[alantf]

I remember back in 1973, buying a Datsun Sunny, & discovering that the floor appeared to be made out of baked bean cans, The first ( & real messy job!) was to underseal the car. I didn't keep it for long, because at 5' 10" I was too tall to fit in it comfortably. I subsequently found that the Japs hadn't realised that the Europeans were much taller than themselves, so had built cars that were only big enough for the small Japs. The build quality was also atrocious, & I Discovered that in Japan, their cars had to be tested annually, & at the seven year test they had to be virtually stripped down & rebuilt with new parts. This was so expensive that it was cheaper, in Japan, to scrap a seven year old car & buy another new one. This meant that they built cars that were built to fall apart at 6 years 11 months - not realising that in England cars were meant to last for a minimum of 15 years.

They were also velly clafty! In 1980 I was working in a factory, in Sheffield, that made springs & anti roll bars for world wide car manufacturers. The guys there told me that they used to make these parts for Datsun, but, a few years back, the Datsun bosses asked if they could visit the factory. These Wily Oriental Gentlemen duly arrived, armed with the ever present cameras, & proceded to photograph everything. Guess what! When the contract came up for renewal, it was found that they had quietly built a spring/anti roll bar factory in Japan, & didn't need our services anymore.

Just as an aside - We used to have bumper stickers to put on our Jap cars - "I'm backing Blitain" (sic)