In the UK, Japanese cars still have a good reputation for being practical and reliable. Other brands tend to occupy the more luxury or premium end of the scale

In the UK, Japanese cars still have a good reputation for being practical and reliable. Other brands tend to occupy the more luxury or premium end of the scale in the minds of consumers. But as this survey shows, these more expenisve cars aren't necessarily more reliable. A survey of 50,000 UK car owners from earlier this year found Japanese cars the most dependable http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32332210 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32332210 Edit: just to add, this is a good article from April 2013 about Japanese companies that once dominated consumer electronics. One of these companies, Hitachi has withdrawn from the conumer market and returned to its core business of heavy engineering e.g. high-speed trains (new high speed trains for the UK rail system are currently being built by Hitachi) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21992700 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21992700