" Doc: "No wonder this circuit failed; it says 'Made in Japan'."
Marty: "What do you mean, Doc? All the best stuff is made in Japan."
— Doc and Marty in 1955, while fixing the time circuits "
Back to the future .....
No comparison. The Japs were already industrialized and after the war they went for as low a cost as high quality would permit, which easily beat Detroit's bloated budgets, with a view to developing a good reputation.
The Chinese have cut their own throats by sacrificing quality and competing on price alone. No regard for Made In China as a brand. They'll be forever known as makers of disposable trinkets. Even if a manufacturer does everything right, no one will trust them.
I'm noticing an effort to reverse the perception with warranty promises but I don't think it'll take, especially if people insist on the warranty being honored. Garbage is still garbage even if you put a warranty on it and it'll be nothing but a headache for those who choose to sell it. I recently bought a grinder/linisher. 3 year warranty. Ok. It didn't run at all, straight out of the box, something wrong with the motor. At exchange, they told me if this one fails too that I should try a better brand, lol. Nope. You chose to sell it with a 3 year warranty, you now owe me an operable sharpening machine for the next 3 years, and it's gonna see heavy use too. I've got a photocopy of the receipt taped to the bottom so I can easily find the original in my quarterly files, which is, of course, what they rely on people not doing. If it didn't come from a hardware store that I frequent all the time, or if it was something I really needed to rely on, I'd never have bought Chinese, but it'll be interesting to see how many of these units I go through. 3 year warranty? We'll see.
