A countless number...

of heart wrenching images of the devastating results of Friday's earthquake and tsunami in Japan have been circulating throughout the media. Many car manufacturers have stopped production to conserve electricity in a time of rolling blackouts and shortages. Since 80% of the Japanese cars sold in America are manufactured here, the US imports aren't really affected. However, with some companies like Nissan and Mitsubishi there are some parts that are imported from Japan so that may set some of the production back, but not a great deal. Mazda, Mitsubishi, Subaru and Toyota plan to continue manufacturing by Wednesday. Suzuki and Honda are assessing the affect of operations and have not yet confirmed when they will begin production again. Overall the manufacturers were lucky enough to not suffer extensive damage under the intense circumstances.