Which Auto Team to Cheer? Home or Visitors? How About Both!
Far be it from me to overuse a metaphor, but you know things are bad for the home team when the head cheerleader starts following the other team's plays. Right in the heart of UAW-land, Detroit News' Auto Editor Manny Lopez [ reads TTAC] and mulls over the question of what constitutes an "American" car. His answer will probably piss off the Level Field Institute: as long as it's built in America with American parts, it doesn't really matter where the parent company resides. Waxing philosophical, he asks "what's more American: a Dodge Caravan built in Canada with fewer American parts or a Toyota Sienna chock full of Red, White and Blue components and built in Indiana [Ed. By non-union labor]?" Continuing along the same lines, Manny also wants to know if it's "more important to have the dollars flow back to Detroit, Dearborn or Auburn Hills or to employ American workers?" He'd better be careful or the home team fans may demand he turn in his pom-poms.
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Skooter–
You want to blame AMERICANS because they choose what THEY consider value over what YOU think they should buy? Profits going to Japan? GREAT!They deserve to make a buck on their products if they sell them to willing buyers. Then again….
The transplant dealerships here..do THEY make a profit? YES! The parts suppliers, transport companies, salesmen, technicians, dealership personel-do THEY make money with the sales of Japanese-branded nameplates? Of course they do. Do cities and other government entities get tax money from the operations of these transplant dealerships? YES.
Face it–WE DIDNT WANT THE DOMESTIC CARS–to which the factories said–”BFD–We make $$ with out trucks and SUVs anyway.” And now that we dont want their trucks and SUVs..they are LEFT OUT IN THE COLD VIA their OWN bad management and planning. Right now–as we speak…the transplants are now the domestic car industry.
"and don’t give that asian superiority crap." Where exactly is the 2.8's response to the Prius, the Versa, the Fit and the Yaris? Oh, right, they were too busy making big bucks on trucks to bother building world class fuel efficient cars.
Dynamic88- just get the Malibu John Horner- to be fair they are awful nice trucks.
Jaje that is the very argument I have been running through my mind as well. I tend to fall in with buying the car that keeps the maximum number of American workers getting a paycheck. Your argument for transplants makes good sense over a Mexican Ford or a Canadian Chrysler. I guess Detroit will have to fail COMPLETELY for them to change their way - by they I mean the unions and the top level folks making millions. If that isn't enough, the import guys more often build what I want to buy. Skooter - consistently the Toyotas and Hondas around us have lasted MUCH longer than their domestic cousins big and small. YMMV but mine hasn't.