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You would think that the assembly county does not make a difference, but being in the trade, I can say it makes a huge difference.
When I first started, most Honda/Acura were still built in Japan, except for a lot of Civics which were assembled here in Ontario, Canada. Never, ever, EVER saw an assembly issue, we would not even question it.
Then we started getting vehicles assembled in Alabama. OMG! So many issues. It is like nobody even gives a $%^%k. Apparently, only 1 out of 10 vehicles coming off the line were good enough to ship without having to fix something. Out of those 1 of 10, nearly every single one we got had some assembly issue. And we are talking things like the exhuast system was not actually attached, or one time I found at least 100 body clips jammed into a rear speaker housing. We get vehicles missing all the proper relays all the time. We had about 50 vehicles (just at our own dealership) that were missing the relays for the heated seats. They just forgot to install them.
Now we are getting vehicles with wiring harnesses assembled in China and Mexico, and the quality is plummeting. Have had to repair so many issues with improperly assembled harnesses. Missing weather plugs and seals causing corroded wires, water in connectors and shorted out plugs. And this is on cars that are less than a year old!
We see engines that were assembled missing piston rings, missing clips on the wrist pins, it just goes on and on.
And this whole Takata airbag issue is due to poor quality of assembly at the Mexican Takata factory.
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