Can I just add on....
The philosophy of Honda and Toyota is totally different.
Honda seems to be heading towards R&D, investing heavily in
engineering and coming out with better product. Is it where the
VTEC orginate from and if you looked at Honda cars, you can tell
that the engineers ready thought through every details.
At Toyota, it seems that the company is focusing on efficiency and
reducing cost. This explains their manufacturing process does not
only revolve round EOS but also comtemporary cost savings methods
like Keiritsu, kanban systems as well, better known as JIT
techniques. The savings are passed back to consumer by either
offering a higher spec model at the same price with competitors or
lowered price, or (usually) a combination of both.
Taking the Vios and the City as examples, not only is the honda
model more expensive on paper, it is also more expensive in terms
of lesser equipment. The basic Vios 1.5E cost around $5 less than
the basic City, but on closer examination, it seems the equipments
are rather different too...among them are ABS, Alloys wheels,
airbags, power output, etc...
