Different countries, different cultures.
Germany engineers driving machines.
Italy crafts vehicles with passion - exotics.
America lumps big motors into big machines - muscle cars & SUVs.
Japan crams tech into tiny packages - k-cars.
Result? Japanese muscle cars are as common as American superminis.
I think you're kind of oversimplifying it...
Tell a German to build the best car he can, and it will, simply put, be engineered like a watch - precise, unmoving, made to be a solid hunk of metal that moves anywhere you want it to...without much drama. It is subservient and willing, yet competent, if not the most stylish. It does what is said right on the box, nothing more, nothing less...but it can say quite a bit on that box.
To an Italian, a car is designed to combine handmade tradition with incredible technology, and burning passion. It looks backwards and forwards equally, taking the latest tech developed from motorsport, and then applying years of head-turning style and design to create the ultimate attention grabber. It is not subtle in any means. Reliability? pah. It's all about making the driver the center of attention.
Tell an American to build the best car in the world, and he'll go one of two directions: one, he'll build the biggest, cushiest car in the world, a fast, comfortable highway crusier that'll make traveling thousands of miles a breeze...or, he'll take engine from said highway cruiser, stick it in the smallest thing it'll fit in, stiffen the suspension, put a nasty cam in it, and call it a sporting car. Sometimes (like the Cobra (technically half British) or C6 Corvette) it's a brilliant triumph of brutish backwoods engineering...sometimes (see new Challenger, or old one, for that matter.) it isn't. Sue us. We're simple folk, and cheap, too.
A Brit has forgotten how to make a car, but, it used to be, if you told him to make the best thing he can, you'd get an understated, reasonably powerful car that, if it ran correctly, could give a nasty surprise to the unsuspecting Italian or German. It would be lovingly handcrafted, using traditional methods passed down, it would smell and look wonderful. You'd get the feeling that someone actually made this with their own two hands...it's craftsmanship that matters. Sadly, the Germans (and former colonists in India) have largely taken over due to some refusals to work in the '70s.
If you ask the Swede to build you the best car he can...I'm not sure exactly what you'll get. It'll be unique, and fairly reliable that's all I can tell you.
Which brings us to the Japanese. Now, relatively speaking they're young folk who haven't been at this game as long as the rest of us, and for many years, they've been struggling to find their identity in the automotive world. But, now, with the LF-A and GT-R, they seem to have found their voice. and it is Electronic. Think about it: These are people who love Robotics, who are experts at building the electronic device...hell, where is the console we play the game this forum was founded around made? eh? eh?
So it follows, that if you ask a Japanese man to build the best car he can, he will dig into modern Japanese culture: of Mecha and Video Games and Technology. Of Electronics and connectivity. He'll build a technological tour de force, he'll try to keep it on the cutting edge. and why shouldn't he? He has no past to build upon, where as every other major automaking country...Every single one...has a long and storied history at least leading back to the 1900s. The Japanese carmaker does not...and thus he is not bound by those limitations and expectations.
It's why I like the GT-R so much. It's not supposed to be willing and competent, or brash and loud. It's supposed to move forward boldly into the future. it's not ashamed of being Japanese...hell, they even said themselves that Gundam Wing was a partial inspiration for the car. It's Japanese culture in a compact, roughly 5' by 10', 180+ mph capable package.
I understand it's not always everyone's thing, and that such a challenge to the status quo kind of unnerves some people. They'll attempt to belittle it because it's new, and not what they're used to. Even if it's absolutely brilliant.
But to each his own. Who knows...with Korea on the upswing, and China and India not far behind, when these countries are asked to make the Best Car in the World in 10 to 30 years, what will they come up with? I'm almost excited to find out. That is...if the Governments of the world haven't conspired to kill the car altogether.
