I can add a slightly different example. A few years ago, I went to a Toyota dealership to purchase a Camry. When I heard there were some on the lot assembled in the USA, I asked the dealer if there was a difference in price -no. I insisted there had to be a difference else why are some made in Japan and others in the USA? He pulled me assied and first of all showed me 2 Camrys with vin 1Txxx (USA made) and JTxxxx (Japanese made). He asked me to pick out the difference - I went over and over both cars - nothing. Now, he walked me through some details - I was baffled - how could I have missed these:-
1. Space between trunk lid and left and right fender - perfectly lined up on the Japanese unit, slightly off on the US.
2. Space between Passenger door and frame and drive door and frame - slightly off-lined on US, exact on Japanese version.
3. Strolled to the back - tail lights, space between light cover and housing - same on Japanese, slightly different gap size between left and right on US .. and there were many others ...
To make sure he had not simply placed those to cars there for such a comparison (maybe due to same questions from other customers in the past), I asked him if I could walk to where they had Corollas and check them out. My friends ... same results, and in this case, even with the finish on the interior. The degree of attention paid to the 'finished product' is where the differences stood out.
Conclusion - I was told that there are some extra quality control steps cars in Japan (and some other asian countries) HAVE TO GO THROUGH - which are not "compolsary" in e.g. USA and therefore companies can also cut some costs by avoiding these 'extra' steps. Also explains why most of these companies keep thier LUXARY lines (e.g. Lexus, Acura, Infinity...etc) manufacturing in Japan and in few cases, assemble (not make) these outside of Japan!
All boils down to cutting costs WHEN YOU CAN and ... getting away with it :-)
My 2c
AJ
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