Are Japanese Cars Really Reliable?

“Traditionally, Toyota and Honda are leading in terms of reliability and durability,”
Of the 10 most reliable cars Consumer Reports lists, nine are from Toyota, Lexus or Scion. Furthermore Lexus, Toyota, Mazda and Honda hold the top four spots in the publication’s automaker reliability report.
If you look at the full list of the most reliable cars, 92 percent of them are from Japanese automakers.
“Overall, Japanese manufacturers have been making very reliable
vehicles, especially those from Toyota and Lexus,” says Anita Lam from
Consumer Reports’ Automotive Data team. “But it doesn’t mean all
Japanese models are reliable.”
According to Consumer Reports, Nissan and its Infiniti luxury brand are struggling.“Nissan
hasn’t been a standout for years,” the latest reliability report reads.
“The redesigned Rogue managed an average reliability score, but the
Altima, Pathfinder, and Sentra all did poorly.” Infiniti is equally
unimpressive. Both the Q50 sedan and QX60 crossover had “more than their
fair share of problems,” the report says.

How did They Come to be so Good?
 
While it’s clear that not all cars are created equally, the question is how does Toyota  and Lexus manage such a stellar reliability rapport?
 
“They strive to build vehicles of high quality rather than excitement,”  “One reason why they can achieve this high reliability is, perhaps, they introduce new technologies slowly and on proven platforms.”
 
Look at how Toyota still manages to sell cars with ancient four-speed automatic transmissions or engines that have been in use for several years. “Their redesigns are seldom a drastic change from previous products”.
That follows the longstanding advice of never buying a first generation product. But very few of the products Toyota and Lexus sell are totally new. Even the latest Toyota Camry, with 2,000 new parts, still sports the same drivetrain as the last generation product from 2007.
The new Corolla also offers the same engine and transmissions as the last generation model although a new revised version of the engine with direct injection is also offered, mated to a new CVT.
The company clearly shows restraint in changing its products, which helps preserve its high reliability rating.
Few automakers maintain such a slow pace in adopting new trends. Honda also makes very slight changes to its core vehicles as well, which help bolster its reliability ratings.
Furthermore, a company that spends more time and money engineering products to last tend not to abandon or replace them quickly.
 
http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2014/12/are-japanese-cars-really-reliable-.html
 

My wife decided she wanted a Honda Jazz last year, right around end of financial year time. We decided to buy the outgoing model rather than the new and upcoming one purely because it was the last of the "made in Japan" Hondas. All Aussie delivered ones indeed come from Thailand now.
 
Don't quote me on this but to my knowledge the only Japanese made cars delivered to Australia are Mazda and Subaru, the rest are all made in south east Asia.

Are Subaru still Japanese? Good to know. Though I'm never sure when they come out with something like Bosch electrics though.
 
Skodas pretty much score consistently higher than other VW group cars with reliability and satisfaction (my mum's considering an Octavia), and it seems the Czechs are better at building solid cars than their German counterparts. I know one of the older little Toyotas was built there, the Aygo or whatever the feck it was called. The new NSX is going to be made in the US by the way. Hmmm. Most export BMWs are made in Alabama instead of Germany - would you want a car built by people who voted for George Bush Jr?
 
What are your opinions on Australian built Japanese cars?

Yes, I long for the Subaru hey-day of the 90s, but I think they may slowly be starting to make their way back to that, if the latest looking WRX is anything to go by. We've had two Imprezas - 1x sedan and 1x estate - and we love them. The latest Outback is a monstrosity.
 
I had two Aussie built Honda Preludes, and the bits that usually went wrong were the bits that weren't Japanese sourced.