Cars are assembled at the branch.

He's right. The cars manufactured at the home plant are always better because they have to show high quality for the inspectors and locals to keep a high view of themselves, but in other countries the rules and regulations are more relaxed so you end up with a lower quality vehicle, also the cost of sending things back and forth causes them to use lower grade parts and less quality workmanship. But the companies won't let you get it from the original area, because it would be cheaper for you to do that, and they would lose money. I know a lot of people think it would be more expensive, but actually it is cheaper even with shipping. So your boss is correct, but there's nothing he can do.

Your boss has a point. NOT all TOYOTA cars born equal. TOYOTA has plants in strategic countries to cater to that region as well as taking advantage of the cheaper labor cost, transport cost and tax benefits. Although all the assemblies are made to TOYOTA specification, there is a difference in some of the parts used, especially if the resident country has a law to state that a locally assembled vehicle must have a certain percentage of locally made parts. Some models of TOYOTA are not manufactured at all in its home country; one of them is AVANZA which is mainly assembled in Indonesia and Malaysia but exported to other countries. It was reported that the model will be launched in India market soon. It is true that TOYOTA Japan does not export its car to individual customers as they have their dealers in every market they are in. But we can still can get it from the parallel importers who got in the vehicles legally but not sanctioned by TOYOTA officially. Those parallel imported cars are rightly more expensive and do not have warranty from TOYOTA. But still a lot of rich people here buy those models - some of the models sold are not even carried by the TOYOTA dealer here.

In cost wise, I am sure those cars which are assembled locally will be cheaper than those which are imported from overseas because the government will normally impose higher import duty to those imported cars to protect their local industries and to create more jobs to the local people. In term of quality or the workmanship, I guess the oversea assembled cars will be different from those which are assembled locally. But it does not mean that the oversea assembled cars will have better qualities than those which are assembled locally because different places or countries might have different specifications and compliance in assembling the cars for the usage within the countries. Before making any decision, you should advise your boss to check through the specifications from the respective suppliers or the retailers.

Doesn't matter, in developed countries, all factories are made according to standards set aside by the countries and as such what you get at the main factory is the same thing with the other factories, the only difference would be the number of cars produced at the main factory would be way higher than other branches accross the nation. Your boss has got nothing to worry about

it depends on how the owner took care of the car.