Korean built vs North American built Kia's

[CharBaby]

My Japan built 2001 RX300 AWD(purchased brand new) was one of the most problematic vehicles we've ever owned starting from year 2. Yes, we kept it for 14 years and I fixed or had it fixed by dealer or private shop. If my wife hadn't loved the SUV so much, I would have sold it sooner. But, I was completely disgusted with the vehicle.

Don't get me wrong, there were some good things about it, just not the amount of repairs that had to be done. My SIL(wife's sister) had the same year RX300 AWD and she said the same thing. We both thought the 1st gen RX was a POS. Both had many of the same issues and both vehicles tranny's died about the same mileage. My SIL never maintained her tranny(other than adding ATF) and I maintained ours regularly. It didn't matter...Go figure!

I believe all 1st gen RX's were built in Japan.

 

[01rangerxl]

Agreed. Korea, Mexico then Alabama

Agreed, don't buy things made in Alabama. Just ask anyone who bought one of those goofy Mercedes SUVs.

 

[Bjornviken]

When I sold vehicles at a Lexus dealership back in 2016 this came up time to time. I had a couple of customers who absolutely had to have a Japan built RX350. Toyota corporate had the exact same assembly line installed in Ontario that was installed in Japan. I saw zero difference in quality between a Japan built and Ontario built RX350.

Hard to see, but its definitely different... that's based on my own experience with Toyota and Lexus

 

[SC Maintenance]

I have been in manufacturing my entire adult life and I will 100% agree just because two plants have the same QC standards doesn't mean one can't be consistently better than the other. There are always minimum standards of course, but not everything is measured and there is always a tolerance.

It can depend on a lot of things - tier supply, age of the equipment being used on the line, etc. Sometimes plants will feel competitive and err on the side of throughput instead of quality - ie they will let something pass for the sake of registering one more unit produced. This is especially true when production is behind.

However its really hard to compare plants unless there making the IDENTICAL product, which is almost never. You can't compare fit and finish on one model to the next, because the tooling or design may be the cause of the differences, not the assembly plant.

 

[Fabulous50s]

Much of vehicle assembly is robotic, in every plant.

However OEMs may also be of different quality. So engine accessories (starter, alt, water pump, etc) may be of lesser quality in some places.

When I was turning wrenches for a living there were quite a few Hondas which were Japanese and many which were US made. They both went the distance, but the Japan made ones rusted noticeably faster. This was back in the 90s, and much has changed since then.

 

[CharBaby]

I was looking at the new 2023 Honda CR-V's yesterday. And ATMOF, so was the 2023 Nissan Rogue.
We're in the market for a new vehicle and my wife wants another CUV/SUV as she had once before in 2001-2015.
Final assembly: Japan
Engine: Japan
Transmission: Japan

 

[willbur]

Much of vehicle assembly is robotic, in every plant.

However OEMs may also be of different quality. So engine accessories (starter, alt, water pump, etc) may be of lesser quality in some places.

When I was turning wrenches for a living there were quite a few Hondas which were Japanese and many which were US made. They both went the distance, but the Japan made ones rusted noticeably faster. This was back in the 90s, and much has changed since then.

A rustproofer tech told me the japanese manufacteurs stored body panels outside before assembly and this gave rust a headstart. He said they checked these cars carefully before rustproofing.

 

[CharBaby]

I was looking at the new 2023 Honda CR-V's yesterday. And ATMOF, so was the 2023 Nissan Rogue.
We're in the market for a new vehicle and my wife wants another CUV/SUV as she had once before in 2001-2015.
Final assembly: Japan
Engine: Japan
Transmission: Japan

^^^This doesn't give me any extra confidence for the Japan built vehicles when in fact, I've had better success/lower repairs on my Tennessee made Nissan's than even my Japanese made Accord, RX300, Mazda3.
Now, I can't say that my Japanese built car issues were devastating or disastrous, they were just no better than many of my 1970s American built cars(mostly GM). Having 5 Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth vehicles, I have to say that my MOPAR vehicles were the absolutely worst in terms of repairs!