Toyota's production system remains much emulated but unequaled, and it has shortened the development time for new models to 18 months--a decade ago, four years would have been more than respectable. The Camry is America's most popular car, while Lexus has both reasserted itself as a major force in the luxury car market and made a strong debut in the vaguely annoying luxury SUV market. Meanwhile Honda, which now makes cars in the United States that it sends back to Japan, has brought the Accord back to life as the second-most-popular car in America and is expanding its manufacturing operations in the Midwest. The one auto company that's having serious trouble is Nissan, but even it has created the world's most efficient auto plant (in Midlands, England, of all places), and as with Toyota and Honda, its expanding operations in Europe offer great promise. Similar stories, on a smaller scale, could be told about Japanese parts manufacturers, upon whom not only Japanese auto companies but also the American Big Three now increasingly rely.