What % foreign parts are in American made vehicles

[Scott_IN_WVa]

This day and age we live in,I wonder what the % of foreign parts are used to build GM or Chevy/Dodge and Ford trucks,
Do the foreign companys use American made parts etc in there vehicles? And if say if they, do they use as much of a percentage in there vehicles as we do theres?

[DaRube]

Scott,

I don't have much of an answer to your questions, but here are some thoughts and observations to muddy the water a little. [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]

Edmunds.com lists the place of manufacture for the various models of cars. For instance, I looked up some pickup trucks and came up with these two links.
Toyota / GM / Ford Pickups

Dodge Ram

As you can see, the Toyota Tundra lists only an Indiana plant, whereas GM, Ford, and Dodge list both US and foreign (Mexico, Canada) plants for these vehicles.

Of course, the place of manufacture (or final assembly) really only scratches the surface of your question. In addition to assembly, one could also ask about parts (as you did), design (what nationality are the engineers), sales, marketing, executives and corporate administration, co-branding (two brands / models for vehicles from the same assembly line), and even who owns the company stock (ie. what countries do the profits get "banked" in). The last is particularly interesting since Daimler, a German company, owns Chrysler outright, GM owns 1/3 of Subaru (I think), and Ford and Toyota are heavily cross invested ..... or some such mishmosh. [img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]

Things somehow seemed simpler 40 years ago when an American car was actually an American car. [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

[ScottAR]

Ford is in cahoots with nissan and mazda... Toyota is on its own as far as I know... I used to look at these kinda things but major companies are so interdependant these days it just makes ya head hurt... Personally, I think that the foreign carmakers did a great thing by kicking the U.S. guys in the rump in the 70-80s. We have better cars now because of it. JMO...

[Scott_IN_WVa]

I agree about the competition...the American vehicles for the most part were far inferior in terms of quality in the middle to late 70's and the early 80's.The big 3 make a lot better vehicle now thanks to the competiton from the Japanese.But I am hooked on a lot of the European cars as I get older.

[Pat]

Gee Scott, I guess I have a different situation. I have An AMERICAN brand truck, assembled in Mexico out of components from who knows where! My Cummins turbodiesel 1 ton was assembled in Mexico for sales in California (not such a stretch as California is moving toward a seamless integration with Mexico in language, cullture, population, etc.) I have UNCALIFORNIAED it some, removing the special California only EGR junk but staying Federally smog compliant.

I agree with the posts that essentially suggest, "FOLLOW THE MONEY".

Made in the USA used to automatically convey at least two meanings: 1. It was built by American companies with primarily American stockholders by American workers, and 2. It was well engineered, solidly built, and intended for the needs/tastes of American consumers. Somewhere along the way corporate profit and union labor went amok and along came European and Asian imports to give us what the ad campaigns conditioned us to believe we needed/wanted. Now with multinational manufacturing that makes the Japanese kuritsu, once a startling idea on this side of the pond, seem old fashioned and conservative. Now the two largest exports from the US is our money and jobs.

We'll be buying my wife some kind of vehicle before too long. She had me sell her Mercedes Turbo diesel before we moved to this rural Oklahoma area so she wouldn't "stand out" so much. She uses our old beater '89 4x4 Dakota a lot but we don't have anything with a back seat except my extended cab 1 ton truck and she wants 4 doors on something. Over the last few years I have given up trying to decide how to be loyal to the American worker, investor, or company. It is not so simple. I will help her find something that meets her requirements and perceived needs and try to not worry about the perception of origin and attendant issues of where the money goes and so forth.

If someone has a simple way to sort this out for us, I'd be glad to hear it. Otherwise I'm going to ignore everything but valid economic and engineering considerations.

Pat

[Scott_IN_WVa]

Gee Pat,It does not take much to impress me........but you do impress me. [img]/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Scott, Let's see if I follow your logic (sylogism?)...

It does not take much to impress me........but you do impress me. <font color="blue"> </font color>

Therefore, I'm not much...... Yeah, I think I got it. Me too. In a sea of intellectuals, I'm a small grain of sand on the beach.

Pat

[Scott_IN_WVa]

Now Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] ..............peace and love [img]/forums/images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Scott, Isn't that, "Peace, Love and Donny Osmund?"

Pat

[Fishman]

Well my Dodge car was built in Mexico and my Chevy truck was build in Canada. My co-workers Toyota was built in . . . you guessed it, the USA.

I'm not sure how to "buy American" when it comes to vehicles [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]