Most Hondas and Toyotas are made in places like Tennessee and Ohio. A good many other cars and trucks with 'foreign' labels are made in Alabama, South Carolina, Texas, and California.
Fords and Chevys are now being made in Canada, Mexico, and Korea.
Ford sells cars made in Sweden and the UK, while GM has cars in their dealers here that were made in Japan, Germany, and Korea.
So what makes a car American? Is it just a matter of it being built in a UAW shop?What, to you, constitutes an 'American' car?
The term is less and less meaningful these days, as you get the design of vehicles moving all around the world and not just the manufacture or the parts. But there is still some design philosophy associated with brands that originated in certain countries (Sweden and safety, Japan and tight tolerances and high reliability, while usually not being terribly exciting, Germany and high durability with high mechanical complexity...the US and boring and unreliable, unfortunately).
Because of that, I'd just go with where the brand originates. It also does usually tell you where most of the profit (or loss) goes. But even that doesn't tell you anything, because often a company from one country will own a portion (or all of) a company from another. If you buy a Mazda, a third of the profit goes to Ford. If you buy some Fords, a portion of the profit is probably going to Mazda (shared platforms), but a portion of that belongs to Ford. If you want to confuse things even more, GM owns most of Daewoo, so when you buy a Suzuki, GM gets a share of the profit.
If you want to buy American, your best bet is to go with a car made in the USA of largely US-made parts by a US-based company. Money is still going overseas no matter what, but you can get over 90 percent American. (Ford F150 is the highest, BTW)
Oh, and GM hasn't had a car made in Japan since Geo went away. The Pontiac Vibe, while being based on the Corolla, is made at NUMMI in California.What, to you, constitutes an 'American' car?
GM sold their interest in Subaru (to Toyota) a couple years ago (about the time the discontinuation of the Saab 9-2x was announced), none of their US marques have ever had a car manufactured by Subaru, and it was NEVER a majority stake.
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Also, the US/Japan split for Subarus sold in North America is about 50/50
http://www.cars101.com/subaru_鈥?/a>
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What, to you, constitutes an 'American' car?Hmm...I kinda did forget about the 9-2x when I wrote that before, though. But that one is iffy anyway. (European subsidiary, but a US-only model)
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An American car is designed by Americans.
I drive a Toyota - made in Japan. I made sure of that when I bought it - you can get them. The VIN numbers give away country of origin.What, to you, constitutes an 'American' car?
American cars are GM,Ford or Chrysler even if it is made in a different country the profit comes back here.Half of all Toyota's sold in the US are imported and Toyota makes an average of $4500 per vehicle imported because they keep the yen undervalued.Toyota has even said they will not build anymore assembly plants in the US because they make so much money on the undervalued yen.
in my personal opinion, the country a car is assosciated with is based on the country where engineering and development are performed. whether Ford builds cars in Kansa, or on the moon, the ideas that go into the final concept are born in America
Welcome to the current phenomenon of "Out-sourcing." Why would companies pay you more for the same type of work someone in Mexico or Canada could do for a fraction of the pay. In the end, it's which ever name makes you feel more comfortable. A lot of Mercedes cars that are assembled in the United States, but the parts can be from Germany, then again, Americans built it. Some Japanese Cars are shipped over already built, like the Acura TSX for example. Without seeming bias, that is the reason why there is a market for cars, because every individual is different and customization ultimately sells. We're all basically driving the same car, just has different features, looks different, etc.
It's not the workers that financially benefit the most out of the auto industry but rather the company itself and it's home country.
Japanese cars like toyota nissan and honda they have places in the US that put the car together not build the parts which are two completely different things and by the way if you will be buying a Japanese car go with Nissan i have a Nissan altima a 2004 they are awesome cars so therefore american cars are really actually C**P..dont ever and i mean ever buy an American car..
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