Importers Don't Fear Quotas on Japanese Autos : Trade: Japan's voluntary 28% cut in exports is likely to speed up production of overseas models in U.S. factories, domestic distributors say.

Importers Don’t Fear Quotas on Japanese Autos : Trade: Japan’s voluntary 28% cut in exports is likely to speed up production of overseas models in U.S. factories, domestic distributors say.

By JOHN O’DELL

March 21, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Orange County’s Japanese-auto importers don’t appear to be terribly worried about the Japanese government’s decision to voluntarily reduce auto exports to the United States by 28%.

The official word from Japan is that auto makers there will be able to export only 1.65 million cars to the United States in fiscal 1992, down from 2.3 million this year.

But all three of the Orange County companies--American Suzuki Motor Corp. in Brea, Mazda Motor of America Inc. in Irvine and Mitsubishi Motor Sales of America Inc. in Cypress--already get some of their vehicles from factories in the United States and Canada.

Those factories do not operate at full production, so the effect of a reduction in exports of Japanese-built models could be partially offset by boosting production in North America.

American Suzuki Motor Corp. in Brea, the smallest of the three Orange County importers with just under 22,000 cars sold in the United States last year, said the lower export quota shouldn’t affect its business. The company gets the two-door Sidekick sports utility vehicles from a factory in Canada, jointly owned by General Motors Corp. and Suzuki Motor Corp. of Japan.

Jack Pitney, a spokesman for Mazda Motor of America, said executives “feel it’s unfortunate that the Japanese government has undertaken this action” but don’t anticipate an immediate impact on Mazda’s 1992 sales. U.S. auto sales are fairly weak, anyway, due to the slow economy, and no one expects a rapid recovery.

But when sales do recover, Pitney said, Mazda officials figure that the reduction in exports from Japan “could have an impact on our sales and . . . deny the American consumer the opportunity to purchase vehicles of their choice at a competitive price.”

About 30% of the 270,000 cars that Mazda sold in the United States last year were manufactured at its factory in Flat Rock, Mich. The factory, which makes the Mazda 626 and MX-6 models, as well as the Ford Probe, operated at only 68% of capacity last year.

Rick Lepley, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Mitsubishi Motor Sales of America, called the export reduction “unavoidable because of the strained relationship between the (United States) and Japan over trade issues.”

Mitsubishi, which sold 191,000 cars in the United States last year, made 36% of them at its plant in Illinois.

Lepley said the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry, which announced the new self-imposed export limits, has not determined each Japanese car maker’s share of the pie, “so it is too early to determine the impact on any individual firm.”

But it could have an adverse impact on Mitsubishi, he said, “because it would make us too dependent on our U.S.-built cars, which only compete in two segments.”