design philosophy of car makers from different countries

the 7 main car making countries being USA, Japan, Korea, UK, Italy, France and Germany approach car making in a very different manner.

USA
- cheap
- big engine and thirsty
- mediocre quality
- old technology
- overly soft suspension
- lousy handling
- lazy transmission
- mass market cars with nothing special to offer

Germany
- technology and innovation driven
- designed for appeal and driver emotion
- pushes the technology envelope but at the expense of reliability
- firm suspension setup for superior high speed stability
- expensive in comparison to American and Japanese cars
- leans a lot on motorsports for development

Japanese
- innovative small engines with good fuel economy
- boring to drive (Mostly Toyotas and run of the mill Hondas and Nissans)
- mass market cars with little soul or character
- reliable, dependable with good resale value
- sometime repackage as luxury model (lexus and Infiniti)
- work horse that will keep working and working

Koreans
- cheaper than Japanese cars
- innovation that is catching up to Japanese
- car development often based on German marques
- offers more value than Japanese
- sometimes makes false claims about its performance and economy figures
- not as durable as Japanese
- boring to mass market cars
- previously ugly as hell but since pinching European designers the cars look much better now

Italian
- eccentric car makers
- niche market cars and not the most reliable
- pushed technology envelope at times
- makes cars that are characterful but sometimes defies logic
- supercars are not reliable and often has a love hate relationship with owner
- from cheap to very expensive

French
- makes quirky cars
- innovative design and technology but not always reliable
- strange logic is sometimes applied to their designs
- not the most sought after cars
- moderately priced

British
- good engineering but lacks the follow through on quality and reliability
- nearly all British car makers are dead and / or owned by foreigners
- unreliable and questionable quality
- innovative designs and technological advancement
- poor residual values

The latest force to be noticed is China since it is now the largest car market in the world.
China
- up and coming force in the automotive world
- cheap and tacky
- improving technology and design
- ugly designs with some improvements of late
- questionable quality and reliability
- crude assembly