Reply #23: I'm of Japanese extraction, and I learned to drive on a Chrysler K-car! [View All]

[Lisa]

My parents mostly owned Chrysler vehicles up until they purchased a "Challenger" in 1984 (co-produced with Mitsubishi). They bought a Toyota after I left for college, and seem to be pleased with it. Admittedly the quality of Japanese vehicles improved quite a bit over the decades ... we still laugh about a very well-mannered friend of ours (not Japanese) who arrived at work in 1970 or so, fuming over "that damned Toyota" after it broke down on the highway.

Dad's first car was a Volkswagen bug. I don't know whether their later choice of North American cars was influenced by tales of enraged auto workers damaging imports (we live in an auto/steel producing Rust Belt area).

By the way, our family once gave a relative a hard time for applying for a job with the Japanese transnational Daishowa (which was accused of being up to no good in Alberta, trespassing on Indian land etc.). Dad said it was immoral, plus it gave Japanese-Canadians a bad name. The relative ended up not taking the job.