Are domestic vehicles going the way of "domestic"

Hi, I recently took a road trip along the West coast of the US and I was shocked at the number of foreign vehicles. The vast majority of vehicles on the road were from off shore. I know a few of the small "domestic" cars are not really domestic at all, but are made by Suzuki, Mitsubishi, or others.

That seems just like the trend in tractors. I can't think of a small "domestic" tractor that is actually made in the US or Canada.

I was just shocked to see it on the roads of America...

Bye for now,

Troy

I have a 2007 Mitsubishi Eclipse auto that was manufactured in the US. Of course like most vehicles the parts probably came from off shore.

Around where I live, (North Carolina) this has been a growing trend for some time. I think foreign brands, (Can't call them "imports" any longer because many of them are made in the US now.)equal about 50% of the vehicles on the road. (Can't say for sure, because it's hard to tell any of them apart anymore.)

Even with our "domestic" vehicles, many of the parts are manufactured in other countries. When I worked at a Ford dealership the parts dept. looked like a geography book. Made in Mexico, Made in Japan, Made in France, BF Egypt, etc,etc.

The big three lost the west coast market back in the seventies. Crappy quality, indifferent dealers and demand for small cars did in the domestic brands.

Of course, these days a "foreign" branded vehicle may very well be built in the US. Most of the major Japanese car manufacturers have plants in the US, as do a fair number of European makers.

Most "Domestic" brands build vehicles sourced from parts built globally. In the true sense of the word there is no such thing as a "Domestic car" any more. Parts are built wherever and units are assembled on shore or imported. Many of the GM, Ford and Chrysler cars are assembled in Canada or Mexico. As to the West coast, yup the US auto brands lost the west coast by the early 90"s.

It's been that way out there for a long time. Back into the early 80's, GM had 3 plants in Cali - Los Gatos, Van Nuys, and Fremont. The Fremont was the last to close, it was a joint venture with Toyota for years.

Why not just put a label on them that says made on Earth or
Third Rock from the Sun
Walt

Deere still builds utility tractors in Georgia. The 5000,5010 etc series were made there and I believe the new equivalent is still made there.

There are sources that show percentage USA of a
car. I suppose we in the Midwest either have
lower standards of the West coast folks, or we
actually understand buying made in USA means
saving our own jobs if not caring for other
Americans. Just because Toyota throws up an
assembly plant in Tennessee, the workers there are
making $18/hr. Most of the parts, especially the
specialty parts like the engine, tranny & such
come from Japan.
Compare that with a Ford, GM or Chrysler, the
majority of the vehicle components are made in USA
by USA companies, supporting Americans.
In my mind the quality of the USA made vehicles is every bit as good as the imports.
As for tractors, I was interested in buying a new
John Deere under 50HP utility tractor. Every
single one of them are made in India. It isn't
until you get into the bigger AG tractors are they
made here in the USA

We bought two of those small JD tractors made in Georgia - and had as much trouble with them as we had with that '48 G that we had on the farm.

Most of the so-called "foreign" cars are now made in the U.S.; while most of the "domestic" cars have a high percentage of parts made in foreign countries - and some of the domestics are even assembled in foreign countries.

We have a Camry - and if you look close, you can see that almost every car manufacturer has a model that very closely resembles a Camry (Even Cadillac) - so why not drive the original?

(quoted from post at 04:48:42 01/07/13) There are sources that show percentage USA of a
car. I suppose we in the Midwest either have
lower standards of the West coast folks, or we
actually understand buying made in USA means
saving our own jobs if not caring for other
Americans. Just because Toyota throws up an
assembly plant in Tennessee, the workers there are
making $18/hr. Most of the parts, especially the
specialty parts like the engine, tranny & such
come from Japan.
Compare that with a Ford, GM or Chrysler, the
majority of the vehicle components are made in USA
by USA companies, supporting Americans.
In my mind the quality of the USA made vehicles is every bit as good as the imports.
As for tractors, I was interested in buying a new
John Deere under 50HP utility tractor. Every
single one of them are made in India. It isn't
until you get into the bigger AG tractors are they
made here in the USA

Click to expand...

I believe you're mistaken. The steel for our domestic vehicles isn't US made, the electronics mostly aren't, the fabrics aren't, the chemicals to make the plastics aren't, etc. Last time I checked a few years back my old Toyota PU had a higher percentage of US made parts than our Ford. '

The big thing with that Toy plant where the workers make $18.00 is that they aren't doing their best to drive the company out of business. A decent job at a decent wage is a lot better than memories of a good job at a high wage while standing in a picket line watching the Union Bigwigs drive off in their limos.

For plant of manufacture, my Ram 1500 with the hemi engine says Port of Entry El Paso Tx. In other words, made in Mexico.

About the only place I've been recently where you see more so-called domestic brands is up in Michigan. Here in Central Ohio, Honda has been assembling motorcycles and cars for over 30 yrs. I think the Accord has been here for at least 30 of those years, the similar Accura is put together out in Marysville too. They make a lot of the parts here too, small Japanese and domestic suppliers are scattered all over the area. Overall, it's been a good thing. Detroit would have never done for this area what Honda has. They've managed to keep the UAW out, another good thing, otherwise I think they would have moved to the South long ago.

The way I see it, the auto industry dug its own grave.

Look back to the late seventies and early eighties when foreign cars started taking over.

It was all about quality.

Even though there were three big names in detroit, it was essentially an auto monopoly that only had to compete amongst themselves.

That kind of incestuous relationship isn't good in nature, and it's no better for business.

Unions had a lot to do with it. Everybody wanted a bigger piece of the pie.

What ultimately suffered was quality. High quality is expensive. If everyone's going to suck more money out of a company - SOMETHING's going to give.

Japan saw the weakness, and had the hunger and drive to take full advantage of it.

Detroit was so focused on ITSELF that they totally forgot about their customers.

Developing vastly inferior products, that a typical customer spends an entire year's salary on, might keep management AND the unions happy, but it's a REAL bad formula for success.

That kind of move can, and did, destroy a company reputations for a long, long time.

For all I know, american cars COULD be vastly superior to foreign made nowadays, but to this day I STILL look at american cars with a LOT of distrust an apprehension.

I've been burned so badly in the past, it's just part of my nature now.

For most people - a new car is too much money to use as a vote for america or to show support for american workers.

You spend 30 or 40 grand out of your own pocket, and showing support for american industry tends to take second place behind not wasting your money.

"Build" there means importing large sections of the tractor and bolting them together in GA and putting on the sheet metal or plastic.

There hasn't been a truly "domestic" vehicle since maybe the 1970's. The only thing that's "domestic" or "foreign" about the vehicles is their brand names... and not even that these days.

All vehicles contain parts manufactured all over the world. That's pretty much how it is in most other countries too. We just have the most cars out of anyone.

Many foreign brands have final assembly plants here in the USA to get around paying the tariffs on importing assembled vehicles. They're good paying long term jobs...

nothing is domestic anymore, if you want american made you have to do like i do and drive the old ones, if its past around 1985 i dont want it, if i cant work on it, i wont own it, while the older stuff usually doesnt have cup holders ect, they sell those at walmart, the stuff is better made and simple in design, kick the side of a 2013 pickup truck and you do around 2500 dollars damage to the truck, kick a 1965 truck and you do about 2500 dollars damage to your foot

Well lets see. I grew up in NW Indiana where my father worked at a steel mill, a very large steel mill. They supplied to GM, at the time it was almost exclusively Saturn.
I've worked for Delphi automotive, Delco Electronics was a division. They still make air bags in Sandusky Ohio. They still make other electronics in other parts of the USA.
While living in Ohio I worked for the largest plastics manufacturing in the country, they supply many many lbs of plastic to the auto industry, and I don't remember Toyota or Honda on the list, it was GM, Ford & CHrysler.

Foreign autos built here are a good thing. Sure it would be better having all domestics built here but that is not going to happen.
The value is not in the auto assembly plant,it"s in the diner that opened up down the road,it"s the rigging company next county over that gets the work when the plant does a change over. Many many parts are sourced here,which creates jobs. We all reap the benefit of these assembly plants.
Profit that goes back to the manufacturer is the smaller part of a unit.

Sorry, Vandalia Ohio, not Sandusky.

BTW - I do agree, times have changed and maybe we need to rethink the made in USA thought. I don't necessarily support the union guys either.

Is there any difference between "made in" and "assembled in"?

Lots of history in this debate, most people pick one little piece and hang their whole argument on it.

Facts that hurt the US auto industry
Outrageous labor rates due to union contracts.
Union contracts defined by the NLRB ..USA government.
Poor quality of products
Free markets..not fair markets..They can come to the USA but we cannot go to their market
Misunderstanding of the true job loss impact on the US economy.

First, understand that an Assembly plant is only about 10% of a vehicle. What we have lost is all the white collar design and engineering jobs as well as the administrative jobs. That is why our college educated kids are working at starbucks pouring coffee.

Second, auto manufacturing provided millions of low wage jobs. Here in Kentucky dozens of little parts factories in rural cummunities are closed. Those were $10/hr jobs, but a decent living. Those people have no other opportunity and many are now on welfare. The foreign manufacturers get most of their parts overseas.

Third, all those admittedly overpaid UAW auto workers paid lots of taxes. Now they are not...instead they are on unemployment.adds to the Govt. Deficit?

Fourth...I have heard many folks complain about the US auto company bailout...It is not right for our government to bail out failing companies?...Then why is it all right for Tennessee state government to give foreign auto companies $288,000/per job $$$$billions of tax breaks to VW. That is effectively 10 years of free labor. Hard for the US companies to compete with that.

Finally, Japanese tax on US rice (higher quality) is 700%, but can't really sell USA vehicles in Japan due to silly reguations. The tax on a USA car in Korea is 75% of the window sticker. Korea bans US beef...mad cow.

It is really complicated situation and our states partnering with foreign companies to put Americans out of work seems a bit unAmerican.

You can bet the Japanese government would not allow the Osaka Prefecture to partner with an American company with the goal of putting japanese workers in Tokyo out of a job.

The American auto industry is a text book example of 40 Years of a government without a coherent plan. Many of our economies current financial problems are due to foolish and short sighted government policies.