Before the end of the 1980s, disenchanted drivers were voting with their wallets in ever greater numbers. Family sedan buyers, burned by the quality control issues of the late 1970s, turned their attention to the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord, while German automakers increasingly carved off a larger slice of the premium segment pie.
In many cases, the buyers who turned their backs on domestic vehicles stayed in their new camp for years, buying another, and then another Japanese or German car. Luring them back remains a difficult task, as stigma often fades at a slower rate than quality improves.
“Buy American” campaigns are nothing new, but President Donald Trump’s ascent to the Oval Office has spurred a newfound focus on the health of the Detroit Three automakers. In a bid to bolster that health, the United Auto Workers union is on the verge of telling you to drive past all those import dealers.
Come home to America.
Yesterday, UAW president Dennis Williams said his union is considering taking out ads to capitalize on the resurgence of “Buy American” attitudes, The Detroit News reports.
“We’re seeing a trend in this country that boycott may be coming back,” Williams said, adding that the public’s buying decisions could help manufacturing businesses invest — or relocate — to the U.S. While he hasn’t yet met with Trump, Williams is pleased the president opted “to scrap” the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Last November, Williams pushed for a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement — another wish that will soon be granted.
While “Buy American” sounds nice, two and a half decades of NAFTA means all vehicles sold in the U.S. have varying amounts of parts built in other countries. Some domestic vehicles start life in a Mexican factory, while buyers can snag a Toyota, Subaru or Volkswagen built in the U.S. At best, new car shoppers can only buy “Mostly American.”
“First and foremost, I want them to buy union vehicles,” Williams said when asked to clarify his stance on the now-murky slogan. “Secondary, I’d rather have them buy made in U.S.A.”
Should the UAW go forward with its ad campaign, measuring its success won’t be easy. As always, the onus is on domestic automakers to lure new customers to the brand — not an easy task when dealing with a (mainly) automotive-illiterate society. The Detroit Three can improve its products all it wants, but there will always be a large crop of potential buyers who grimly recall a lemon they owned 30 years ago.
In a study of 2016 car buyers, IHS Markit discovered GM enjoyed the highest rate of manufacturer loyalty, with the highest percentage of repeat buyers in the industry. Ford ranked highest in brand loyalty. Holding on to repeat buyers is important, but overall health and long-term sustainability comes from attracting new ones. In that camp, Jeep poached the most buyers from other brands.
I’d prefer to buy domestically-based domestically-engineered and domestically-built vehicles.
However, I won’t compromise one bit on quality, price, or content to do it.
If they want my business they have to earn on on the merits of their products.
“domestically-based domestically-engineered and domestically-built vehicles”
There’s the trick. I will even take the latter two, but not just one of those three.
No matter what Trump & Mark Fields ALLEGED, there are INCREASING odds that you’re ‘Murican, Blue Oval Ford will either be assembled down Mexico way, and/or have a much higher % of Hecho En Mexico parts content, even if assembled in the good ‘ole USA:
Ford to build two Mexican factories at cost of 2.5 billion USD this year!
https://www.yahoo.com/news/ford-not-scrapping-plans-build-mexico-factories-company-021839351.html
http://mexiconewsdaily.com/news/two-new-ford-plants-set-to-open-this-year/
BIGLY!
BIG-LEAGUE!
I think Trump’s real strategy is to get CEO’s to just say whatever he wants them to, for public consumption, and that they’ll happily play along, especially if it earns them favors, as the words mean nothing and people have miniscule attention spans.
YUUUUGE!
I am not going to state a preference either way on the “Buy America” concept, since very few people can have a civilized conversation about that, BUT…unless you’re willing to pay more for anything made solely in the USA, forget about it happening. Very curious to know how many people would still sing the “Buy American” song when they know it’s going to cost 20% more. Because basic economics tells you it has to.
Economics tells you that American regulators are inept. Nothing more. If the inept regulators are repealed and replaced, the rest of the economic zeitgeist goes out the window.
Harumph!
They will have to convince me to buy new first.
There’s no way I’d compromise on car choice for something like supporting a union. The UAW is a huge part of why the domestics were uncompetitive in the first place.
The quality of NAFTA built vehicles has improved markedly over the past couple of decades.
Does this warrant “Buy American”.
No.
The competition has also improved and maintained its lead in quality vs price.
The best place to ascertain this is from outside of the US.
There are some very well built US vehicles. BMWs, MBs, even some of the Asian manufacturers. Where is the UAW in these plants?
The US is best to concentrate on larger SUV and fullsize pickups that are offered more protection.
“…larger SUV and fullsize pickups that are offered more protection…”
@BAFO – Their only “protection” is nothing else on the planet can truly compete with them.
Their lack of “quality” has never been bad enough to switch to anything obviously lesser from a foreign brand.
Yes I prefer to keep my dollars as local as possible. In a small town, my dollars come back to my store. Except foreign (based) brands have had zero to offer me in pickups, muscle and pony cars. That all I’ve ever, or will likely ever buy new.
But at this point, Big 3 autos are good enough, no need to resort to foreign based, just for quality.
Winnepeg?
Is that a small town?
Japan has unions, it is possible with previous product purchases you did support a union. However there are significant differences as explained here:
https://interculturalmeanderings.wordpress.com/tag/how-american-and-japanese-labor-unions-differ/
Generally speaking, management gets the union they deserve.
It’s an insult to consumer intelligence for the UAW to insist a compact sedan designed by Opel and Daewoo (er, “GM Korea”) and consisting of Mexican and Chinese components is AMERICAN! by virtue of the union cards in the back pockets of the workers cobbling together the end product.
That said, it will probably work. “Consumer intelligence” just ain’t what it used to be.
Buy a full size pickup or SUV.
Even in the US demand for these expensive to buy and operate vehicles have limits. Even the need to own one has limits.
If you live in suburbia, or the inner city and you have 50 or 60k to blow on a vehicle a MB, Audi or BMW looks great.
Would you buy a UAW built Caddy? Obviously not. Just look at Caddy’s US performance.
Do not blindly blame the unions for the crap that the D3 largely produced during that period. Primary blame lies at the feet of management. Management at the D3 when bargaining with the unions looked only at what their other domestic competitors had negotiated/given away, they never contemplated that they would have other competitors. The unions naturally took whatever ‘gains’ they could get.
Management helped to create an us versus them environment. Anyone who worked in those plants can spend hours telling stories about bad management and supervisory techniques. A top down, mentality that naturally resulted in a backlash and eventually even sabotage.
Management at the D3 promoted ‘bean counting’, allowed under engineered and badly designed product to go to market.
Faulty parts and inferior engineering were not the fault of the assemblers. Poor morale and bad ergonomics did however eventually result in poor assembly quality in some not all of the plants.
GM Jobs bank, was a thing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/28/business/gms-jobs-bank-looms-as-major-obstacle-on-road-to-survival.html
It takes two to tango. Management and labor both own their multiple failures over the years.
The union asks. Management has the right to refuse or make alternate proposals. That is what is called negotiation. As per “The Art of the Deal’ you should always ask for the moon. If management is stupid enough to give it to you, would you refuse it?
When negotiating, GM management (as an example) would look only at what Ford and Chrysler were paying. This was because they viewed those companies as their only competition. As long as what they paid were in line with each other they did not worry about labour costs.
The union was smart enough to pick one company to bargain with first. After reaching an agreement with them it would go to the other 2 who would agree to similar packages.
After all if Ford, GM and Chrysler all had wage costs that were at $50 per hour, what difference would it make. It would cost consumers the same, because they were only competing with each other.
The arrival of viable competition, for the mass market, from Japanese companies, was not forseen by management. When it arrived they were unable to immediately ‘take back’ what they had already given to the union.
That’s all true, it by the same token it also makes makes it more difficult for the unions to ask for sympathy if their stance is “yeah we soaked our employees for way more money than we are actually worth, so now they’re going under. Now please pay too much for their product so we can keep our over inflated wages.”
True but then for years the US government has tried to convince its citizens that trickle down economics is good and that by letting the rich get richer that the money will eventually trickle down to the poor.
This has been proven to be untrue.
However if you increase the wages of regular workers, then they have greater spending power. Rather than investing in foreign properties, investment funds, etc they buy more food and clothing, etc from local businesses.
Thus when the D3 provided good wages to lots of workers, communities like Flint, etc prospered.
When consumers chose to purchase ‘foreign’ vehicles and when ‘free trade’ allowed manufacturers to transfer production offshore and lay-off domestic workers, the companies prospered but the communities were devastated.
How is that any different than a Presidential candidate boasting that he pays very little if anything in taxes ‘because he is smart’?
As for retirees creating overhead, that is a societal problem that does have a cure.
Invest in universal healthcare. That ensures that all companies pay the same for medical costs and are no longer paying directly for their retirees.
Secondly institute a guaranteed annual income. Thus removing the demands for defined benefit pensions.
@Author Daily –
We still see “pattern” bargaining in unionized occupations.
Offshoring has caused lost jobs. Approximately 85% of lost jobs was automation so roughly 15% was due to offshoring. Some state that “offshoring” not only shifted jobs but shifted inflation.
Investment in education would have helped mitigate the middle class job loss problem. Unskilled labour felt the biggest brunt of job loss and that labour is what is always easiest and cheapest to find elsewhere.
@Author Dailey – automation does remove much of the problems inherent to autonomous meatbags. That applies equally to those without a UNIFOR/UAW card in their wallet.
The UAW did get too greedy but that is no different than any politicized organization. “Too big to fail” went along with demands and as long as the patriotic public swallowed hook line and sinker “Buy American” all was well in the “dumestic” auto industry.
Agreed. The UAW has its share of blame for the Big 3’s issues, but you can’t say “if only those UAW idiots had bolted that Vega together right it would have been a good car”.
@Arthur
The jury is still out regarding trickle down. Regulators taxed away (via FICA) whatever gains may have been achieved by trickle down, and frivolous healthcare spending (via regulation) has offset whatever compensatory gains have been made in the last 30 years.
American car companies do not make a single car that checks all my boxes for buying.
If they offered 230+ HP, hatchback, dual clutch transmission, LSD, and sporty leather seats that are comfortable I would.
Focus ST is close, but no dual clutch and the leather seats are laughably bad. Also needs a proper differential. I have next to zero brand loyalty, I go for the best products that fit my needs. Build it and I will buy.
Sounds like you’re waiting for another Westmoreland GTI.
Well, there is a Ford approved LSD available for the Focus ST, but that doesn’t help with the other issues. I’m a die-hard MT guy, but agree the ST should be available with a good dual-clutch, and I suspect it will be in the next generation. For one thing, not everybody has two fully functioning legs, including vets of our recent wars.
I’m with you on the ST’s Recaros too. I think they’d work for me after breaking in for awhile, but given the voluminous complaints about these seats since the ST was introduced, I can’t believe they haven’t relaxed the bolsters a little bit. It wouldn’t take much for them to work for a considerably larger group of drivers.
The Focus ST is a good example of how “buying American” isn’t as straightforward as it used to be. The ST was engineered primarily in Europe, and definitely drives like a European car. And I believe its engines have been manufactured in Europe, though I’m not sure about that. So even though it’s from the “Detroit Three,” in some ways it’s less “American” than, say, Acura’s NSX which was engineered and designed here, and is built in Ohio. (Though I’d wager many components are manufactured elsewhere.)
You’re asking to be a debt/maintenance-slave on revolving 84 month notes for vehicles that will net the manufacturer a few thousand dollars in the best case.
Volkswagen has got you covered. No reason for anyone else to chase the bankrupt ubermenschen demographic.
No. But they could convince me to buy union-only. Capital has no borders… labor shouldn’t either.
+1 million
Labor and union are not synonymous.
Not even close.
Arthur— You nailed it. Management has to build quality cars and respect workers and the union cannot think of Management as the enemy. How difficult would it be to work together for the good of both parties.
mfgreen40, the problem is that there is a 3rd party in the negotiation: the huge number of UAW retirees. In a super competitive market, those retiree costs have to come out of the part cost of the cars that current management and current workers build. The result is cheap plastics in the interior and beating up part suppliers to make parts cheaper.
Maybe if Trump can rip up previous negotiations, the Big 3 can rip up the retiree’s negotiated packages.
What is good for the goose is good for the gander.
Big Al from Oz – how would you react if there was a change in government in Australia and they decided to rip up any contracts providing you benefits?
Lou,
Did I state I’m an advocate for such a move?
Big Al from Oz – Did I say that you were?
Yes, your comment does infer.
mfgreen40 – unfortunately no one works for the “greater good”. Fair and just does not matter. They all want what is best for them regardless of the consequences to others. That is exactly why we see the current political divide in the USA. Left is just as selfish and self-serving as those on the right. All that matters is power and wealth.
Fair and just does not matter.
I try (currently driving a ’13 Cruze and a ’14 Escape, both at least assembled in America), and not just in my vehicle purchases. I read labels and do my best to buy as much American-made as possible. I don’t apologize for that. I’d much rather see my friends, neighbors and family get paid than see that money disappear over the horizon to another country.
That said, some of the most “American” cars as far as content and assembly are produced by “foreign” companies. That Camry parked next to my Cruze is content-wise percentage-wise more “American” than my Chevy. And I think that any adverts by the D3 (2.5?) that tout buying American will be disingenuous as best, given that so many of their products are manufactured outside of the USA. Will Ford ask us to buy the next Focus (made in Mexico)? How about Buick asking us to buy and American-branded Buick Envison (made in China?).
The term “it’s complicated” was made for discussions like this!
Supposedly UAW would be telling you that, by “buy American”, they mean for you to look for the union label, not the car maker’s logo.
“Yesterday, UAW president Dennis Williams said his union is considering taking out ads to capitalize on the resurgence of “Buy American” attitudes, The Detroit News reports.”
So in another words, UAW wants to copy a play Toyota has been using for a while now.
This just keeps bringing up the definition: American-made, or American-branded? What about American-branded and Canadian-assembled with over 50% American parts? Or American-branded and Mexican-assembled with over 50% American parts?
We could have been spared much of this problem if American manufacturers had sold or licensed their Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Mercury, Plymouth, and Rambler nameplates to Toyota, Honda, and Nissan to slap on their US assembly production.
+1 Is this going to be a “Buy American” campaign in which what we mean is: Buy from the companies that are “headquartered” in the USA, to hell with where the vehicles are assembled?
One of the highest “American” parts content vehicles is the Camry.
Agreed. I feel perfectly patriotic if I buy a 78% domestic (not just “north american”) Camry assembled in Kentucky or a 70% domestic Tundra built in San Antonio. The fact that Chevy crew cabs are all built in Mexico is a travesty IMO, don’t try telling me it’s small margins that forced their hand or some other nonsense. F150 is still over 70% domestic and most (all?) are assembled in USA. Union or not, if it provides a livable wage to a fellow American, I’m all for it.
Had a recent spate of luck buying random odds and ends (pain scraper, roller pin) that were made in USA. Took apart a wall clock and was impressed that the action was American made. Actually was sneaker shopping recently and checked out some New Balances. Randomly one of the 10W sets was made in USA, I got excited my size would be made in USA too but it ended up being Vietnam (like 90%+ of the sneakers in the store). I’m definitely someone who looks at what’s made where, down to my food and hygiene products. I randomly have a rain jacket from Old Navy that I bought over a decade ago that was made in Russia of all places. Actually a high quality unit, with a re-waterproofing every few years it’s worn like iron.
Growing up in union heavy, manufacturing heavy Ohio, I remember when a mechanic at the John Deere dealership where my Dad worked bought an Accord. As soon as someone gave him crap for buying Japanese he would open the door and show them the “Made in the USA” sticker on the door jam.
That usually shut them up.
My grandfather in law deals with a lot of that at one of the local clubs in Massillon Ohio (basically a bunch of retired steel workers sitting around day drinking). He had a good experience with a ’94 Marysville built Accord that he “never even had to replace a bulb in that thing” so he leased a ’14 CRV that he catches some flack from his cohorts for. It was kind of emblematic when we went down to the union hall together to get him an asbestos-lawsuit related screening and saw a fancy new crew cab Silverado LTZ in the parking lot (Mexican made as I mentioned above). A sign of the times I suppose.
I believe any F series, not just the 150 is now US built.
This. Even if they wanted to advertise “Buy American”, they would need to provide a list of what was built in America.
I own a Nissan Pathfinder and a (Dodge) Ram C/V (Cargo version of the Caravan). The Nissan was built in Tennessee. The “Ram” was built in Canada.
Well, let’s see, it worked soooo well the first time…
Gonna be real funny the first time one of those ads comes it and Honda or Toyota rolls out an ad comparing the “American” content in one of their vehicles made in a non union plant in a right to work state to a D3 vehicle assembled in Canada, for example.
God, the tone deafness of this is astounding. Yeah, your union worker is gonna pat himself on the back, but everyone else who works in a cubicle like most of America is just gonna be pissed at the condescension of jerks telling him to buy something he doesn’t like or trust so “lazy union assholes” can sleep on the job.
People still don’t trust unions. This ain’t gonna help that.
edit: that said, it can be done well, I just don’t trust the unions to do it. Chrysler’s 300 commercial with Eminem was a great example of a “buy local” commercial done right.
“edit: that said, it can be done well, I just don’t trust the unions to do it. Chrysler’s 300 commercial with Eminem was a great example of a “buy local” commercial done right.”
The ultimate irony there of course was that the 300 is made across the border in Canada. “Imported from Detroit.” Well it’s imported, alright.
That Eminem ad was for the (revised Sebring) 2011 Chrysler 200, not the 300. Imported from Sterling Heights, yo.
(I’ll also note that, no matter how many folks might remember a certain advertisement, it’s meaningless if they can’t remember the product being advertised.)
Hyundai is unionized in South Korea and builds cars in Alabama.
VW is unionized in Germany and builds cars in Tennessee.
So we’re good, right?
I would love to see trans-national labour unions.
It would make my day to see IG Metall or Rengo organize plants here—especially because you could generate hundreds of megawatts from the spinning that free-trade neoliberals be doing when they try to quash it.
Tried it. After years of buying imports I bought a 2015 Mustang. It’s been a complete disaster. I probably just got a bad car, but Ford refuses to fix it. Will not try again most likely.
What’s wrong with your mustang?
Excessive vibration and drivetrain noises at 50+ mph. Dealerships keep blaming tires. Been through 12 tires (3 sets) of different brands at this point. I think it is either the differential or the drive shaft. There is a huge thread about it on the Mustang 6G forum (165 pages, 2645 posts so far). I’m done with it though. I’m saving money for a down payment to trade for something else.
Maybe a Hyundai Genesis Coupe 3.8 Track? Just thinking of Mustang-esque cars.
Make them rebuild the rear end. My stepdad had that same fight with Ford with his 11 F150 5.4L. It wasn’t until he finally got the head mechanic to come for a drive that something was finally done about it.
Mr Williams and the UAW are singing quite a different tune than they were 9 months ago:
http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/25/politics/hillary-clinton-uaw-endorsement/
“Hillary Clinton understands our issues on trade, understands the complexities of multinational economies and supports American workers, their families and communities,” Dennis Williams, UAW president, said in a statement. “Mr. Trump clearly does not support the economic security of UAW families.”
If you’re not with the one you love, love the one you’re with.
I support the UAW 100%, and will absolutely consider an American-built Acura, BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Lexus, Mercedes, Nissan, Subaru, Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen or Volvo for my next car.
I’m more inclined to buy a car that ISN’T assembled by an American labor union. Why consume the work product of someone who can’t be held to performance standards? Or from someone who, because of their above-market wages, forces the employer to cut corners on material quality in order to compete at market prices?
.
.
The D3 cut corners and built inferior products when their wages were competitive (with each other). And in many instances continued to do so when making vehicles in low wage areas.
I interned at one of the Detroit 3 auto manufacturers long ago. The statistic used to measure quality is straightforward. This company manufacture a U.S. badged vehicle and a foreign badged vehicle so the quality was the same for both models;however, perceived quality was extremely distorted in favor of the foreign model. The two vehicles came off the same line, sometimes with parts labeled for the other “manufacturer”.
Bottom line, the objective quality between manufacturers is statistically minute worldwide. Perceived quality, based on nothing, favors the foreign car. Some of my extended family actually paid more for the foreign version and insisted the quality was worth the extra money.
“Perceived quality, based on nothing”
Correction, it’s based on 30+ years of Detroit cynically taking their market position for granted and victimizing consumers with expensive and non-competitive products.
Well the resale was probably higher for the foreign branded model too because of that perceived quality that you site.
We have to assume you interned at Nuumi with Corolla and Prism production?
If I bought American I’d have to unload my Ford Fusion for a ToyNisHon. or is that a CamCordTima?
It was not so much the quality, as much as the way I was treated when something failed. Try standing behind your product, fixing it quickly and acknowledging that it was your issue. Don’t tell me that I must have missed an oil change that caused my head gasket to fail. It has been 29 years and I’m still mad. None of my kids have Chevys either. They lost 40+ sales over $150. Way to think short term Chevy.
Here’s a good article on the subject. According to this methodology, many of the most “American made” cars are produced by Japanese manufacturers:
https://www.cars.com/articles/the-2016-carscom-american-made-index-1420684865874/
It gets even more complicated if you look at the number of Americans that own shares in Japanese based auto companies. Toyota publishes a list of it’s top 10 largest shareholders and there are American Institutions there.
http://www.toyota-global.com/investors/stock_information_ratings/outline.html
Vehicles purchased new: 2016 Mustang.
Vehicles being considered: Tesla 3, F150.
I’m doing my part.
It’s funny watching life long Democrats suddenly get super angry at someone talking about raising import tariffs, which is what I thought was pretty much gospel among their coalition.
But as soon as someone gets in office that’s serious about it, it’s the most evil thing ever.
I wonder if the UAW feels cheated after dumping all that money in their lap over the years?
Also, I find it far more troubling when “American” car companies (2 of which the American taxpayers bailed out) are closing American factories and relocating to Mexico or China than I do Japanese car companies simply making a better product and giving car companies competition.
“Buy Local” is a great mantra, but I hope any “buy American” campaign promotes that, versus “buy and vehicle from the big 3” propaganda. CamCord buyers are supporting the American workforce more than many “domestic” models do today.
We have the data now, we don’t need slogans, we need people who genuinely care about buying local to do their research.
I’ll continue to buy what I like/want which generally isn’t a foreign made vehicle. It was back in ’93 but hasn’t been since.
The UAW is going to have to sacrifice some wages in order to let the US automakers cut prices on their products. Reduced costs, reduced MSRP means greater US sales.
Of course, the contract would have to specify that any cut in costs for labor would have to be reflected in the final price of the product or be subject to Breach of Contract.
What’s good for the Gander better be good for the Goose, no?
The UAW doesn’t have to sacrifice wages. Automation is going to sacrifice UAW membership enough to lower costs and keep the companies competitive. Some wages may go up, but the qualifications for the jobs that remain are going to weed out many older, less trainable workers.
UAW needs to lobby Congress to undo all of their previous bad lobbying efforts. Unions were once the source of unemployment insurance, pension management, legacy healthcare management, etc. Now the government sets parameters for all of those things, and unions are finally starting to realize the dangers of having a Wall-Street-service-sector-centric band of regulators making decisions for manufacturers.
DC runs up the cost of everything cause all we gotta do is flip some paper and raise our fees to cover the difference. Works for the superior American service sector. Death sentence for the manufacturing base.
“Buy American”
Both my F150 and Sienna were made in the USA.
But since I’m Canadian, both are imports.
The UAW is one of the reasons many people turned to imports. Because of their overpaid union wages the detroiters cannot compete with the toyots and hondas who pay almost the same wages but have more flexible work rules. My wife worked for a uaw affiliated organization and the incompetence was amazing. So i will not buy any uaw vehicle unless no import makes what i want. When a company has high wages and restricted work rules combined with exorbitant pensions and health benefits they are not going to be able to offer as good a product as companies that are not tied to these union organizations. Nuff said
RDay, based on that logic you have either a Mahindra, a Hindustani Ambassador, or a Tata in your driveway.
Or he has a US built Toyota, Honda, Nissan …….. or US built Kia, Hyundai ………. or a EU built BMW, MB, VW, etc.
There are 14 vehicle manufacturers in the US. Only 2 are American.
I don’t think there are any Indian manufacturers represented Arthur.
You know what I do to show my patriotism as an American?
I buy the best product at the best price, without regard to country of origin. Period.
That way, if American companies win my dollar, it’s because they delivered on that front. Which means they’re highly competitive. Which is good for America. I support that.
To those who would buy cheap junk just ’cause it’s ‘Murican, think back to the Malaise Era, and those who stubbornly insisted on buying domestic garbage. Think it did either the industry or the country any favors in the long run?
It was just another form of enabling.
Healthy Skeptic,
Competition from foreign producers has done wonders in improving the quality of US vehicles.
Only works if there are far fewer union employees overseeing far more robots. Otherwise: Nope.
I wonder if Trump will extend to this to only American made wives? Can’t have those foreigners messing with the gene pool.
Yeah cuz that message went over so well with clothing,appliances or any of the stuff your average Trump voter scoops up at Walmart.
The UAW is so 2 faced about this since when foreign manufacturers set up shop in America, they’d be more than happy to sign up all the labor building those cars to UAW contracts.
With how globalized the auto industry has become, is this even feasible? Outside of buying an American brand?
which tbh, isn’t entirely a bad thing.
even though I don’t like that GM is trying to razor off Opel (and has more or less done the same to Holden), buying one of their cars isn’t exactly a bad thing. I kind of wish that they’d make a wagon version of one of their cars Stateside; I’ve no interest in any kind of crossover.
Nobody tells people to “buy Japanese”, but they gained so much market share because they are good products at good prices, however the market defines those attributes at the time.
In these tough times, nothing will scream buy American louder than a great product at a great price. Anything else is just wasted breath.