Are you proud of your american made automobile ?

[screwballl]

Originally Posted by 69gumby

The fact is Honda and Toyota are Japanese car companys not American. Everyone that buys one of these cars sends their 20 odd thousand dollors out of this country. They use and pollute our land to make their money while paying a few bucks for labor. I have and always will drive American Cars even if the Big Three go under I'll just have to keep an old American car running till the day I die. I will not buy a car from a company that is owned buy a country that attacked us and tried to kill my father along the way. Let them build their cars in their own country and let us charge an import tax. Now let's see how well you all like your Toyotas and Hondas.

That said I drive a 2000 Pontiac with almost 96,000 miles and my 69 truck. I have never had to do anything other than the routine maintenance. The paint and upholstery are perfect. That's an American car.

More cars are built in the US and exported than are imported. Starting in the mid 90s, Toyota, Honda and other plants with factories state-side becan increasing production and exporting more than they import. With most of the parts made and manufactured and assembled right here in the US, it has gotten to the point where Toyota and Hyundai is more of an American product than any of the big 3. The big 3 have outsourced the parts manufacturing to Canada and Mexico, with a few specific computerized portions coming from overseas, and only the assembly of the vehicle itself is handled within the US. Latest numbers show 35-45% of the total vehicle's parts that the big 3 use in their new vehicles are made outside of the US.
Yet For Toyota and a few others the number is much lower, usually 5-15% come from outside of the US.
Anymore it is more of American pride in the roots of the big 3, regardless of how or where the modern vehicle and its parts is produced.

One major startup I am keeping an eye on is Tesla. they are one of the few that also use a large percentage of American made parts aside from some computer or electronic parts. I believe a good majority of the parts in the Chevy Volt will also be manufactured stateside but as it is released and demand increases, some parts may end up being made overseas.

Welcome to the new millennium and our shifting global economy.