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I don't put much stock in these types of lists and it is old news. I think people who buy imports and hate Detroit and its unions and its politics just need another reason to feel right and good about their beliefs. I saw another one of these lists that places certain D3 trucks and SuVs at the top of the list but it was made by the Detroit news. And I'm sure no one would believe them.
Bottom line is: A Ford is still American. A Honda is still Japanese. A BMW is still German. No matter where final assembly is.
I agree with this. I live in an area where many people work for GM and drive GM cars. I am one of them. Except for the minivan - a Dodge.
I don't put much stock in these types of lists and it is old news. I think people who buy imports and hate Detroit and its unions and its politics just need another reason to feel right and good about their beliefs. I saw another one of these lists that places certain D3 trucks and SuVs at the top of the list but it was made by the Detroit news. And I'm sure no one would believe them.
Bottom line is: A Ford is still American. A Honda is still Japanese. A BMW is still German. No matter where final assembly is.
That's intellectually dishonest though, and greatly simplifies reality. Is the nameplate all that matters? There is no bottom line.
Infiniti moved it's HQ last year from Japan to Hong Kong, are they a Chinese company now (setting aside being part of Renault-Nissan for the moment)? Globalization is here and simplified models lead to no useful discussion or understanding.
Personally, I don't buy imports as any sort of political move against Detroit or unions. It's not political at all. I give the same amount of thought towards the origin of my camera, television, clothing, or tools. Really none. Just pick the product that most fits my needs.
Infiniti is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nissan which is a Japanese company. They have of course since merged with a French company but it does not change the fact that they are Japanese.
Tata is an Indian conglomerate and they have bought Land Rover and Jaguar. I still consider both makes to be British.
FIAT wil most likely consume the remaining shares of Chrysler. I will still consider Chrysler an American car.
Just because some company strokes a check doesn't erase the origin or years of heritage or the fact that most maintain a sizeable footprint in that company's original home.
That's intellectually dishonest though, and greatly simplifies reality. Is the nameplate all that matters? There is no bottom line.
Infiniti moved it's HQ last year from Japan to Hong Kong, are they a Chinese company now (setting aside being part of Renault-Nissan for the moment)? Globalization is here and simplified models lead to no useful discussion or understanding.
Personally, I don't buy imports as any sort of political move against Detroit or unions. It's not political at all. I give the same amount of thought towards the origin of my camera, television, clothing, or tools. Really none. Just pick the product that most fits my needs.
This lists greatly helps those who want to buy American.
The parts for all cars come from all over. The whole "value added" and/or "most American" thing is just a game. You can play with the numbers or input factors and get whatever results you are looking for.
One consideration for me is how much of my money goes where. That is not hard to figure out. All the companies employ a lot of factory workers in the US. Only three companies employ thousands more US engineers, administrators, marketers, insurance professionals, executives, artists, lawyers, financiers, etc than all the other car companies put together. Play with numbers to their hearts delight, they cannot change the fact that the bulk of the difference in where the money goes is where the headquarters is located. The highly paid professional jobs are the jobs we want in the US. Factory jobs are nice, but we are not all that competitive there anymore (although some companies are bringing manufacturing back too the US because they are finding they get better QC and it is worth the extra cost). .
When Americans get paid with my car purchase money, they go out nd buy homes, tools, lumber, food, services etc and that makes everyone around me do better. So while it is fine with me if Japan, China, Indian, Mexico and Germany also do well, I do my best to keep as much of my money as clsoe to home as possible. Thus, I will pay a little more to buy gar locally, or shop at the town hardware store, or buy local foods, use a locally base bank and buy US branded cars.
The parts for all cars come from all over. The whole "value added" and/or "most American" thing is just a game. You can play with the numbers or input factors and get whatever results you are looking for.
One consideration for me is how much of my money goes where. That is not hard to figure out. All the companies employ a lot of factory workers in the US. Only three companies employ thousands more US engineers, administrators, marketers, insurance professionals, executives, artists, lawyers, financiers, etc than all the other car companies put together. Play with numbers to their hearts delight, they cannot change the fact that the bulk of the difference in where the money goes is where the headquarters is located. The highly paid professional jobs are the jobs we want in the US. .
So well intended but so absolutely NOT accurate. I can see why one would think this is true. But if you do not think that the "big 3" outsource so much of a huge pecentage of all the above then your are woefully niave. There are in fact more than one foreign nameplate that have more of these above mentioned jobs based in the US than some of the traditional big 3.
This is from one of those above professionals who has worked for every single auto manutactuer sold in the US in the past 20 years, except for Suzuki, who happens to be employed by a Big 3 company right now.
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