DaveFelice
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For many people, including me, where and how a car is made is as important as the vehicle itself. Consumer affairs writer Roger Simmermaker discusses this matter in a recent essay (edited slightly for length):
Buying an American-made Camry is not buying American
By Roger Simmermaker
10-9-11
A few auto reviews list the U.S.-built Toyota Camry as the apparent “most American vehicle” for 2012. The problem is that the criteria are simplistic at best.
For 2012, according to TheCarConnection.com, the gasoline Camry is projected to have a 92 percent domestic parts-content, while the hybrid version scores a much lower 59 percent because drive components and battery packs will be imported from Japan.
Since automobile window stickers must combine content percentages on a “carline” basis, the overall 2012 figure for the Camry is 89 percent. Now how we can combine 92 percent (for gasoline Camrys) and 59 percent (for hybrid Camrys) and get 89 percent according to the American Automobile Labeling Act is beyond me, but this is just a minor distraction from the main “most American vehicle” classification problem anyway.
The true definition of “Buying American” is buying an American-made product from an American-owned company with a high domestic parts-content within that product. Prime consideration should be given to ownership of the company since American companies typically pay nearly twice as much U.S. taxes as foreign-owned companies.
Before the company ceased production of the Ford Explorer Sport Trac, that car had the highest domestic parts-content (90 percent). The Ford Explorer comes in at 85 percent.
To see where major components like engines and transmission are manufactured for various vehicles and where they are actually assembled (2010 data), visit How Americans Can Buy American. You’ll find out American companies overwhelmingly produce more cars and trucks along with their engines and transmissions in America.
Because when we ‘Buy American’ in the purest sense of the term, we reward American owners, American investors, and American stockholders, keeping jobs, profits and the tax base in the United States.
If we are supporting a company based in the U.S., the profits either stay in America or are repatriated here, and the taxes on those profits are paid to the U.S. Treasury rather foreign governments.
We must consider more than just assembly or manufacturing jobs. It is widely known that about 11 percent of all jobs in America are currently in the manufacturing sector. That leaves 89 percent of American jobs for other sectors like engineering, design, research and development, testing, and administration. When we support American companies, these jobs are much more likely to be located in the United States.
Case in point is the Toyota Camry itself. You know, the one that seems to have won the “most American vehicle” award we’ve been talking about?
For three years running, Cars.com has ranked it number one in its American-made index. And to add insult to injury, Camry is the Daytona 500 pace car in 2012.
But despite all these lavish American awards and distinctions, Toyota isn’t ready to fully design and develop the car in the United States because Toyota doesn’t “have the guarantee that there is the facility or the know-how in the United States," according to Camry chief engineer Yukihiro Okane.
Excuse me? American automakers routinely spend $16 billion annually in the U.S. on research and development alone, and Toyota execs aren’t sure American engineers have “the know-how” to do these same tasks for their company’s supposed “American” vehicles?
Asked if U.S. engineers took part in developing the 2012 Camry, Okane eventually admitted that American engineers helped with color design and local road condition testing.
Did Cars.com or TheCarConnection.com account for these facts about Camry?
1. The Toyota plant in Georgetown, Kentucky was built in 1987 with Japanese steel by a Japanese steel company.
2. Toyota was given 1,500 acres of free land.
3. A “special trade zone” allows Toyota to import parts duty-free from Japan.
4. Financing was handled by Mitsui Bank of Japan.
5. Total federal, state, and local tax incentives (tax giveaways) reached $100 million.
Furthermore, American auto companies have made have made multi-billion dollar payouts over the years to support American workers, retirees, and their dependents.
In 2004, for example, General Motors spent $5.2 billion on health care for alone, which I’m sure was much more than Toyota spent on U.S. employees given the fact that Toyota employs far fewer American workers. Maybe the “most American vehicle” award should go to a company that actually contributes many times more to the U.S. economy than any foreign company.
I’m sure Toyota has far fewer retirees, since the most-senior employee at Georgetown would today have only a maximum 24 years with the company if he or she were still employed there.
On a fleet basis, American automobile companies have more American factories, employ more American workers, support more American retirees, use more American parts, do more research and development in America, and pay more taxes in the U.S. than any foreign auto company ever dreamed.
It usually takes 20 months to research, engineer, design, develop, and test a vehicle and only 20 hours to put it all together. We need to consider the jobs leading to actual assembly. Again, if it’s an American brand, more of the work will be in America.
Cars.com does admit, however, that of the 37 models with domestic parts-contents of 75 percent or more, 28 of them come from Detroit-based brands. So maybe they get it about American cars’ dominance overall on a fleet-wide basis.
However, the criteria for individual cars and how cars get the “most American vehicle” award is narrow-minded at best, and leads many patriotic-minded American consumers to buy cars from foreign companies that do not support the American economy nearly as much as American automakers have and continue to do so.
**********************************************************
Roger Simmermaker is the author of How Americans Can Buy American: The Power of Consumer Patriotism and writes "Buy American Mention of the Week" articles for WorldNetDaily.com and his website www.howtobuyamerican.com. Roger is a member of the Machinists Union, has been a frequent guest on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC, and has been quoted in the USA Today, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Business Week among many other publications.
Buying an American-made Camry is not buying American
By Roger Simmermaker
10-9-11
A few auto reviews list the U.S.-built Toyota Camry as the apparent “most American vehicle” for 2012. The problem is that the criteria are simplistic at best.
For 2012, according to TheCarConnection.com, the gasoline Camry is projected to have a 92 percent domestic parts-content, while the hybrid version scores a much lower 59 percent because drive components and battery packs will be imported from Japan.
Since automobile window stickers must combine content percentages on a “carline” basis, the overall 2012 figure for the Camry is 89 percent. Now how we can combine 92 percent (for gasoline Camrys) and 59 percent (for hybrid Camrys) and get 89 percent according to the American Automobile Labeling Act is beyond me, but this is just a minor distraction from the main “most American vehicle” classification problem anyway.
The true definition of “Buying American” is buying an American-made product from an American-owned company with a high domestic parts-content within that product. Prime consideration should be given to ownership of the company since American companies typically pay nearly twice as much U.S. taxes as foreign-owned companies.
Before the company ceased production of the Ford Explorer Sport Trac, that car had the highest domestic parts-content (90 percent). The Ford Explorer comes in at 85 percent.
To see where major components like engines and transmission are manufactured for various vehicles and where they are actually assembled (2010 data), visit How Americans Can Buy American. You’ll find out American companies overwhelmingly produce more cars and trucks along with their engines and transmissions in America.
Because when we ‘Buy American’ in the purest sense of the term, we reward American owners, American investors, and American stockholders, keeping jobs, profits and the tax base in the United States.
If we are supporting a company based in the U.S., the profits either stay in America or are repatriated here, and the taxes on those profits are paid to the U.S. Treasury rather foreign governments.
We must consider more than just assembly or manufacturing jobs. It is widely known that about 11 percent of all jobs in America are currently in the manufacturing sector. That leaves 89 percent of American jobs for other sectors like engineering, design, research and development, testing, and administration. When we support American companies, these jobs are much more likely to be located in the United States.
Case in point is the Toyota Camry itself. You know, the one that seems to have won the “most American vehicle” award we’ve been talking about?
For three years running, Cars.com has ranked it number one in its American-made index. And to add insult to injury, Camry is the Daytona 500 pace car in 2012.
But despite all these lavish American awards and distinctions, Toyota isn’t ready to fully design and develop the car in the United States because Toyota doesn’t “have the guarantee that there is the facility or the know-how in the United States," according to Camry chief engineer Yukihiro Okane.
Excuse me? American automakers routinely spend $16 billion annually in the U.S. on research and development alone, and Toyota execs aren’t sure American engineers have “the know-how” to do these same tasks for their company’s supposed “American” vehicles?
Asked if U.S. engineers took part in developing the 2012 Camry, Okane eventually admitted that American engineers helped with color design and local road condition testing.
Did Cars.com or TheCarConnection.com account for these facts about Camry?
1. The Toyota plant in Georgetown, Kentucky was built in 1987 with Japanese steel by a Japanese steel company.
2. Toyota was given 1,500 acres of free land.
3. A “special trade zone” allows Toyota to import parts duty-free from Japan.
4. Financing was handled by Mitsui Bank of Japan.
5. Total federal, state, and local tax incentives (tax giveaways) reached $100 million.
Furthermore, American auto companies have made have made multi-billion dollar payouts over the years to support American workers, retirees, and their dependents.
In 2004, for example, General Motors spent $5.2 billion on health care for alone, which I’m sure was much more than Toyota spent on U.S. employees given the fact that Toyota employs far fewer American workers. Maybe the “most American vehicle” award should go to a company that actually contributes many times more to the U.S. economy than any foreign company.
I’m sure Toyota has far fewer retirees, since the most-senior employee at Georgetown would today have only a maximum 24 years with the company if he or she were still employed there.
On a fleet basis, American automobile companies have more American factories, employ more American workers, support more American retirees, use more American parts, do more research and development in America, and pay more taxes in the U.S. than any foreign auto company ever dreamed.
It usually takes 20 months to research, engineer, design, develop, and test a vehicle and only 20 hours to put it all together. We need to consider the jobs leading to actual assembly. Again, if it’s an American brand, more of the work will be in America.
Cars.com does admit, however, that of the 37 models with domestic parts-contents of 75 percent or more, 28 of them come from Detroit-based brands. So maybe they get it about American cars’ dominance overall on a fleet-wide basis.
However, the criteria for individual cars and how cars get the “most American vehicle” award is narrow-minded at best, and leads many patriotic-minded American consumers to buy cars from foreign companies that do not support the American economy nearly as much as American automakers have and continue to do so.
**********************************************************
Roger Simmermaker is the author of How Americans Can Buy American: The Power of Consumer Patriotism and writes "Buy American Mention of the Week" articles for WorldNetDaily.com and his website www.howtobuyamerican.com. Roger is a member of the Machinists Union, has been a frequent guest on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC, and has been quoted in the USA Today, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Business Week among many other publications.
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