9th Apr 2014, 11:54
Like the rest of this debate, that's not as much of a cut and dry assumption either. Latest reports show that for the entire US auto industry from all US brands, only 14 models total have greater than 75% domestically produced content. That's drastically down from just a few years ago.
On the other hand, the best-selling family cars in the US, which includes the Camry and Accord, all have greater than 75% domestically-produced content. The majority of Honda's model lineup in the US uses greater than 50% domestically produced content.
But basically, the bulk of the comments being made about buying an American car are less based in economics and probably more out of an emotional response. Take away the badges, and look inside the actual manufacturing situation with the overall industry, and it's no longer the situation many romantically attach to cars: It's not the 50's with apple pie and factories in Detroit taking in raw iron ore and putting out finished cars at the other end. It's more like the computer industry, where all of the "Guts" of the machine come from all over the place, with teams of workers located globally.
As mentioned before, nobody should buy a car just because it's American or Japanese or German for the sake of the car's national origins. If all Americans did so, we would probably still be driving around in the shoddy cars the big three made for years before getting their act together. It took the competitive pressure from other Asian and European automakers to improve their product or fail.
10th Apr 2014, 06:00
I bought the brand new Corvette, built in Bowling Green. If you have the opportunity, compare it against its European counterparts. I also even like the Ford Mustangs today.
I know little about with the Asian market, but we can be very proud of our latest technological advances. We have 2 new pickups in our family, a Ford F150 and a GM Silverado; also great vehicles today.
10th Apr 2014, 09:13
So are you saying Honda is a domestic model? I remember Ford years ago received their tires from rubber plantations for a period of time from other countries. The point being it's an American corporation, not remotely an import company due to content. Big profits remain here. I use to not care at all in the prosperous 70s and 80s, and bought many new foreign owned cars. Both European and models from Japan. My thought today is there are excellent high quality domestic brands (Made in the USA) for our family today. So that's our direction today. An added benefit being less time in the service dept as well.
10th Apr 2014, 12:35
Good for you. Not really sure what that had to do with the rest of the conversation here.
10th Apr 2014, 15:13
Since you brought up the 50s, what super reliable Japanese model was the benchmark for the era? Other than the VW Bug, built for the masses from Germany, I would like to see your list. We must have been extremely fortunate, as not one if our domestic GM full sizes were shoddy. Even during the mid 70s with experimentation with anti pollution devices, the HP drop and switch to unleaded fuel due to the government. The V8s were very reliable in our family. Granted, some of our taste during that era and the new 5 mph hour bumper designs look pretty sad today. The paint colors with avocado, harvest gold, copper tones were even found in our homes. A lot of our vehicles from the past are going overseas.
11th Apr 2014, 06:01
If I buy a building or 2 overseas and hire local workers to perform its maintenance and repairs... who do you think collects the rental income? That's actually how I paid for my cars; having others pay for them. I know it's an analogy, but hopefully at some point you will get the idea. Foreign vs domestic ownership and who actually benefits the most. After tax and land concessions that the taxpayer has to foot and then recoup as well. It does matter to many. To others it's simply go into a dealership with a bank loan and drive whatever they feel like. It's a free country, do what you want with the income you may or not have in the future. I would like to see prosperous growth again.
11th Apr 2014, 08:40
As far as American cars from the past being "shoddy"; it's yet another but different debate.
All I can say is in my large extended family, we have had a couple mid to full sized Fords and a ton of mid to full sized GM's that all did their jobs as far as being reliable and exceeding beyond 100,000 miles, some over 200,000 from the 1970's and beyond. Believe it or not, the older ones were built a lot better as opposed to today's disposable global B.S.
11th Apr 2014, 09:01
12:35 exactly proves the point. Who cares as long as we buy whatever we can put in our own personal driveway today.
11th Apr 2014, 11:18
It's not just full sizes from that era. We had slant six and 318 Plymouth Dodge V8s; no stopping them. Also the Nova with six cylinders. If you had full size domestic V8s, even better. One of my cars has conservatively easily doubled in value in the past few years without putting a penny in it other than fluid changes. If anything, my new cars have had more major issues, especially our Honda with the 6 with its weak trans.
14th Apr 2014, 13:24
This debate will probably go into infinity. The fact is that for some reason, people get emotional about cars. Nobody ever makes these same highly picked-over comments about TV sets, appliances and drills. Those too are made all over the place, both here and at home. Yet nobody makes such a political stance over them either.
Economic reality more or less proves that the global economy is truly global, there is no such thing as protectionism, nor is it a good idea to enforce trying to only buy American or imported goods. That's not how the economy has, or ever worked. Simply put, money goes in, and money goes out. If no money went out, then no money would come in. It's really as simple as that.
The debate about old cars being shoddy, it's like anything else. Some were good, some were bad. There was an era where more American cars were worse, particularly the 70's and early 80's. This is well-documented by reliability and quality ratings of the era. Sure - I have no doubt people had Chevy Vegas that went 300,000 flawless miles. But a greater number had bad experiences with them.
As far as what Japanese cars were around in the 50's... not sure how that's pertinent to the conversation. The fact is they very rapidly increased their quality to a point where by the 80's the cars were simply better. Is that the case now? No. Quality between the Big three and the Japanese brands are about the same. It took that quality gap in the 80's and 90's, which ate into the big three's market share to force them to improve their quality. As mentioned before, who wins in that scenario? We do. We the consumers.
Either way, that pretty much sums up my opinions. So no need to beat the drum any more.
15th Apr 2014, 09:05
Instead of drums, I like the Heartbeat of America. People do get emotional on manufactured products other than cars. I have experienced 2 factory downsizings overseas since 1996. I can pick a single model, and I'm very curious you chose the Vega that was recalled and iron sleeved. Was there a purpose to it perhaps? In 1965 the largest production passenger car was the Impala with the 350. We had great luck with them and also Crown Vics as company cars.
In the late 50s up, when you thought compact it was instantly the VW Beetle on small cars. Maybe the price is gas or a tight economy drives people into small cars over gas. Even the domestic V8s today with overdrives attain close to 30 MPG, so why skimp.
16th Apr 2014, 13:52
The topic wasn't about how good domestic cars are. The topic is about a Toyota Camry.
8th Apr 2014, 07:48
Overall the domestic models have more made in America parts than their Asian counterparts. They also employ more workers. Be broad based on overall comments.