Hello 1st genners! I havent been on here in quite sometime and thought I'd just update. Regretfully I dont have my TL anymore. This is due to the cost of getting the valve lifters repaired. Which were bent because the shotty mechanic I brought it to put my engine out of time. So I am now the owner of a 2005 Dodge SRT-4. I was really shooting for another TL, but there werent any here in my price range. Anyways, I'm going to keep checking up on this place. And I really want to thank all of the members that helped me with my frequent questions.


I miss her...

 

. Hows srt-4 going??

 

That sucks. Good luck with the American car.

Just remember! You are helping bring the economy back to where it should be.

 

thats funny my dad wants me to trade the tl for an str-4 the'll take off like 9g's for my car and some discount. i turned it down i have plans for my car

 

That is idiotic.

Most automakers HAVE plants here in the US, and the majority of Japanese maker's cars ARE built here by Americans. Guess where American cars are built? MEXICO. If anything is helping Americans keep their jobs, it's buying Toyota, which, by the way, most Americans don't even know is Japanese. Seriously.

A good friend of mine moved to Texas with her husband because after having a baby, they couldn't afford to stay in San Francisco. While living there, someone from her Mom's Club had the following conversation with her:

Texan: "Do they have cars in Japan?"
My friend: "Uh, yeah... Why wouldn't they?"
Texan: "I thought you used rickshaws."

The Texan was driving a Toyota.

Toyota has a new plant here in the Bay Area (Fremont), and Honda still has their big plant in Ohio where, surprise surprise, the UA4/5 Sabers and Inspires were made and EXPORTED to Japan.

~Cheers~

P.S. Don't even get me started on the quality of things made in Mexico...

 

 

Quality things made in Mexico like VW

 

I suck at economics, but the profits of the cars made here still go back to Toyota in Japan. It seems like a split to me; American workers earn a salary, and Japanese corporations still make a profit that they spend in Japan.

 

The government also makes money in the form of taxes and tariffs on imported cars, and taxes on profits sent back to HQ wherever it's located.

No matter how you splice it, the local government STILL makes money. Licensing, taxes from the city, state, and federal levels, etc.

Where does Toyota, etc., spend a big chunk of money? Here in the US in the form of partnerships with American automakers and advertising firms, TV/radio networks like Clear Channel. The failure of American automakers is the fault of their own, in the form of shoddy workmanship, extortionist unions, and overall poor design.

If it weren't for the Japanese automakers wanting to do business here in the US (great market, BTW), all the American makes would've went under 40 years ago. The whole idea of buying American because of pride, etc. came from the fact that Japanese automakers could get the job done more efficiently both in terms of cost of production and cost of ownership. Instead of responding by building more LSx quality engines, they launched an emotional campaign trying to appeal to the "patriot". Look where that took GM.

Twice.

~Cheers~

 

When I was working for a huge distributor/mobile network operator, we got a shipment of phones from Nokia's new plant in Mexico. Every last one of those phones went back. I'm talking PALLET-LOADs of phones. Were they smartphones or other complicated type electronics? No, they were Nokia 3220s.

My Blackberry is made in Mexico. Every day, it crashes and reboots at LEAST 20 times. My older Blackberries made in Canada never had this issue.

~Cheers~

 

That makes sense now. My girlfriend's phone is a POS and I looked to see where it was made and it was made in Mexico.

 

Here is the answer I got from an young economist who is working on her doctorate degree:



It depends where the concept for the car was designed (the engineers), where the parts were produced (the part makers), where the parts were assembled (the auto workers). Where-ever these things are put together, that's where the local economy benefits the most. People get jobs. It is true that Toyota and Honda has auto plants in the US (mostly in Southern states where they get enormous tax breaks and do not have to abide by strict labor laws). But Ford and GM has plants in the US too! Yet, Toyota is now opening new plants in Canada and Mexico--just like Ford, GM, etc.

Profits from selling the car is another matter. Part of the profits are used to pay dividends to stock holders, and stock holders are spread all over the world. So it does not do much for the local economy.

As for import taxes, yes...it's true our government benefits when it slaps taxes on an imported car. But you also need to remember that foreign governments also slap taxes on American goods exporting to their countries. Japan is a great case. While we put taxes on Japanese cars imported from Japan to the US, the tax rate is not that high. We are a very liberal, free trade economy. But Japan in turn does not allow us to import televisions or cars made in the US to Japan at all. So in this case, America loses out. We can't sell our goods at all in Japan!

So all in all, it does not matter what you buy Hoa. Car companies are international corporations. Their goal is to make money--not to help stimulate any single country's economy. And if that means they screw over some local economy, so be it. Today is the US. Tomorrow could be Mexico or Canada or even China.

Hope that answers your question.

Xuan Pham

 

Let's pick this apart:
I'll give you Honda Manufacturing of Alabama, but I don't think Ohio and Indiana count as Southern states. Of course Ford and GM have plants in the US; they're AMERICAN makes. If they didn't, I'd be laughing even harder. Go look at the top 10 cars given up in the Cash for Clunkers program. Laughing but not surprised.
It does plenty. Profits as a company, not at the dealer level, go back to shareholders. The dealer level profits are put back into the local/state government through sales, business, income, and property taxes.
That is a load of shit. You can't tell me that the Toyota Cavalier is actually made in Japan, nor can you tell me the Camaro and Mustangs are made there, too. A few of those buckets are parked around my place there. What did I say earlier about UA4/5 Sabers and Inspires? MADE IN THE USA. Don't get on about how it'd count as an intra-company transfer. You generalized about goods made in the US, so I'm going with that. Now about TVs... I don't see Syntax-Olevia coming out with anything REALLY revolutionary, do you?
Doesn't that sound familiar? IT'S WHAT I SAID. Buying American makes doesn't mean all that money is going into the US economy, and buying Japanese doesn't mean you're not giving anything to the US!!

I sure hope you link your "economist" to this thread. I should be getting that doctorate. But hey, what do I know? I'm just a middle school drop-out who learned English as a fourth language.

~Cheers~

 

KNOCK IT OFF

 

^ Haha!

~Cheers~

 

Haha I just have no idea about economy. All I want to help is just telling u guys an opinion of a person who is studying economy.

 

take it to o/t money and investing if you want to debate economics of car sales and its affects on the host and home country...

now... i want pics of the SRT... i would get that pocketrocket if i was a few years younger...