Why Ford And Other American Cars Don’t Sell In Japan 

Why do you think American cars don't sell in Japan? Protectionism? Reliability? Vehicle size? Lack of dealer support? Is it worthwhile for U.S. companies to invest in the Japanese market?

I lived in Japan for 8 years. The customer service you get is phenomenal, not just in the car industry. They go out of their way to develop a relationship with you. You need your car serviced or repaired? The salesman who sold you the car will come and pick up your car and return it completely cleaned and washed with a full tank of gas. American dealerships....they don’t care about you once you leave the dealership.

The title should say why American cars fail outside America.

Japanese are strange, for some reason, they prefer more reliable, safer, more fuel-economical cars. weird [Update: Dear Japanese friends, I may have made a bad joke, please don't feel offended. I like Japanese cars, all my cars are Toyota, they are very very nice! :) ]

As an American, I really feel humiliated to live in a market that has outdated systems and is just corporations trying to squeeze any penny out of us as possible

Japanese automaker : **makes cars for the US market such as the Tacoma** American automaker : "here's a 14mpg Dodge truck, take it or leave it"

why would you buy an over expensive cars from outside when you have a reliable cars made inside your backyard.

US Car Manufacturers: "Take down your trade barriers." Japan: "Make smaller cars that are reliable." US Car Manufacturers: "No." Japan: "That's your trade barrier."

29 years old and I’ve owned a 2005 Toyota Corolla, and 2017 Toyota Camry…they’re just so reliable, the engineering is practical and logical. Parts are easy to find and mechanics don’t have to pull teeth to make repairs.

They're oversized and inefficient

As an American automobile owner and driver, I'll make this very simple. Every single American made car my family has ever owned or bought--- has had a multitude of issues either mechanical or electric. They're built to fall apart to make you buy another car. As a hard working American on a budget, this is stupid. I own a 2001 Honda Accord and that machine has given me MINIMAL issues at best, required less repairs, and taken a BEATING throughout its life. The fuel economy is way better than most American cars of that era. All for an amazing price that I payed. Japanese cars are simply more reliable to me as an American on a budget. I don't get what's so hard to understand about it. 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

American companies are always trying to rip you off and Japanese companies are always trying to make great products. I am an American, and I always choose Japanese products over American ones.

I still drive my 1996 Honda and it still runs fine. The quality of Japanese cars is phenomenal.

Forget Japan, even Americans don't want American cars. Btw all the "barriers" they described in the video is what Japanese companies have to go through as well. So basically American companies just want to sell crappy gas guzzling big cars with horrible dealer service.

When American car manufacturers develop vehicles with only the US market in mind the really amazing thing is that Anericans are amazed how their vehicles do not sell well outside of the US and Canada

日本人の意見としては 絶対に大きさだと思う

As some European car engineer once said: "Cars with the turning circle of a train and gasoline consumption of a tank just don't sell in Europe" European inner cities are much narrower and gasoline is way more expensive than in the States.

Try building what a consumer wants...instead of telling consumers what they want! Try customer service over trying to empty their wallet!

I've owned American cars. They all had problems from the beginning. I've owned my Toyota Camry for 17 years and it still runs great!

I've felt that this was the problem with buying American cars for a long time. For whatever reason, American car manufacturers just refuse to create a smaller vehicle. In the past, people in the U.S. could buy from brands like Smart, Mini, or Fiat to get the European or Japanese "City" or "Kei" type model. Now, these options just don't exist. I for one would love to drive a much smaller car.

American cars fail everywhere, not just Japan.. I love how Trump asked Germany on how to make American cars more famous in Europe, they replied - make better cars.

Japan: find out what US customers want, and make one accordingly. US: Just give them what we have, what? they don’t sell? scream “unfair trade”, “market access”, “currency manipulator”. Nothing really new here.

US cars sell poorly everywhere, not only in Japan. Stop making excuses and make better cars.

10 years ago, I had a compact Chevrolet sedan, and it was a nightmare, even tho I took it to its scheduled maintenance services, it broke down regularly, however, I sold it and bought a Toyota Yaris and just wow, after years driving it, never broke down, an absolute work horse of a car !

Why don’t American cars sell overseas? Maybe because of this thing called the free market. If you want to sell more product, make better products that people want to buy...

The Japanese aren't fooled by jd power awards

Same reason Taco Bell doesn’t succeed in Mexico 🤣

American about American cars: 🤠 Rest of the world about American card: 🤡

Japan and many other countries. The secret is: people, for a strange reason, prefer good quality car.

Somewhere Scotty Kilmer is talking about his 94 Celica that has 250,000 miles

You want to know why ? Go look at a Toyota Corolla after 200k miles vs. a Ford Focus after 80k miles !

I've always thought you should be able to just directly order a car built from the car manufacturer. Why go through the dealership/middleman when you could just get it directly from the source? Not to mention, that would allow you to get the *_exact_* car you want with all the features you want, rather than compromising because you can only buy what they got at a dealership. It's like if I'm going to pay the _entire_ MSRP price of a new vehicle, which includes the cost to build the thing, I should just be able to call up the manufacturer and place my order so they build it and sell it to me directly.

summary: US car makers complain about foreign regulations and preferences instead of making cars that meet them.

And American cars would fail in the US too if we didn't keep bailing them out.

Japan: *focuses on quality* USA: Why does Japan drive it's own cars!?

Its not just japan, literally no country outside the us wants American cars😂

The US cars just don’t make sense for the Japan domestic market. 1: size, too big. 2: fuel economy, fuel prices are even higher in Japan than America, and US cars due to their size and weight consume more fuel. The US would need to make Kei cars for the Japanese market if they want to succeed there.

Outdated view? I'm Brazilian and down here anyone would exchange its Ford for a Toyota without thinking twice.

" The Japanese have an outdated view of seeing American cars as and efficient and unreliable? ..... how is that outdated? 100% true

Cant believe people are blaming Japanese import regulations when the US did exactly the same to them 60 years ago and they still managed to succeed in america 😂

Even Americans buy Japanese cars, so there's no way Japanese people would buy American cars😂

It's like asking why chefs don't eat at McDonalds..

japanese cars exceed US regulations easily , US cars dont come close to Japanese regulations .....thats not protectionism ...thats just quality and efficiency

As a German I can confirm that over here we have the same opinion as the Japanese about US cars. Too big, too heavy, poor quality, and probably the worst fuel economy. These gas killing engines just fit well into countries like the US or the UAE where gasoline ⛽ is cheap. But if you have to pay 1.80$ for a litre of petrol then you'll think twice about an American car.

Because most of their cars are insanely big and it dont work for the tight roads in japan....

They know buying a $70K 4-door pickup truck just to buy groceries in is not practical. In the U.S. practicality doesn't matter as long is it is fashionable.

Most automakers: we need to make our cars refined, powerful, and good America: let’s just put a massive v8 with 700 horsepower on everything

Short answer: Reputation matters and is long-lasting. Americans have made large and inefficient cars for too long.

The quality of after-sales service is totally different. Japanese manufacturers take full responsibility for fixing things, but American manufacturers do not. It depends on the person, but it says "I don't want to work" on their face. If you compare America, where people who don't want to work are at the window, with the Japanese, who are responsible for their work, the choice would be Japan. The performance of American cars is not bad (according to old preconceptions, American cars are considered poor performers), but people do not choose cars based on performance alone. Even with Japanese cars, Toyota takes thorough care of their customers, but Honda tends to be irresponsible. That kind of thing also shows up in sales performance.

"boohoo we don't sell cars in japan! How can we fix that?" By building actually good cars, is it that hard to understand?

Do you know the difference between Japanese and American quality control philosophy? Japanese: it’s not perfect. Reject it. American: it’s good enough. Ship it out.

When my parents drove a camry, all my mom knew about car was adding gas, then they changed to a ford, now my mom could clearly explain how engine and transmission work together to make car run.

I have a 2022 Ford Bronco and a 2023 Honda Accord Hybrid Sport....love them both for entirely different reasons

USA = SIZE EUROPE = BRAND NAME JAPAN = QUALITY

When 90% of comments are filled with Americans roasting american car industry

Because Japanese dont need a seat to fit a 200kg man and a 5 litre drive-through drink holder...

Not only in Japan. You hardly see US SUV's etc. in Europe, and only rather limited numbers of Tesla's and Ford Mustangs. However, during classic car shows, one can see there are still quite a number of 1970's muscle cars around. You won''t see them often on the streets, though. A 1970's Corvette is not exactly the ideal car to go to the supermarket... Europe still buys very European, but Japanese cars too have earned a very good reputation here. I wouldn't be surprised it's 50 % Japanese, 45 % European and maybe 5 % or so US cars, something like that. In Belgium, the small FIAT 600 is VERY popular, even if it is rather expensive for such a small car. But it is so cute, and available in a number of fresh colours. Other big sellers are Audi, BMW and Volkswagen. Opel doesn't seem to really manage to do as good, even if they have brilliantly redesigned all their models. No idea why they don't have the same success as the 3 biggest German sellers. Toyota too is very hugh here. French cars are still common in the streets, but not the way it used to be in the 1970's.

The market doesn't adapt to you, you adapt to the market.

When you try selling milk to cows

American car companies have pretty much given up on cars altogether. If American buyers prefer Japanese cars over them, how should they expect to ever sell in the Japanese market where buyers have higher standards of quality and more stringent requirements to be road legal there?

A Japanese woman living in Tokyo here. Yeah, the reputation for American cars are the worst. Overpriced, outdated efficient fuel economy etc. But the most of all, American car manufacturers NEVER try to make their customized cars for our roads. Japanese roads are left lane like Britain. The steering wheel must be on the right seat. And as this video says, Japanese roads are very narrow. It's big, and if they keep selling left-hand drive cars, they won't be seen in the Japanese car market forever. It's not that the Japanese don't like American products. In fact, nearly 80% of Japanese smartphones are iPhones. (I also use an iPhone.) Japanese people will buy superior products regardless of the country of manufacture. No matter how cheap or expensive, we just don't buy any garbage products.

For anyone making fun of his Japanese english accent, at least he knows how to speak both English and Japan. While most of you who criticized him, only fluent in one language...

It’s not necessarily “outdated” to think of American cars as unreliable. Recent consumer study found Japanese cars among the top ten most reliable and American cars in the top ten least reliable.

"somewhat outdated" perception, lol. I like how 1) US automakers blame Japanese protectionism for poor sales when there are no import tarifs in Japan, and 2) it is later revealed nobody really wants to buy US cars outside of the US.

My rule of thumb for buying cars is only buy from Japan, Germany, or Korea. My last car was a Hyundai from Korea and I kept it for 12 years (could have kept it longer) but now have a Toyota. I suspect by the time it wears out, electric cars will be mainstream.

What I'm hearing is: Japanese people have higher standards for cars and US car makers are angwy that they can't meet those standards. So instead of adapting (like Japanese cars in the US) they want to whine and attempt to bully Japan into lowering their own standards to.... US standards.

according to an american independent mechanic with 53 years of experience, who drives a toyota, the answer is because american cars are unreliable and poorly made

CNBC trying to convince people American cars are well made, but the brother at 5:30 finished that SUV hood with a hammer even in this video. lol.

American automaker executives do not understand the Japanese market and needs. What American automakers lack is thorough market research in Japan and the development of cars for the Japanese market based on those results.

I come from a buy America family. I went through 7 American cars before I got a Tundra 13 years ago. The Tundra has lasted longer than the first 7 combined. All I have had to do to it is buy a new battery.

Japan : Quality control Us : Nooooo

Maybe because Japan cars can run till 200k miles while American cars can't get to 100k without visits to the mechanics

TL;DR American automakers are complaining because they aren't willing to raise their standards.

You can drive a compact car everywhere, but you can’t drive a big car in narrow streets...

Face it US prints money, Japan makes quality.

Let’s just say, Japan’s not the problem.

The reason why they not selling??? Quality,quality & quality.

The only market for American cars outside of America is the Middle East, and more specifically the Gulf States. Wide Roads and Cheap Gas.

USA: Good design / Cool sound engine JAPAN: Reliability

We don't buy American cars here. How do we expect them to buy American cars?

My dad loves the Ford car designs but he had one back in the 90s and it broke down within 2 years and he vowed never to buy another American brand car😅😅 His Toyota is going strong-18 Years now

So the world needs to lower its quality control standards and regulations just to let American car companies compete? LOL

Besides obvious loyalty, why would the Japanese want crappy US cars when they have well-made Japanese cars made right there, by them?

I'm a proud American but after a couple of Detroit lemons I wowed not to buy American ever again. Look on the roads and it's very hard to find a 10 year old American made car. On the other end you see many 20 or even 30 year old Toyota and Honda . American cars are not dependable

5:29, G.M worker fixing a hood imperfection with a rubber mallet on a brand new truck still at the factory, enough said.

Japanese car are affordable, easy to maintain, efficient in fuel and most of them long lasting..... if american car can do this they could survive!

American makes disposable cars, Japan makes practical cars.

I have been living in Europe for over 30 years. At the beginning, I bought a car of Renault ( twice), a car of Peugeot ( twice) instead of Japanese cars because I was curious about non-Japanese cars and wanted to try them, however, I noticed that every car had always some mechanical problem from the first year and also some parts were consumed or broken enough fast. After these bitter experiences, I started to try Japanese cars, at first Nissan ( twice) and then Toyota (4 times). Only the second car of Nissan had some trouble but all other five Japanese cars were perfect, especially the last one of Toyota which I purchased 10 years ago is still working perfectly. I have to specify that I prefer small cars like Nissan Micra, Toyota Aygo etc... simply because it is much easier to find a parking place on crowdy streets in the city, car insurance & car maintenance cost much less, fuel consumption & car possession tax is much lower. In this category of cars, British cars, German cars, American cars are not interesting for me because I don't like their designs and fuel consumption inefficiency. Plus these foreign cars' mechanical reliability is lower according to my personal experience and that of my European friends who compared Japanese cars with non Japanese cars. American cars don't sell in Japan because, honestly speaking, there are no American cars which attract or impress or excite us Japanese : no impact at all. Our sincere impression is that European cars are better than American ones. Besides mechanical reliability and fuel consumption are very important factors. When an American car is broken in Japan, it takes too much time for repair and it costs too much, too ( the same thing can be said to European cars, too). And gas price is much much higher in Japan than in USA and parking space is limited, so big cars are not popular in Japan except for wealthy people. Almost all Americans just misunderstand that protectionism of Japanese government is a big obstacle for American car sales but it is not true at all. Even if American cars are imported in Japan without any kind of tax and the selling prices become the same as those of Japanese cars or even cheaper, we don't choose them just because they are not attractive for us as I explained before. American car makers must study much more seriously about Japanese market and Japanese consumers' taste and preference if they really want to sell them in Japan. It is better for them to take a questionnaire directed to Japanese car consumers for analyzing these things. I repeat, protectionism has nothing to do with American car sales problem in Japan, it is just an excuse for American car companies who are lacking in detailed market research efforts in our country. And of course dealers support is mandatory in Japan where the competition is very severe with the world's highest customer service quality. If American companies cannot dedicate time, money, energy to change drastically their style of working in Japan, it is much better to leave this market and make investments in other countries with less efforts.

I mean, it's true-Japanese cars don't break down. It's really a no brainer

Well, it seems that's America still learned nothing about oil prices after 1973.

I've owned Hondas, Nissans, a Toyota and an Acura. Good solid cars. My last 6 vehicles are Fords. The Fords are better quality with superior technology.

american exceptionalism at its finest: everyone else should want what we are selling, and we aren’t interested in listening to what they actually want 🤦🏼‍♂️

Well, really big and bulky gas hogs in a country where space and fuel actually are taken as important. *I have no idea why Us cars don't sell well at japan*

I Iike how those three major Japanese brands are some of the most reliable cars in the US and ppl wonder y Japan doesn’t buy the much less reliable ford or GM

My 2014 Mazda 3 still runs great, with no issues observed short of the things that will typically fail after this long on bad roads (springs), or issues that were covered by recall (touchscreen failed). My mom's 2014 Cruze already had engine rebuilt and the turbo pump failed twice. Not to mention quality of materials in Mazda are on a whole different level. It's like comparing Atari 2600 to a SNES.

Funny how the USA calls high standards of safety barriers

Silly japan, requiring that vehicles actually work.

Huge price/ poor fuel efficiency / made to break. There case closed

I reside in Japan, and I am Japanese. I myself drive a BMW and see lots of German cars on the road. That's because I think whenever people think about buying an import, they first go to Mercs, Beemers, and Audis because they associate them with luxury. Now, it's not necessarily like that with American vehicles. So, I think the challenge with the US manufacturer is: How to make their products more appealing to the consumers who buy these cars.

American cars are also not that polular in europe. Because of the same reasons. Big, heavy, big engine. Fuel economy might have improved but they still don't come close to the sub 800kg 1.0/1.3L compact cars that are popular here.