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They send their cars over by the millions, and what do we do? When was the last time you saw a Chevrolet in Tokyo? It doesn't exist, folks. They beat us all the time.

51 Comments

Tweet from Donald Trump

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I see the Chevy insignia on a bunch of mini cars. I also know a family that own two large Chevy off road kinds of vehicles. Expensive but nice. I also saw a Chevy classic down at the beach where the motorcycle people hang out. Beautiful car.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Hey Donald, get your facts straight (not that it'll help your campaign any). GM sold 1,400 cars in Japan last year!! (And more than 70% of Japanese cars sold in the U.S. are made in America).

8 ( +10 / -2 )

Trump is being disingenuous. He knows that most Japanese cars are made in America. If he were running for president in 1988 Trump's tactic may have gotten some traction :)

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Ever tried to park an imported car in Japan? Good luck, most of them are simply too long for the tiny kei-car sized parking spaces.

2 ( +7 / -5 )

They build their cars in the US by the millions and keep Americans employed,

6 ( +8 / -2 )

@JohnDigsJapan, correct. In fact, much of the design work for the US-market version of the Honda Accord, Honda Civic, Honda Pilot and Honda Odyssey models are actually done at Honda's design studios in southern California. The only small Honda not designed heavily in the USA is the Honda Fit, but even the current model (out since the fall of 2013 in Japan and the USA since the spring of of 2014) had a lot of design input from American Honda.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

I myself drive a Jeep and love it. Utill recent I was a Toyota fan. American cars are slowly but surely improving. Especially in style. We Americans have to admit, American cars were pretty much sh#t for about 20 years or so from about the late 70's. I guess we figured that if we just continued pumping them out, people would buy them. That's where the Japanese started to fill the market with well-built, not necessarily cool but "reliable" cars. I remember when the American auto makers were complaining about car sales in Japan when the steering wheel wasn't even of the "right" side. Give me a break!!

"Open the market! Open the market!" If the cars were truly "miryokuteki" or attractive, the consumers would be making this demand. Not the auto makers.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

One of my Japanese students here in Japan purchased a Ford Mustang some years ago. After he'd purchased the car, it would die on him and stop dead in its tracks in the most embarrassing and busiest of places. If the embarrassment and frustration wasn't bad enough, the Ford auto maintenance service for his newly purchased Mustang made him downright angry. Ford would keep the car for days on end, tell him it was fixed, he'd pick it up and the same thing would happen all over again within a couple of weeks. This kept on repeating itself until the Ford maintenance warranty ran out and they told him he'd have to pay for the repair work on it from now on. Well. needless to say, he dumped the car and told me he'd never purchase another American car ever again. Not exactly the kind of word of mouth that helps sells cars.

So The Donald and the Amercian auto makers need to take a careful look beneath the surface more before they start crying about how unfair the world is.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

Chevy make awful cars. and SUV's are not popular here. Trump is a moron.

11 ( +13 / -3 )

Trump is a fool. Oh and nice fiction about the Mustang.

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

He is right. Japanese people buy Japanese things. Hes right about the door being closed in Japan. They are protecting their market. North Americans arent so narrow minded with their buying habits. American cars are fine and could work perfectly fine here but as mentioned a while back it`s the politics that are blocking American car sales and production in Japan.

@Frank Thornton,

No need to say "We Americans"

-8 ( +7 / -16 )

They send their smartphones(designed in California, made in China) and computer software over by the millions, and what do we do? When was the last time you saw a Japanese smartphone or a Japanese operating system in New York? It doesn't exist, folks. They beat us all the time.

10 ( +12 / -2 )

You can sell anything in the US and that helps make us competitive. It also helps bring in Japanese investment money with manufacturing plants, something Japan doesn't get in return. The car building workforce in Japan is shrinking every year and without any companies coming into the market it will continue to shrink, and the US and other countries will capture more of those jobs.

In the end, the Japanese will continue to buy Japanese cars. Even BWM and Mercedes sell a fraction in Japan what they sell in America. Hop over to Korea and you'll see it dominated by Korean cars. I'm guessing Sony and Panasonic TVs still dominate Japan while the Koreans are making a killing in the US.

Then you have China, where GM is doing well. With limited resources I'm betting they'd rather spend more time there instead of Japan.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Trump is loud mouth JERK!!

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Well, what I am seeing here is just tasteless cube and wagon all looking the same designed in the same cad software so you can't say what brand is it... not very keen to own one of those, miss the time when cars in the street got some cool design & shapes made by talented people...

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Ever tried to park an imported car in Japan? Good luck, most of them are simply too long for the tiny kei-car sized parking spaces.

Nonsense. I have a Cherokee and previously had a Range Rover, never had a problem parking. Driver issue.

Ford, GM and Chrysler all sell in Japan but not in large numbers, there are no closed doors. Top imports are German with VW, MB and BMW leading the pack.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Nothing new for US/SK/China to use the anti-Japan cards.

-9 ( +4 / -13 )

Trump knows nothing about business or economics, evidenced by his constant tendency to drive things associated with him into bankruptcy and his need for government bailouts.

JapanToday should consider him an expert to quote on matters of absurd performance art and bright orange wig spray. Otherwise, let's leave him to the scudzy tabloids where he belongs. Unless of course, you aspire to BEING a scudzy tabloid.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

it wouldn't be a TRUMPISM if he wasn't preaching to the FOX NEWSies!!

;-)

0 ( +1 / -1 )

With such outrageous statements, could someone please tell me who this guy is trying to appeal to? I'm not an expert on the automotive industry, but surely the Japanese auto manufacturers in the US are welcomed for the employment opportunities they bring. I cannot really see statements like this appealing to all those people who work in auto plants across the southern US?

Seriously, has the US election process sunk to such shallowness where the mutterings of a racist fool (anti Asian, anti American) take up so many column inches? What next? Will Trump start getting involved in pro wrestling? Whoops, my bad, he already has.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Japanese cars were treated as a joke in the US until 1973, when the price of gasoline skyrocketed due to the OPEC oil embargo, and suddenly fuel economy began to matter. Even four decades later lots of Americans are still hooked on gas guzzling SUVs, but with the need for a second (or third, or fourth) family car, economy began to matter more. Of course Hyundai and KIA have fared pretty well too, as have a few European compacts, but to complain about cars that provide reliable and economical transportation, thereby enabling their owners to spend their hard-earned money on kids' school supplies and groceries is a godsend. People like Trump, who demonstrate a total lack of empathy for anyone beneath their tax bracket, can't understand why salaried workers don't spring for Lincolns or Cadillacs.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Donald Trump......just saying it kind'a makes you want to laugh..........

I'm reminded of a appearance Trump made on Dave Letterman's show a few years ago, after making the typically over-zealous, bellicose and half-baked statements of how China was oppressing its workers, engaging in unfair trade practices and that the US should cut-off all Chinese imports, Dave complimented him on his tie and Trump proudly said it's his own brand. Letterman asked him where they were made and Trump said he didn't know.......so Dave showed him the tag..........yes, China.............

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ACCHxF4Afc

2 ( +2 / -0 )

It doesn't exist, folks. They beat us all the time.

Really, Donald? How many Sony MP3 players do you see in Tokyo, compared to Apple products? Or mobile phones? Or about about NIke or Under Armour vesus say Mizuno? You're beating a dead horse. Move on to the 21st century.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

tinawatanabe,

Nothing new for US/SK/China to use the anti-Japan cards.

Good thing you'd never stoop that low, huh.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Good thing you'd never stoop that low, huh.

Japan does not afford the luxury of using the anti-US/SK/China cards.

-7 ( +2 / -9 )

When was the last time you saw a Chevrolet in Frankfurt?

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

When was the last time you saw a Chevrolet in Frankfurt?

Right, Trump didn't mention anything about Germany. He said US manufaturing jobs went to China or Japan. No, there are no US manufacturing jobs in Japan. Americans often unfairly criticizes Japan, but never Germany or Italy.

-11 ( +1 / -12 )

When was the last time you saw a Chevrolet in Frankfurt?

At the Frankfurt Motor Show where, a couple of years ago, they announced that Chevrolet was pulling out of Europe in order to concentrate on their Opel brand.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

My Japanese neighbor owns a Chevrolet SUV. I see it all the time in his parking spot as he only drives it occasionally ...

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Donald, Donald, Americans buy Japanese make cars because they are, as Amazon chief Jeff Bezos described his Honda Accord, perfectly good cars.

Q. What did the auto parts counterman say when the customer said, "I'll take a set of wiper blades for my Chevy"? A. Sounds like a fair trade.

Nyuk nyuk!

2 ( +2 / -0 )

@Joe Zimmer

Happy you appreciated the so-called fiction about the Mustang which, by the way, was all 100% accurate. Fact of the matter, U.S. companies' after care service sux in Japan. I experienced a similar thing myself with my IBM lap-top computer, which I so badly wanted to love and tell people about. However, right after I bought it, the screen completely blacked out within days. What did IBM do with this defective computer they'd just sold me when I sent it back to them? They kept it for about 2 months and sent the same defective computer right back to me of course. It worked for a few months this time, but then the screen went completely black again, but this time the warranty had run out and IBM told me I'd have to pay for all of the repairs myself (regardless of its previously known defective histiory) this time. Needless to say, I'll never purchase an American computer again here in Japan.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

I bought an American car in Japan back in 2006 and it was great. Never had any problems. But perhaps that's not surprising since it was a BMW made in South Carolina. The car business is really global these days.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Of course Hyundai and KIA have fared pretty well too, as have a few European compacts, but to complain about cars that provide reliable and economical transportation, thereby enabling their owners to spend their hard-earned money on kids' school supplies and groceries is a godsend.

It's actually an issue of first-time buyers. When you have a small, economical car it appeals to people who are buying their first car. This is where US automakers dropped the ball. They were making money with SUVs and didn't pay enough attention to the entry level cars. They buy Japanese, then a few years later when they have a better job and maybe a house they are familiar with the Japanese brand and look for that when they buy their bigger, more expensive second car.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

When was the last time Trump say his real hair?

But he is the republican front runner now according to him. He just might win the nomination. He really is not that different from the Mitt. Rich, out of touch, spiteful about the little people.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Japan does not afford the luxury of using the anti-US/SK/China cards.

And yet you do it in every one of your posts.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

I see numerous GMs on the road, seemingly increasing year by year.

Of course, they're all hearses.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

And yet you do it in every one of your posts.

I'm not running for a political post.

-9 ( +1 / -10 )

The Donald is the most narcissistic person on this planet ! He doesn't have a snowball's chance in Hades of winning the nomination ! Donald, YOUR'E FIRED ! ! !

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Trump's attempt to get nominated for President is doomed to failure; that's not the only ridiculous statement he's made lately. And then, there's the haircut!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

In May, 2015 - nice new Corvette!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

On yer bike mate!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@GalapagosnoGairaishu, actually by the late 1960's Japanese vehicles were already well-accepted in the USA. When Toyota brought over the Corona sedan in the late 1960's to the American market, they couldn't keep them in stock at dealers because everyone loved the superb reliability of the Corona compared to American vehicles of the day. And we know how Honda, Kawasaki and Suzuki nearly ended the American motorcycle industry by the late 1960's until Harley-Davidson wised up and completely overhauled the company culture to revive that company.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Donald, the edge is in made in Japan Adelance toupe ..

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I get it ! Donald is the Mitt Romney of 2016 ! Gaffe after gaffe after gaffe !

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I don't see how anyone can take Mr. Trump serious, he should crawl back to his reality T.V. gigs. I recently was reading the newspaper about how Japanese auto makers were losing ground against their European and U.S. counter parts.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Don baby, you never know, but if Chevrolet put the steering wheel on the correct side, they might sell more cars in Japan. Perhaps more pertinently Don-san, when did you last see an American built Chevrolet in London, where they add a 100% insurance load for suicidally having the steering on the wrong side?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Tweet from Donald Trump?

The Donald? Really! And it's about Chevrolet in Tokyo?

WOW! Stay tuned! The stupid's getting ready boil over, again.

GOP-Tea politicking, that simmering vat of the detestable, with a large chunk of Donald Trump in the Tweet bowl, appetizing. (spoiler alert) OMG, will he start an internet battle with his hair?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Trump is a buffoon, nothing more.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

"Trump is a buffoon, nothing more." - comments

Correction: Trump is the American buffoon, nothing more.

All that dough, and it's just a piggy-back promo for Brand-Trump.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I guess the King of Comb-overs will do or say anything about anyone or anything for attention! My dad told me long ago that you don't have to be smart to be a millionaire & "The Donald" proves that everytime he puts his foot in his mouth

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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