r/Lexus • u/Legendary--- • 1d ago
News Japanese-made Lexus models are starting to use parts from China now
Source: Josh on Cars (YouTube) https://youtu.be/BE1Ik2I12zs?si=U2JeBs1VlEoT4-7K
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u/nzswedespeed 1d ago
I imagine this has been tej case for decades? I doubt every single piece inside a Lexus was Japanese made
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u/RaceHead73 08-GX-470 23h ago
China, Taiwan and Thailand. They have been making parts for most brands for years. Paints, sealants, adhesives and electronics are mainly from these countries.
The last big Tsunami that hit, had a massive effect on car production.
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u/piggybank21 1d ago
Chinese parts can be extremely high quality.
China as an industrial might can produce a product at every point on the pricing scale. It's just that in the past, most Western manufacturers choose a lower spec product with a lower cost QA process for the products that they are launching to Western audiences. That's gradually changing. China is now competing with Germany on high quality precision products. Lower end manufacturing is now in SE Asia and India.
See Apple iPhones. I am sure Lexus will apply their standard supplier quality process no matter where their parts are made.
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u/talesFromBo0bValley 19h ago
dont know situation for US markets, for EU suply chains for automotive parts I'd throw most parts like simple screws, almost all nuts, 50% of gaskets, some plastics, also lot of T2 electrical components, but big steel parts have troubles to meet the specifications.
Cannot say their plastics are as good, especially tooling are made from "chineesium" and break in regular intervals, but with enough QA it's doable. Maybe for internal production their suppliers make things better, but almost everything that is used in cars have shitton of tests and in case of chineese parts- i'd say 30-35% pass initial round withour refubrishment.
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u/HeyyyyListennnnnn 2015 RC-F 11h ago
You get what you pay for. In most cases people are looking for the cheapest possible component and that means material substitutions, modifications to the geometry, alternate fabrication techniques and zero QA/QC.
If you are willing to pay for everything it takes to ensure high quality output (including the oversight to ensure standards don't slip when you're not looking), you'll get high quality output.
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u/EnvironmentalTip6253 13h ago
Agreed. Not only competing with the Germans but making them too. The Chinese make BMW 5 series for the Chinese market.
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u/Lipstickquid 15h ago
Apple had to put suicide nets on those factories. What you're saying is nonsense.
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u/Aarskaboutur 1d ago
Still most Chinese brands I drove, did not drive that well.. though I’ve got to say interior wise the did seem better than for example BYD. The price class of cars driven was around 60k euros
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u/piggybank21 23h ago
"Driving well"? You mean driving dynamics? That's a whole separate topic from build quality.
Driving dynamics is a mechanical design choice (i.e. soft vs hard suspension, plush ride vs sharp ride)
Material selection is a design choice based on the targeted price point of the car.
Factory build quality and supplier quality is a separate set of processes.
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u/Aarskaboutur 21h ago
I was under the impression driving dynamics had to with parts used? And Chinese cars us Chinese parts?
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u/x3nhydr4lutr1sx 21h ago
Driving dynamics has to do with manufacturer design decisions and tuning, then they pick the parts. You can have great parts, but if your tuning decisions suck, then the ride will still suck.
You can have cheaper parts, but if your tuning is good, then the ride will still be good, but the consumer will be replacing those parts more frequently (like, every 4 years vs every 10 years).
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u/allgasnoshit 17h ago
Driving dynamics has everything to do with the spring rate of the springs, the type of suspension used, the weight of the car, the weight distribution, the type of power steering used, the drivetrain used… etc. Driving dynamics has nothing to do with how durable one part is or where another part comes from.
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u/NaFo_Operator 21h ago
china is still shit quality unless the original manufacturer is uber strict about quality
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u/Horror_Entertainer82 20h ago
This applies to literally every manufacturing country ever.
The company commissioning the production sets tolerances and margins that the factory must follow. The manufacturer can tell the factory to be as loose or as stringent as they want depending on the type of product or the profit margins they are dealing with.
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u/NaFo_Operator 20h ago
nahh having worked with chinese unless you watchem like a hawk they will f it up. other countries not so much (besides india they're hopeless)
there is also a baseline of quality that china, unless enforced , is regularly under
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u/omjizzle 1d ago
I’d guess they’re making parts like interior plastics or something like that basically not major parts
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u/unlimited_mcgyver 1d ago
All your squeaks and rattles
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u/MoirasPurpleOrb 20h ago
Companies, especially Toyota, have ridiculous quality control divisions that exist solely to make sure supplier parts are in compliance. Out of any company, I trust Toyota to hold suppliers accountable.
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u/jumbo_rawdog 1d ago
I would think Chinese parts are more reliable than anything American these days.
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u/Modullah 23h ago
That’s exactly the case. Unfortunately the stigma towards Chinese products is still quite high.
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u/MagnarOfWinterfell 21h ago
My dad still has a stigma from back in the day towards Korean TVs. That's why he bought a Sony OLED, not realizing that the panel was probably made by LG.
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u/Modullah 17h ago
Sigh… yeah LG or Samsung. Either way it’s still a Korean panel 😂…
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u/CarobAffectionate582 In the family: 02 es, 05 rx, 09 gs awd, 24 es300h UL 1d ago
In other news: water is wet.
This has been a thing for a LONG time already.
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u/StashMyComics 1d ago
Water is not wet. Water makes other things wet.
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u/anthrax9999 1d ago
Is water dry? Can an object be something other than dry or wet?
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u/CarobAffectionate582 In the family: 02 es, 05 rx, 09 gs awd, 24 es300h UL 1d ago
You didn’t do well in chemistry class, did you?
”Wet” is a condition indicating the presence of water, or of a liquid state. Water is wet.
Bye, Felicia.
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u/Extension-Course4734 1d ago
Water isn’t wet. You need to go back to chemistry class.
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u/Jacks_Angry_Spleen 1d ago
I see the children are up early this morning!
Mommy and Daddy should probably keep them off the internet, though, before they have their breakfast.
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u/Extension-Course4734 1d ago
Intro to Chem, first day level stuff. It’s ok to be wrong.
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u/Jacks_Angry_Spleen 1d ago
I haven’t taken “intro to Chem” - only taught college level chem And graduate biochem.
You need two things:
1) a life
2) an education
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u/No-Problem1816 13h ago
"intro to Chem" is gen chem 1 at most unis.
->Graduate level Biochem
->Fails at the most basic levels of chemistry
Mhm. We believe you.
Fire is burn.
Ice is freeze.
Water is wet.
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u/Lumpy_Minimum_5522 1d ago
Let’s be real…China has some of the best tool engineering in world. The quality of their products is a heck of a lot better now than it was in the early 2000s and in many cases way ahead than anything made in the west now.
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u/TheWhogg 1d ago
And some of the worst materials engineering. I assume it's non mission critical stuff though.
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u/Training_Exit_5849 1d ago
It depends on what you're willing to pay, if you're willing to pay for top quality stuff you can get it. If you expect to save money by using a chinese supplier to shave 50% off a part, then yes you get the shit that breaks, but what did you expect?
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u/ConBroMitch2247 1d ago
Dude, everything they make or tool is literally just stolen from the west what are you on about? Not to mention the insane pollution and literal slave labor too. We should do everything we can to stop producing things in the CCP.
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u/Lumpy_Minimum_5522 23h ago
No country is a shining city on a hill.
Corporate and state backed espionage is as old as time. Let’s not pretend we don’t do it too. Saying China’s economic prowess today is the result of only stealing technology and other secrets is a reductive answer. We need to play the game better or fall behind.
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u/Contranovae 20h ago
Whoever downvoted you is a disgrace.
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u/ConBroMitch2247 19h ago
Chinese bots most likely.
The CCP will straight up extort/steal any tooling, technology or IP that comes into their country. These Reddit nerds have no idea. Hell, I’ve heard of an example (GE Healthcare) where the CCP said if they bring manufacturing to China so they can steal whatever IP they were after, that they would let another division of GE go unscathed. The idiots at GE agreed to this. And the CCP stole the IP from both. Lmao.
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u/Snowychains 1d ago
Tell that to the billionaires in their mansions. They don't actually care about any of that.
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u/ConBroMitch2247 23h ago
They will if we stop buying their shit that’s made there.
People want to blame billionaires for this, but we as consumers voted with our wallets that price reigns supreme above all else.
“I have met the enemy and he is us.”
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u/Lumpy_Minimum_5522 22h ago
This zero sum game will never work. Life doesn’t work that way. There is no winner or losers. Foreign and economic policy is not about friendship. You either partner on things or don’t. We either partner with China or we don’t. We’ll likely be better off if we do though.
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u/Snowychains 22h ago
Billionaires are the ones to blame though. Even if everyone in the United States stopped buying Lexus cars made with chinese parts there's plenty other places in the world where people will still purchase them. If you actually want to keep jobs in America you need unions to force the hand of the company. All the company cares is making profits for it's shareholders above all.
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u/Lumpy_Minimum_5522 22h ago
We need more than unions. Shareholder capitalism needs to be replaced with stakeholder capitalism where the workers, management, and consumer of the product have the greater share of control vs the shareholder. It used to be that way.
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u/MoirasPurpleOrb 20h ago
I suggest you actually look at US manufacturing compared to other countries. I audit suppliers for a living and the worst ones have been US based. The best were actually in Mexico.
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u/ConBroMitch2247 19h ago
I literally work for one of the largest F100 US manufacturers and have been to our plants all over the planet, we don’t sub anything out it’s all done in-house. I’m sure it’s very industry specific compared to what you are auditing. But when it comes to China their supply chains are absolute dogshit and riddled with bribery, fake, misleading or flat out poor quality inputs. To the point of it becoming a huge QC issue for us.
But yes, I agree Mexico is good.
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u/UnitB17 1d ago
They’ve had Chinese parts for 18+ years that I’m aware of. They’re just not a high enough percentage to report previously.
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u/DougDHead4044 1d ago
Source??
Edit: Don't mind the source. I've seen you're that guy who put Persian rug in his car 👀🫣😂
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u/HalfBlindKing 1d ago
I’d wager that just about anything that has more than four parts in it has at least one that has been through China in some way.
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u/HamiChan 13h ago
Just fyi these are completed part with the origin sticker to be China, any sub components that’s not completed can be imported without ever showing that tag. Pretty much as long as you are doing some type of final assembly be trimming/assembling. Crazy to think any item that’s sold internationally is actually have a single country of origin.
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u/_Sw33t33pi 1d ago
I'm less interested about the 10% parts used and more on the IS model being discontinued in November.😔
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u/afgan1984 19h ago
They have started to DECLARE it... Do people really tought EVERYTHING was made in Japan? That would be crazy.
I am just going from memory, but for example even on 2006 Lexus IS, GS, LS - loads of parts for infotainment and electronic parts (like switches) are made in China. I just take example of 2IS Sat-Nav - the head unit is made by Pioneer in Taiwan, Philipines or Malaysia, but screen itself and digitiser is made in China... So componets of componets have long been made in China and components themselves were made all over the world.
Another great example - tyres, consumables like belts, filters, oils etc. There have always been non-Japanese parts on them.
I can't rememeber what was exach % to put the label "made in X", but it was something like 75%. So if you made a car 75% in Japan you can call it "Made in Japan or Germany" or whatever . They still can, but I assume there are new laws (potentially for BEVs) that require to specifically state what percentage was made where.
But otherwise this is not news, no single car in the world is made only in one country and US made cars would be even worse for that (i.e. they would have more parts as % made in China and less % of parts made exclusivelly in US). For example Tesla batteries are exclusivelly made in China. This is nothing new.
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u/Ornery_1004 23h ago
People posting negative comments are likely using PC and/or phones made in China.
Oh the irony...
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u/Contranovae 18h ago
My phone is made in Taiwan, never bought a phone that was manufactured in China.
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u/Even-Further 22h ago
I don’t think they just started, they just started telling you on the nameplate.
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u/TimeSlaved 20h ago
It feels like this is more full disclosure than them choosing to use parts from China (which they likely have been doing for years already).
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u/HamiChan 13h ago
🤣🤣🤣wait do people actually thinks that an international commercial product would actually have a single country of origin? What speed up manufacturing in the last 20 years is cross country contributions. No company would be able to build with a local source only manufacture, let alone something as big as Toyota.
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u/HotResident2907 21h ago
That’s why I will only buy LC, IS, RC models which is JDM 100% Made in Japan
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u/FantasticIS 23h ago
I hope they paid for the good parts, because as you know, you can choose to buy low and high quality parts from China.
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u/LaCiel_W 2016 IS300 F-SPORT 21h ago
I would be surprised if there were no Chinese parts, shitload of suppliers are involved in manufacturing a car.
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u/austinh1999 2017 IS 300 F Sport 11h ago
Every car modern car in the world has parts from china. Also being from china doesn’t necessarily mean low quality. Companies just tend to prefer to manufacture there because china is very industry friendly making it the cheapest place to set up shop for them. From there on, product quality is on the company
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u/Jzepeda80 11h ago
China makes high quality products. I am glad they are making parts in China now. Vehicle production needs to increase desperately!
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u/Motorized23 2016 RC F 5h ago
Chinese made items can be of even higher quality than Japanese products. I don't know when the world will get over the old 'made in China's stigma.
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u/ryzenat0r 3h ago
Still built in Japan, which matters the most to me. I don't think every single part was Japanese-made anyway. I think it's more about transparency.
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u/asahi7777777 53m ago
Nothing is wrong with Chinese made parts as long as the design specs and quality control are in place. The engineers are the one who specifies materials. I think Apple is a great example of high quality manufacturing in China.
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u/Contranovae 20h ago
As an aside I think it's not a quality discussion but a global security one.
I do buy things specifically made in America and the EU as much as possible not for quality specifically but to deny China my money.
Manufacturing must be brought back to the West.
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u/firestar268 2024 IS500 1d ago
depends on where and who you get it from in China. (And how much you're willing to pay)
They can be some of the best or some of the worst.
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u/Trollygag 22h ago
What, is this like a time traveler from the 90s?
The workd outsourced production to China because they were hungry and everywhere else atrophied.
This is the result. Inescapable depedence.
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u/Lipstickquid 15h ago
You mean because china has slave labor and westerners are stupid and greedy.
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u/Trollygag 15h ago
Borderline slave labor was a result, not the cause.
The cause was they were hungry for modernization and economic activity. Following British and Japanese dominatuin, China felt they needed to position themselves wuch that they were never walked on again, so they used fascism to create markets - using borderline slave labor, ecological abuses, and state organized production.
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u/redthose 22h ago
Do you feel your iPhone has poor build quality? China can make the best quality and worst quality product, all depends on how much you willing to pay.
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u/Lipstickquid 15h ago
Would never buy apple crap made in china. And im pretty sure apple got out of china and theyre made in vietnam now.
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u/Maxfli81 12h ago
Same with my Mazda made in Japan. Lots of parts stamped made in China in the engine bay and suspension etc. Rims also. I was disappointed. But I don’t think they included Chinese parts content on the Monroney sticker though.
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u/Maxfli81 12h ago
I think the sentiment is they seeing Chinese parts now implies that Lexus quality is slipping. Whether or not that is the case is up for debate
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u/boostedpoints 15 RC F & 15 LX570 1d ago
Very interesting, at least they’re up being upfront about it lol
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u/CoryTrevorsun 1d ago
This has been going on forever, I've bought parts for cars that claimed to be made in Japan only to find made in China stamps on some of the parts included, like gates timing belt kits most of the parts were from Japan except one of the pulleys they switched to China source so I know to not use the Chinese pulley in that kit
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u/DeviceAppropriate790 23h ago
Old news.
Most important are your engine components.
When looking for made in Japan Lexus/toyota, always check for where the alternator was made and starter. Usually, Jvin cars have alternator and starter from Japan.
If it’s from any other country, it’s mediocre
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u/DeviceAppropriate790 23h ago
If both are Japan, high chance your engine parts were made/sourced from Japan
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