TWO IN 5 WARY OF CARS MADE ON FRIDAYS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 26, 1992                   TAG: 9202260108
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Medium
TWO IN 5 WARY OF CARS MADE ON FRIDAYS
Two in five Americans in an Associated Press poll said there's truth to the claim that American-made cars built on Fridays have more me- chanical problems because workers become careless late in the work week.
While Americans overwhelmingly reject the charge by some Japanese politicians that U.S. workers are lazy, many harbor doubts about the quality of American-made products, especially autos, the poll found.
A third of those polled said Japan makes better cars than U.S. companies do.
Another sign of doubt is the extent of acceptance of an old saw given new life this month by a Japanese legislator who said American auto workers slacked off on Mondays as well as Fridays.
Of 1,009 Americans polled by ICR Survey Research Group of Media, Pa., 4 percent called the Friday carelessness claim absolutely true, and 37 percent said it was somewhat true. A quarter called it somewhat false, and 28 percent said it was absolutely false.
Auto companies say cars and their components are manufactured over many hours, and there is no evidence that assembly suffers on certain days. But after record losses last year, the industry cannot afford even groundless feelings that interfere with its ability to capitalize on "buy American" sentiments.
The higher quality rating for Japanese cars over U.S.-made, 32 percent to 29 percent, compared with a higher rating for American-made over Japanese-made products in general, 28 to 23 percent.
Products of both countries seem about the same quality to 43 percent of those polled, cars about the same to 32 percent. Others don't know.
Results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Gordon Richards, an economist with the National Association of Manufacturers, said quality usually takes a back seat to price in determining how many imports penetrate the American market. But cars have been different, with demand for Toyotas and Hondas persisting even when the falling dollar made foreign models more expensive relative to U.S. brands.
The poll was taken Feb. 12-16, the week following Japan's official apology for Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa's comment to his Parliament that Americans are losing their work ethic.
Seventy-two percent of Americans in the poll said they would describe most American workers as hard-working, and 17 percent would call them lazy. About one in 10 volunteered an answer such as "average" or "in between."
Lawrence Mishel, research director for the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank in Washington, D.C., said the public may consider productivity to mean hard work and long hours, but economists measure it differently.
"I think the evidence is that U.S. workers per hour are more productive than the Japanese," he said.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB