[medium_burrito]

As the saying goes "America designs for lowest cost, Germans design for high performance and Japanese design for high reliability and ease of maintenance".

I heard this in the context of someone marveling at the layout in an engine bay of a 80s Toyota, but it also applies to a friend's brother who restores boomboxes. This gentleman was describing how a single motor turned a bunch of different things, depending on which switch was pressed, and how elegant and simple the design was.

[basch]

and Korea is low cost and high tech? or all of the above? Hyundai is starting to look pretty close to the best of all worlds.

[asdff]

It's a different story now, but they had to offer that 10 year warranty because the quality was actually that bad at the time.

[wenc]

Post 2007, Hyundais have been excellent (and very much underrated). They brought in European designers so the aesthetic is much improved (though I don't care for their 2016-2020 grille shapes).

They've always struggled with resale value due to early reputational issues, but I'd say the build quality is now very close to the top 3 Japanese manufacturers. The 10-year powertrain warranty was a low-cost move to regain the market's trust -- I doubt very many people cash-in on it (the engineering is excellent nowadays)

When I was looking at cars some time ago, an accessories fully-loaded Hyundai was about the same price as a bare-bones Honda or Toyota. The discount rate may have leveled off these days.