It is hard to escape the news of what is going on with our friends over in Japan right now. While it is a bit too early to tell what is going on with the production of Japanese vehicles in the wake of the series of natural disasters that occurred last week.
I have been able to assemble a list of the vehicles potentially affected the series of events. Please keep in mind while some of the factories might have escaped relatively unscathed, the supply of parts workers, and transportation infrastructure may not have. All of these affect production.
It doesn't do you much good to open the assembly line if you don't have crucial parts to make your products.
With that in mind here is a list of automakers and the vehicles that could be affected by recent events:
Honda
Honda Fit, Honda CR-Z, Honda Insight, Honda FXC Clarity, Acura TSX and Acura RL. A percentage of Honda CR-Vs are also produced in Japan.
Mazda
Mazda3, Mazda2, Mazda5, Mazda MX-5, Mazda RX-8, Mazda CX-7 and Mazda CX-9
Mitsubishi
Mitsubishi Lancer, Mitsubishi Outlander and Mitsubishi Outlander Sport
Nissan
Nissan GT-R, Nissan 370Z, Nissan Leaf, Nissan Quest, Nissan Cube, Nissan Murano, Nissan Juke, Infiniti G Series, Infiniti M Series and Infiniti FX Series
Suzuki
Suzuki Kizashi, Suzuki Grand Vitara and Suzuki SX4
Subaru
Subaru Impreza and Subaru Forester
Toyota
Scion xB, Scion xD, Scion tC, Toyota Yaris, Toyota 4Runner, Toyota Land Cruiser, Lexus LX 570, Toyota Prius, Toyota FJ Cruiser, Lexus ES, Lexus GS, Lexus GX, Lexus LS, Lexus LX, Lexus LFA, Lexus HS, Lexus IS and Lexus CT 200h
As you can tell the listing is pretty extensive by no means due to epic scale of the disaster. Will we see shortages of key Japanese vehicles? Only time will tell, but for now the priority must be on the survivors and production will no doubt be secondary when it comes to using the fragments of the transportation infrastructure.
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