[quote=Rt.66]PKMAN and Flu,
You guys make good points and the fact that some US assembled Japanese makes have higher domestic content than some US makes is not lost on me.
To be sure the market has become confusing. I was really sad to hear both the Camero and Challenger will be assembled in Canada.
Still there are OK choices (US built with profits going to Japan) ((obviously better than 100% foreign)) and better choices (US built with profits staying here) for our country and its workers.
And yes it sucks that Chrysler went to Daimler then back to US ownership and thanks to our bad trade policies and lack of comparable Gov. support Chrysler looks headed to Fiat ownership.
The lack of demand for US made cars has obviously led to this degrading market and outsourcing of content. American car manufacturers see they need to compete on price and they also must fight trade policies that put them on a back foot even in their own country.
US makers know that few people search out US vehicles (many search out the opposite) so we the market/consumers are telling them to go ahead and build it where it’s cheapest.
If we start asking for and demanding more US built cars from US companies with higher US content then there will be a race to supply that.
If the Accord and Camry buyers out there start walking into Chevy dealers and telling them they want a car built in the US by an American company then you can be sure good things will happen for workers in this country and for tax revenue to states and the Federal Gov.
The infrastructure is still there, we can still have a rebirth of the American auto industry. As luck would have it we are building cars as good or better than anyone.
As bad luck would have it, too many would still rather send profits to Japan hoping to gain a tiny personal advantage for themselves at the expense of THEIR nation.
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Well, not to sound partial…But if you stop and notice most of the more appealing GM/Fords are assembled with global resources. And it’s probably because companies do this to mix and match what is best at what can be done by each individual teams.
A good percentage of the Buicks (interior specifically) are designed in GM Shanghai, for instance There aren’t that many domestically sourced vehicles 100% because it’s not competitive to do this. It’s not just about labor, but the entire packaging because cars are complex machines. There will be things that move overseas as a result of globalization, and not all of them are for cost reasons.
My full time employer uses/hires employees in multiple parts of the world including the U.S., Asian, and Europe, for many reasons. Partly to maintain a 24 hr development team, partly because some teams overseas have capabilities our domestic team don’t have, and we’re still looking for domestic employees that complement what we’re good at doing. And frankly, some of the European employees are paid much higher comp packages than our domestic ones, simply because local laws, taxes,etc. But it enables us to turn profits domestic, and foreign markets…
This is how globalization works, and it’s increasingly important for U.S. companies considering most likely growth will be overseas. Buick sales have hit 2million in China already, the last 1 million in 3 years, for instance…The U.S. probably isn’t going to be the largest auto market moving forward.
