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Fill me in here, was the Bandeirante a wholly owned subsidiary of Toyota, a Scion-like branding thing, or a third-party knockoff? You are saying they definitely do NOT have international contractual policies for clearances, performance, TQM/QA/ISO9000 compliance, etc.?

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If I recall correctly, the Bandeirante factory was partly owned by Toyota, not unlike NUMMI, but like NUMMI and the TAcoma, Toyota had 100% control over the design and production of the Bandeirante.

The Bandeirante was born out of Brazilian laws that prohibited manufactures from importing vehicles or parts into Brazil, which probably why the factory had to have some joint ownership with a Brazilian firm. They based the design off of the Land Cruiser 40 series, but after the initial kits that came from Japan in the early 1960s, all other models were entirely made in Brazilian with Brazilian made parts. But it was still a Toyota.

The quality issues were due to poor quality control in the parts and assembly. They didn't use Toyota designed. axles, engines or transmissions either. The few folks that have actually imported a Bandeirante up here to North America are quite disspointed, because they can't parts for even the basics like brakes or other misc stuff.

Production of the Bandeirante ended in 2001, because 10 years ealier, Brazil had relaxed it's laws about importing vehicles and it was extremely expensive compared other models flooding the country. The skins are a good match for the regular 40 series, so some American Land Cruiser restoration outfits have imported some of remaining Bandeirante body parts for use in restorations.

This is an extreme example, but similiar situation can be found in other place. South Africa has similier laws, although not as extreme and many South African Hiluxes used non-toyota designed axles and other parts to meet the domestic content laws. Speaking of SA, they were still producing the 1984 body style through 1997, because Toyota didn't want to retool the entire SA Toyota plant to produce the new 1989 model, since they couldn't import any parts.

Some South American Toyota plants still produce the Land Cruiser 80 series to this day, for example, because they aren't allowed to import the new 100 series and Toyota didn't want to spend the money to retool a small low production plant.

I'm sure today, Toyota has a basic standard of quality. Just like any manufacture has a "basic" standard. So does Ford, so does GM. But we don't just want a "basic" standard. We want the above and beyond that we are used too in our over built, over quality Toyota rigs of yesteryear.

Japan still has that to some degree. They take more pride in that country in their manufacture process because it's a part of their culture. It's something that we don't have here in this country to the same degree and probably even less so in other countries. On top of that, Toyota USA is under pressure to make money. It's not like the 1970s and 1980s, when Toyota was out to prove something. They are way beyond that. So, designers from Toyota USA are going to skimp in areas that they can afford to skimp to save money, such as going with cheaper and easier to build parts, like C-channel frames, non-Japanese radiators, alternators and batteries, for example. In the end, the overall design and quality is still good, but it's not overdesigned like older rigs and they make a lot more money on the rigs, while charging the same or higher prices.

Japanese rigs tend to still use Japanese OEM parts, which are higher quality. They are also still overdesigned to meet universal market needs in harsher environments in places like Africa, Australia and South America. This may not mean the retention of a solid front axle, but things like a heavier duty IFS suspension and diff, such as introduced in the 2003 4Runner come from Japan.

Obviously not all Japanese made rigs are built any better or designed any better than American built Toyotas. It depends on the use and intended markets. The RAV4, is not intended to be used out in the African desert, so it doesn't have to be over designed. But, I'll bet the quality is a little bit better.

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