Our car is made in the same factory as the NSX. Both are hand made. At first I thought that was a good thing. But, after some consideration I wonder. Can people do as good a job on Monday morning as a welding robot - never a hangover or headache. I've heard that the reason auto quality is so up is because of manufacturing robotics.

This has nothing to do with what I find in my S. I've been impressed by everything in it's making. Even the wiring grounds are all evenly spaced around their posts - find that in an American car!

 

Hey Gary,

I'm not sure our car is completely hand-built. I believe I read in a post from someone who knew about this said that the car is partially hand assembled, but the most important aspects are done by robotics. Either way, human or robot, I trust whoever or whatever is building my car. So far I've read of no S2000 coming apart at the seams.

 

Nor are the seams of various sizes. I feel better now.

 

I believe the engines are hand built... not the the full chassis.

 

i remember that one of my old professors actually told me that back in the day, like in the 50's and 60's, some people would actually look at the production date on the window sticker and shy away from buying a car that's built on a mon or fri . i don't know how true this is. but, i guess that was a time when all cars are hand assembled. so, maybe it is. just thought that this info would be relevant to this topic.

 

rolls royce is largely handmade, and supposedly has a poor reliability record. but, that could be due to engineering, parts quality, or other factors besides handmade.

 

Maybe transmission too.....That could explain why some owner don't have any problem with it and some have !!!!

 

The car itself is not handmade. The engines are partially hand assembled. A simple look at the numbers tells you there has to be a lot of automation in the process. They produce almost 1000 S2K's per month or more then 30 a day if the factory runs 7 days a week. One thing that is a little annoying is that Honda keeps claiming only 5000 per year go to the US. Numbers posted on this board show quite a few more then that each year and my dealer confirmed that more are produced but would not give me a number.

 

Likewise, I wouldn't compare a Japanese assembly line with a U.S. union-made auto. I don't think they party as hard, and I don't think the benefits (vacation & sick time) would allow the time off. I've found the Asian work ethic quite admirable. I'd think a worker would lose "face" if he came in to work hung over or was slower producing in Japan. In the U.S., the "buds" would just laugh.

 

I think it would depend on where the emphasis was put during the production. If the people doing the hand assembly were pressured to make the best car possible, then they could certain be more careful than a machine. But if they are pressured to complete assembly as quickly as possible, the quality would definitely suffer.

I guess the question you have to ask is why Honda would choose to hand assemble the NSX and/or the S2000? Are they proud of the hand assembly as just one more feature of the car? Or is it purely a decision of economics and not being able to build a completely automated assembly line for such low production cars?