Why do Japanese and Korean cars are more reliable/less expensive than American and European cars ?

hey everybody

the well known British car Journalist Jeremy Clarkson (Top Gear presenter) said that the costs of manufacturing a car in Korea (and Japan of course) are never less than the cost of manufacturing it in Europe or the United States (nevertheless Korean and Japanese cars are cheaper and more reliable )
and the most Amazing thing to me is how Korean cars moved from their bad reputation in 2002/03/04 as a poor quality cars with no reliability to be in the top of consumer report's list of the most reliable cars in 2011

my question is why american/european car makers are lagging behind those asian makers in spite of the fact that the american/european auto industry preceded the asian one by nearly a century ?

I've thought about this many times and founded few reasons that may have led those asian makers getting ahead of their western rivals . reasons such as the firm protectionist measures imposed by their governments in order to limit foreign competition with local manufacturers . such measures will give them a big advantage to take their time developing their vehicles and testing them in their local home market ( no matter how the cars is bad in their primary developing stages since their peoples don't have other choices but their locally made cars ) ,in the american/european open markets car makers don't get such advantage

another reason could be the currency exchange rates . for example the korean won is about 30 % undervalued aganist US dollar so, the car,in the foreign, will become artificially 30 % cheaper than their actual price leading to huge success and pushing the local makers to the abyss. on the other hand, any foreign car in korea will be 30 % artificially more expensive - this is enough to keep foreign markers away from korean market and let hyundai/kia to dominate the market and master their products before invading the other countries

what do you think guys?
I'd like to know your opinions :bigthumb:

P.S. I asked this question before in yahoo answer but I didn't get a satisfactory answer
also, I apologize for my bad English , I am from the mid-east




thanks

Welcome to AF! Your English is probably better than most native speakers. :)

I would tend to agree with your points made. I would also say that American automakers had gotten lazy because they thought there wasn't any competition until it was too late and required a bailout.