Canadian Built Cars Have The Most Foreign Parts Content
More than any other country, Canadian-built vehicles seem to have an inordinate amount of foreign parts content, according to a study done by Scotiabank Economics.
The Windsor Star reports that Canadian made cars have an average of $15,000 worth of foreign parts content, compared to $11,000 in the U.S., $10,500 in Mexico and $10,000 in Western Europe. The global average is said to be $7,400.
Scotia’s chief economist Carlos Gomes cited engines as the costliest foreign component, stating
“Despite several top-notch engine plants in Canada, over 80 per cent of all vehicles built in Canada contain imported engines.”
Transmissions and electronic systems also rounded out the top 3, and Gomes noted that the lack of a strong base for these kinds of parts means Canada’s auto parts trade deficit will only expand in the future. Furthermore, the vast majority of Canadian auto parts are not exported, which doesn’t help matters
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I see the photo in the link,is the Chrysler Windsor plant. TTAC used an Oshawa asembled Camaro. Ford,Honda and Toyota all have assembly plants in Ontario. Interesting, I'd like to know. Were all Canadian plants taken into consideration when calculating these numbers? "28-Cars-Later" has a valid point. To us Mexico, and the USA are indeed foreign countries. I do know that in the Oshawa area,parts suppliers were dropping like flies a few years ago. A couple of days ago one of the B&B refered to "the curse of natural resources" Yeah,with manufactoring vanishing as it is, we had better hope that the oil buisness hires everybody. BTW. Just a question for our American friends. Does Al Gore have an elected position anymore? He was recently beating us up about our so called "dirty oil". If he holds an elected office, I guess he has a right to point out our flaws. If Mr Gore is a private citizen,perhaps he, and Daryl Hannah, and George Cloony,could just shut the f--up,and worry about thier own country. We have enough of our very own,car hating,oil hating loony lefties....End of rant.
I, Pencil.
Given the integrated nature of the Canada-US auto market, and that fact that Canada's population and economy is basically 10% of that of the US, it's inevitable that cars assembled in Canada will have a larger proportion of foreign (i.e., US-made) parts. So, what else is new? But there have been changes. Throughout the period from 1980-2003, Canada ran a large surplus in auto parts, because the lower value of the C$ and Canada's public healthcare system gave Canadian suppliers a substantial cost advantage. When oil and other commodity prices went up, and the C$ rose from US$0.63 to US$1.00, that cost advantage became a cost disadvantage. Assembly plants, if they are largely automated, aren't so hugely affected by this, but I suspect that a lot of parts manufacturing is more labour-intensive, and so would be substantially affected. I had some dealings about 5-6 years ago with a parts supplier near Toronto. His dilemma, as he saw it, was that he had to pay the world market price for his raw materials (steel being the biggest), and he had to sell to OEMs in US$. But his other costs were all in C$, and he couldn't control the exchange rate - on which he would live or die.
So we bailed out GM to have foreign made cars, in foreign made plants, that are also consistently terrible across the board if reviews like this: http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/chevy-test-drive-event-why-the-spark-is-better-than-th-501898626 are any indication? Thanks Obama!