WSJ: The Great American Car Hunt

John Horner
by John Horner

With governments everywhere becom ing investors in their native auto industries, the question of what exactly is a native auto industry is suddenly big news. Veteran Wall Street Journal writer Joseph White has taken up the question: What is an American Car? [sub]. The Journal has a fun “ Where is this Car Made” quiz to test your knowledge. What could be more American than a Mexican built Escalade, Dodge Ram, Silverado or F150? Is an Ohio built Honda Accord Japanese? What to make of a Mexican built Ford Fusion with a Mazda based design? Is Canada the 51st state or not? Coherent people everywhere have noticed that “the Detroit companies wave the Stars and Stripes when they advertise their wares or look for loans in Washington, but when they talk to investors or the business press, they stress their aggressive efforts to promote ‘global sourcing,’a code for, ‘Buy More Parts from China and Mexico.'” Such Detroit double-speak has a long and ignominious history.

“During the 1980s and 1990s, Chrysler was the most flag-waving, red-white-and-blue American car company among Detroit’s Big Three. Company Chairman Lee Iacocca was a clear, loud voice accusing Japan’s government and auto makers of unfair trade practices.” Meanwhile, Chrysler was importing complete Mitsubishis to sell under its own name, buying four-banger mills from Volkswagen and installing Mitsubishi V-6 engines in scads of minivans; and then topped off the flag waving by selling out to Daimler-Benz.

But more importantly, customers largely don’t care about domestic content. “A 2001 study by NHTSA found that more than 75% of 646 people surveyed weren’t aware of the existence of the domestic content information, and only 5% of those surveyed said the disclosures — usually on a window sticker — affected their decision ‘to any degree whatsoever.'”

That 5% who did care may well have been the minority of Japanese branded car buyers who cherry pick Japanese built units off the dealer’s lot. These are strange times indeed. Just think, next year you may be able to buy a new Dodge – designed by Fiat, built in Turkey and financed by the US Department of the Treasury. If the taxpayer holds the paper, is it American? Does it matter?

John Horner
John Horner

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  • Psarhjinian Psarhjinian on Jan 27, 2009
    Accusing foreigners of being socialists? But we are. And some of us are happy about it. To his point, though, there's good economic sense to buying local. "Local", though, should mean in your own city or region, not by nameplate. The net economic impact of buying a Canadian built GM car versus an American one is virtually nil unless you live in the town where the car is made. Otherwise, you're pumping dollars out of your community no matter what you do.
  • Rpn453 Rpn453 on Jan 27, 2009
    That 5% who did care may well have been the minority of Japanese branded car buyers who cherry pick Japanese built units off the dealer’s lot. Yep. From my experiences as a bicycle mechanic and a mechanical engineer in the power generation industry, I like to see as many "Made in Japan"s as possible on my car!
  • CoastieLenn No idea why, but nothing about a 4Runner excites me post-2004. To me, they're peak "try-hard", even above the Wrangler and Gladiator.
  • AZFelix A well earned anniversary.Can they also attend to the Mach-E?
  • Jalop1991 The intermediate shaft and right front driveshaft may not be fully engaged due to suspected improper assembly by the supplier. Over time, partial engagement can cause damage to the intermediate shaft splines. Damaged shaft splines may result in unintended vehicle movement while in Park if the parking brake is not engagedGee, my Chrysler van automatically engages the parking brake when we put it in Park. Do you mean to tell me that the idjits at Kia, and the idjit buyers, couldn't figure out wanting this in THEIR MOST EXPENSIVE VEHICLE????
  • Dukeisduke I've been waiting to see if they were going to do something special for the 60th Anniversary. I was four years old when the Mustang was introduced. I can remember that one of our neighbors bought a '65 coupe (they were all titled as '65 models, even the '64-1/2 cars), and it's the first one I can remember seeing. In the '90s I knew an older gentleman that owned a '64-1/2 model coupe with the 260 V8.
  • SCE to AUX "...the complete Mustang model lineup to peruse"Will the fake Mustang show up, too?
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