that I donated right before the pandemic. I think the last time I took it into the dealer, mechanics gathered around the 1997(?) model which I had kept garaged in the winter for a number of years because they hadn't seen a recent example that didn't have rusted-out wheel wells.

That notwithstanding, perceived Toyota quality (perhaps in particular) was a big part of their success in probably the 80s/90s.

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