Land of the Rising Sun

By Mirage

My first car was a ruby red 1976 Pontiac Grand Prix. By today’s standards it was big as a boat, guzzled gas and had as much steel as probably 4 eco-friendly Toyota Priuses. I remember vividly that when you shut the door the door “shut.” That car was built to last and last it did even with all the abuse me, my friends and family gave it. With just performing basic maintenance (changing brake pads, oil changes and new tires) I had that car for nearly a decade until it was sold to another friend of the family. Who knows where it is today (most likely scrap metal used for a toaster) but I wouldn’t doubt that it’s still going strong just like it did when it rolled off the assembly line some 30+ years ago.

There’s no doubt that with the bailout of American automotive manufacturers, there’s plenty of skepticism from the public at large (we did foot the bill as tax payers after all) revolving around how the senior management of those bailed out companies plan to regain its once dominant position in the marketplace. It certainly hasn’t helped matters much that the perception of American made automobiles is inferior to its Japanese counterparts. Or is it?

With Toyota’s recent recall of over 5.6 million vehicles due to sudden acceleration issues (read: the gas pedal could get stuck on the floor mats) and Honda’s recall of over 640,000 vehicles because of faulty window switches it begs the question: “Has Japan taken a detour off the ‘high quality’ highway?”

Both Toyota and Honda do have remedies for their respective problems and I’m sure that while this isn’t the best PR for them they will continue to sell millions of vehicles worldwide. Although I wouldn’t put it past FORD, GM and Chrysler to take a few body blows to their overseas competitors with a bevy of new commercials touting their lack of recalls and new high standards for quality assurance. Whether that happens or if it’s even true or not is debatable.

All this got me thinking about the scale and possible nightmare we as motorcyclists could be in for if such a recall were to happen to us. Yes, having the gas pedal stick while in your car or truck is extremely dangerous but multiple that by 100 if your throttle sticks while in full lean going through a turn. You’d think that the QA process for motorcycle manufacturers would be double that of automotive manufacturers but apparently it’s not as the big four from Japan (Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki and Suzuki) all have had their fair share of recalls and while all of these issues were resolved the question of quality still remains.

Japan is certainly not alone as Italian motorcycle manufacturers have had their difficulties as well. Ducati has issued recalls in the past and look no further than Aprilia’s current RSV4 sportbike where the entire engine is being recalled!

While I have no doubt that both automotive and motorcycle manufacturers have an abundance of QA engineers and many processes in place to try to eliminate these types of risks, perhaps even more thorough testing of their R&D work should be completed before producing said product? The same holds true for many other industries, most notably software development. They have multiple methodologies for development and testing (e.g. Agile, Extreme Programming, Waterfall, etc.) yet I need not go into how many defects are still found in RTM (release to manufacturing) software that we all come across on a daily basis.

Japan's automotive and motorcycle industries will continue to grow because of their willingness to push technology to its limits. Unfortunately though, being on the cutting edge has its pitfalls and if unchecked could lead to serious damage (to both parties - the seller and the buyer).

What does this all mean for us as consumers? Must stricter laws be enacted to protect the driving and riding public? Should the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) be given more authority to “police” these industries? Or do we as consumers demand that higher emphasis be placed on QA tools and techniques just as we did about safety (e.g. front and side airbags, crumple zones, ABS brakes, etc.)? All very good questions and while there may be no clear cut answer perhaps a combination of all of the above?

Head on over to our forums and let us know what you think.