Ok, not trying to start a flame war. Just want some of your opinions and thoughts here.

If you buy a Ford truck, American employees get paid for assembling the truck. At least 55% if not more of the parts come from America (I got this from a window sticker on a new F-150). An American dealership profits from selling you the truck. And the money you spent on the vehicle ultimately becomes profit in an American based company....good old Detriot. Sure, some parts are from other nations, but for the most part we are working hard and earning money and putting it right back into our economy.

If you buy a Toyota truck, an American dealer earns some profit and some American employees earn money by assembling the truck. However, 95% of the parts are shipped in from foreign countries (again, taken from the window sticker on a new Toyota). And ultimately the profit ends up in the economy of Japan. So then you are working hard, earning money, and then sending your money out of this country, which hurts our economy and means fewer jobs for American people.

Now...with that being said, do you guys and girls have any thoughts on whether or not it's a good idea to drive foreign vehicles? They are very popular here of course. And we don't want to get into a debate about reliability because that can go both ways. I just want to know...do any of you have thoughts are ideas on this that could change my way of thinking on the subject? Because right now I'm a bit biased.

 

If you like it, and it works for you - then buy it.

 

This is the way I look at it. We live in a Global Economy these days and there's no getting aroung it. If you scratch my back, I'll scatch yours.

Also, is DaimlerChrysler an exception to the rule?

 

Late 60s through to early 80s, the consumer took it in the butt usually when buying strictly American automobiles.

Cheap, RELIABLE, Japanese autos DRASTICALLY changed the American manufactures quality standards.

There are great cases to be made for keeping our trade balance on par with foreign exporters, but I suspect that part of OUR State Departments strategy is to bolster the foreign economies through this trade imbalance, deliberately.

I learned long ago that most pro union, and "buy American" zealots are not apt to change their thinking by any LOGIC I might suggest.

I buy for quality, most bang for the buck, and if the winner is foreign, so what... they are my dollars ... aren't they?

 

Competition always benefits the customer!

My industry is simply too good! We competed ourselves into non-profit manufacturing. I'm thinking my company should go ahead and change the web address to *****.org :-) You can get 30 million transitors on a PC processor for less than a pair of shoes. It just doesn't make any sense.

 

I'm not a big fan of cars with oriental names, but one thing that became of it all is that it forced everyone to improve their cars. Today, you get so much more for every $ you spend on a ride compared to 25 years ago. BTW, I read not too long ago that the typical life of a car is now up to 180,000 miles. I remember back in the early 80's when Ford Motor Company said "the typical life of a car is 100,000 miles". What I have noticed about the oriental models is that in general and overall, the parts cost is more than domestics.

 

I think that now American vehicles are an underated value. Some foreign cars are decently made but they cost way too much in comparison to an American equivalent. Plus parts for foreign makes are expensive and sometimes hard to come by. I have owned or repaired foreign cars and as far as I can tell, they have their quality problems too.

If a foreign maker has what I want I may buy it, but in general I prefer to buy American since I feel they are a better value and at least in trucks a much more rugged vehicle.

Seen too many clapped out Toyota and Nissan trucks. Heck, I even think Chevy trucks will outlast the foreign jobs.

Things change, Detroit foisted a lot of crud on us in the 70s and 80s. That opened the door to reasonably priced decent Japanese cars. Now Japanese cars aren't cheap and Detroit has come up to par in most cases.

Plus I have a little bias towards buy American, but with foreign parts content that is a bit diffcult to do in some cases.


Just my opinion,

Jim Henderson

 

WX, I agree with your point about it being better for the US economy to Buy American, particularly with respect to automobiles and trucks. That is certainly one of the factors that goes into my decision-making when choosing a vehicle, and really anything else that I purchase. But it is only one factor out of several, obviously.

I have owned a few imports at one time or another which convinced me that they are not any better than domestic cars in terms of parts, service or reliability. In fact, the worst car I ever owned was a Saab, which is why I haven't owned or driven an import for over 10 years, and why I have no intention of doing so anytime soon. Mercurys and Fords have been serving me well throughout my entire life....I really can't say that about the imports that I've dabbled with.

On Edit: I just read Jim H's post and agree with his comments, as well.

 

I have driven some foreign cars and trucks and liked them, BUT, I have not bought any though I think the Pinz is an awesome truck. I can not help it, every time I see a car from Japan or Germany all I can usually think about is the 60 million people that died from WWII and the 405,000 U.S. service men killed.

When I see a car from Japan all I can see is their soldiers laughing and joking as they threw Chinese babies up into the air and had them land on bayonets as they came down. You see this footage it never leaves your mind.

When I see a German car all I can see is Patton standing in a concentration camp dressed in his boots while he makes the local German civilians walk by and look at the dead rotted rat chewed bodies stacked like firewood.

My money deserves to be spent supporting God fearing Americans and raising their standard of living. I have no problem buying an American truck/car made in Canada. I might consider a Korean car if they were not such an idol worshipping country.

To everyone that bought a Japanese or German car on Memorial Day, all you need now is to put an American flag on it to seal your hypocrisy.

 

What the hell is a Pinz?!

 

Buy American, Rah Rah rah (Picture me waving an American Flag here)

I'll buy all that buy American nonsense if the people saying it would.

Harley (American Iron?) was buying it's motorcycle frames from Japan BEFORE W.W. II

Ford, GM, American Motors, and you name it bought into other countries long before the people started to abandon them in the early seventies.

Chrysler has been getting their cars built in Canada for decades, now they are moving to Mexico as they did with the PT Cruiser.

Ford pushed the Courier, GM has their Geo, Chrysler has their Mitsubishi, THAT IS THEIR ANSWER to the peoples request to build smaller cars with higher quality.

Since the huge profits of Volkswagen starting in the sixties. American car companies have 1) Produced a lot of quality smaller affordable cars, or 2) They have sent much more work overseas to maximize profits?

FYI Volkswagen is made in Westmoreland, PA
Nissan trucks are made in Tenn.
BMW are made in SC
Chevrolets is turning to Australia for Holden's badged Chevy's.
Honda is made in Ohio
PT Cruiser is made in Mexico
Chrysler is made in Canada with Dodge
Jag is owned by Ford made in England
Volvo is owned by Ford made in Sweden
Mazda controlling interest is owned by Ford and made in Japan

Shall I go on? Multi-national.

 

...and conversely, nearly every preppie/ yuppie under 30 is as zealous about buying Japanese vehicles. They wouldn't lower themselves by walking onto a domestic dealer's lot, but they WILL pay sticker-plus for a Honda Element, Nissan Murano/ Maxima/ 350Z, Toyota Celica, etc....

 

1997RangerXLT is absolutely correct. Everything now is multinational. You cannot look at the American economy, you have to see the World economy. Afterall, buying foreign is also supporting an economy. With our vast purchasing power, we support not only Japan, but China, Mexico, Germany, Philippines etc. And in return we get products like cars, boats, motorcycles, heavy machinery, tractors, all the stuff sold at Wal-Mart. Whether you buy foreign or domestic, your money will eventually leave the country. That is what trade is.
I personally don't see the quality issue here. All new cars are made of plastic, therefore - they fall apart and wear out a lot sooner. Older vehicles have more steel and are more durable. The brand doesn't matter too much here. It reflects on the times.
Today, people could care less about quality. They want a cheap car for transportation, and thats what they get.
I still believe in my previous statement that you should buy what works for you. If you don't mind quality and a high price tag, maybe new cars are for you. I personally go with the older philosophy of more metal is better, and thats why I bought my truck.

 

I'll tell you why, too. It's because they think American cars/trucks are too "traditional" or "not cool", and for the most part, with the exception of the Lightning, they think American cars are slow. They think just because it has the H on the hood or the price is over 20k, it's worth getting. And they don't realize that the resale sucks on those vehicles, and that they're actually slower than most American cars. Another thing, they don't realize that when they have to buy replacement parts, they'll be much more than domestic. When someone buys a car today, most of the time, they don't think about how long it'll last. They think, "hey, that's a (fill in the blank, cool, fast) car!!" and they ask mommy or daddy to buy it for them.

Myself, I'll try to only have stuff with F-O-R-D on the tailgate.

 

Quite frankly. New, I will only buy trucks or nastalgia cars i.e. the new Mach 1 Even though these cars you mentioned are assembled here. The money for the parts, and the overall profit going to the top of the company is in......JAPAN, or KOREA Whereas the majority of a domestics profit stays right here in the good ole U S of A.

The reason that I will only buy trucks is that 30 years form now my 71 stang will still be around wehreas a new car, unless well taken care of, barely driven, will be a frame and motor, none of that fiberglass left. secondly, my 71 stang or my new truck, if involved in a wreck can be easily repaired. a new car, cannot be easily repaired, they are more easily totaled because the body is made of inferior materials. and so is the suspension and other areas.

A new car might last for 300,000 miles, and my stang only for a 100,000 before a rebuild, but the first wreck and that new car is done, my car I replace some sheetmetal and get back on the road, at 100,000 I spend 1,000 bucks and rebuild the motor and get back out there, In the overall, my car will last, a new one will not unless it is not a daily driver and is well kept and mostly show.