Just saw a U.S. Auto industry commercial telling us that we MUST buy an American built auto or feel responsible for people losing their jobs! This is just so insulting! To BE an American is the freedom to choose what I want to buy. If I feel American built cars are crap, it's my choice not to buy one.

My point to this posting though, is does anybody out there living in Ohio or Southwest Michigan feel if the Big 3 fall into dire straits, auto workers may lash out against foreign cars again?

I'm thinking this may happen as I had a friend who owned a Lexus LS400 back in 1992 and someone had spit all over it in the middle of winter outside a mall in Dearborn. Not pretty. 1991/1992 was also a bad time for the American auto industry, but this time around, there is no comparison to what is on the line now. I'm just hoping nobody takes their frustration out on my Britsh built car. Your thoughts are appreciated. Cheers.

 

Does that include the Hondas built in Ohio, the BMWs in South Carolina, or the Mercedes in Alabama, to name a few??

 

You never know. Most rational people will not attack a car - but they have to be rational.
Back in the early 80's when things were also really bad for the US car industry I had a friend in Indiana who had all of the windows of his Toyota broken out twice. Once at a mall an once in his driveway. After the second time he purchased a Chevy and no more broken windows.

However, I don't hear nearly the import bashing today I did back then.

 

Even if there are some out there who would target non-American manufactured cars, your odds of being vandalized are pretty slim, given about half the cars on the American roads are not domestic.

 

Just get the American Flag for the roof and hope that appeases their anger.

Or, put a sign on your MINI that announces you would have bought an American car if they had anything that is even REMOTELY a competitor for the MINI.

I currently own 3 Fords, so I am not opposed to buying American... in fact, I *prefer* to buy American cars... and I feel that in MOST car classes, at least one of the American companies builds a car that's very solid competition for the imports. However, there just isn't anything built in America that compares favorably to the MINI. Period. Now, maybe in a year or so when we get the Fiesta, one could argue that you could cross-shop a well-optioned one against a MINI, but what else is there right now? A Daewoo... er Chevy... Aveo?

In almost any other class, I would buy American... but here in America at least, the MINI is in a class of it's own.

Not that the above argument is going to help protect your MINI at all... but it's sort of related to the topic.

 

Or maybe they're talking about US brand vehicles built in Mexico and Canada?

 

I'm so sick of all the "You're not American if you don't __(buy my products/vote the way I want you to/do what I want/insert other convenient phrase or activity here)__" attitudes that seem to be showing up more and more in our society.

I always thought that if you were selling something and the only way to convince someone to buy your product was to point out all the negative points of the competitors products or degrade the competition (or in this case try to intimidate your customers by implying their actions might be anti-American) then you need to concentrate on improving your product.

 

My brother became an executive with Mercury Marine and wasnt allowed to park in the executive parking lot with his Honda Accord he ended up selling it to buy a GM product (Mercury uses GM engines)

 

+1
or the Toyota Tundra plant in San Antonio or the BMW plant in Greer SC. just to mention a few more. My last trully American car was a Ford Crown Victoria Station wagon with wood grain side overlays - build in Canadia. American cars indeed.

 

What's next - buy this car or I shoot the puppy? What has happened to the United States? When did we become so pathetic?

 

What makes the US pathetic, in your view ? One tv commercial and the slight possibility there will be backlash against foreign cars and their owners ?

 

Who produced the commercial? This is hilarious...as some people have already mentioned, american cars are hardly manufactured here anymore... a lot of Chrysler's come from Canada, A few GM cars come from Mexico...We have a GM plant 15 miles from here, and they always protest "don't buy the Avalanche" (assembled in Mexico)...I'm tired of hearing this BS...

 

The way I see it, the Big Three have been closing plants and exporting work to other countries, where Toyota, Hyundai, BMW, Nissan, etc... have been building plants in the US and creating jobs here. Is it about the jobs or is it just xenophobia? The Chrysler plant near my town recently shut down (built Durangos, which nobody is buying) and the GM plant is doomed (builds Solstice and Sky) so I hope I'm not the victim of any backlash. Not that imports are rare around here.

 

First time watching TV or reading a newspaper? This stuff is always sensationalized. I pay no attention to it. Americans care far too much about what they think other people think about them, including worrying about their own fellow Americans.

 

Yeah, just having a bad day and the idea of that sort of commercial rubbed me the wrong way.

 

Go outside, take a long look at your MINI and remember how good your life is.



Could be worse... you could own a Kia.

 

This is such BS...

61%+ (don't know the exact percentage) of Toyotas sold in the US are made in the US.

Cars made by the "big 3" outside of the US are still considered domestic vehicles while cars made by Toyota/Honda/etc in the US are not.

 

And let's not forget that until recently one of the "big 3" was a part of Mercedes (Daimler AG), who still owns 19.9% of the company.

 

Message to the GM, Chrysler and Ford nutjobs.... Start making cars that people ACTUALLY want to buy. Stop making excuses for 30 years of shoving down the unsuspecting public vehicles of shoddy workmanship, reliability and style (Or lack of thereof). Stop making excuses for high depreciation, trucks, SUVs and gas guzzlers that very few people actually need. Stop making excuses for departing excellence in design, manufacturing and innovation just to become a pathetic shadow of their former selves. Stop making excuses for giving away the passenger car market to the Japanese. Stop making excuses for making GARBAGE on wheels and losing a generation or two of your former customers to the imports. It will take you yet another generation or two to get them back if ever.

There are many bright spots in the US car product portfolio today, but serious gaps and questionnable makes/models still remain.

Alan Mullaly (FORD CEO) said it best a few weeks ago..."Bad product got us where we are today and only good product will get us out of the ditch". 'Nuff said.

Earth to Detroit = PRODUCT IS KING.

 

A few examples:

Chrysler PT Cruiser was made in Mexico. Chevrolet Impala is manufactured at the GM Oshawa, Ontario Canada plant. The late Pontiac GTO (And current G8 sedan) are made in Australia by Holden (A GM division). Some of the Chevy Tahoe/Suburbans are made in Mexico (Sinaloa plant). The upcoming Ford Fiesta will be built in Mexico also. I believe the Chrysler RWD sedans (Charger, Challenger, 300, et al) are made in Ingersoll, Ontario Canada. The current Saturn Astra is an Opel import assembled in Belgium.

And the list goes on and on...

 

Or the Nissan with the largest plant in the US in Nashville, TN?

 

I work for a shipping terminal. I'm supporting my industry by buying overseas.
Ford seems the most realistic; I owned only Fords until I got the Meeny, despite shoddy quality, because I liked Mustangs. Then I got in my friend's '07 and it felt a lot like my '93. The CEO of Ford told Congress he's selling their jets and taking a $1 salary if they need to ask for bailout cash, but they've known this was coming for years.

Someone keyed my car last weekend, and I wonder if it was due to this BS? Probably not, but it makes me wonder. We should be tying yellow ribbons around the tailpipes of the Ford Excursions every government agency seems to be driving. My tax dollars for 9mpg? For what? Because it looks cooler than a van?

 

I had a 1998 Corvette that for sure was assembled in Bowling Green Ky. Of course the engine was from Canada, Transmission was from Mexico, Wheels from Austriala, I'm inclined to think only the body and some frame parts were all that was made in USA.
I don't think you can buy a car or motorcycle that was completly made in America.
I bought my Mini from a dealer that is owned by an American and employs a lot of Americans so I'm sure that counts for something.
I'm a disabled american veteran and will buy anything I want. Actually the jeans I'm wearing as well as the Nike shoes were made in Viatnam by the same people that tried to kill me.
People need to realize it is now a time that no one country at all will provide everything people want. It is a world economy.
Ronnie948

 

That's something I could agree with.

 

I say, let them fall through. They DESERVE to fail. They spent all their time wasting on bigger, less MPG cars for too long. They knew years ago the need for better MPG cars, developing electric cars or hydrogen. but they didnt even try. Honda has, obviously MINI has, and many others. They like to flaunt "21 mpg highway" as good! And thats just one of the many reasons, there is not one sense of creativity in their cars. The same old things in slightly different shapes and colors.