Toyota's high reputation

I am not incriminating Prius owners specifically. I am just saying this nation has been fed a line of bull about trade and outsourcing for two generations now. The results are everywhere, furniture towns in the northeast, textile towns, steel towns, auto towns, these jobs are gone. The guy that used to work at the plant is either unemployed or underemployed now, his/her family is in a shambles and they are in dire need of government services. The best social program is a job that can support a family.
60 years ago Flint, Michigan had the highest standard of living in the world. Was it too high ,probably, but I was through there in the last year. You would never guess it is the United States of America. For better or worse the US standard of living has followed the path of a few key industries with about a 30-40 year lag. Not a good future for us.

 

Yes, I completely agree. But, whose fault is THAT? You appear fixated on ONE company as a convenient whipping post for all the ills we have. The truth is so harsh and cruel, you won't face it

This Carlin rant pretty much sums it up. Warning, lot's of F words, do not play at work or in front of kids

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q]YouTube - George Carlin ~ The American Dream[/ame]

You may not agree with the rant. It's far easier to blame a single foreign country for ALL our f***ed up issues.

Eg: have you ever seen a Clinical Psychologist? If you ever do, you will eventually discover that YOU must take responsibility for YOUR problems, deal with them, and MOVE ON

 

Jayman, I agree with most of what Mr. Carlin said. I think it has been wall street and and foreign countries that have been jammin' it exactly where George Carlin stated. If you ever have any doubt about it, just foolow the money. who profited by offshoring the american dream? Wall street, the middle east, China and Japan. The politicians profit in the short-term but most of them are just stupid/lazy and ignorant. Always follow the money.

 

I think this may be an example of what Mr Carlin means:
News Headlines

Banks Bet Greece Defaults on Debt They Helped Hide

 

Yes, his comments on Critical Thinking are pretty much spot on. You can see this by some of the crap that is reported as "news" by the main stream media.

Part of my reason for purchasing a Prius is to at least minimize getting f#cked in the nice person by the oil companies. Its a small gesture but makes me feel a little better.

 

It will hurt the US because if you start with the trade barriers so will the people buying your products. You do export stuff you know. And you have signed trade agreements... just going to ignore them? You're still the richest country in the world... I wouldn't call what's happening "getting killed" compared to the rest of the world. The only way you're going to pay back the debt is by producing stuff others buy. They won't be buying if you close the border.

 

You really do need to step back and see that forest for all the trees

That "American Dream" came true for us, didn't it? Problem is, once the dream comes true, there is NOTHING else left. The dream turns into a nightmare then: decadence, obsolescence, and eventually a slow implosion.

This has happened to so many kick-nice person nation-states in our history, starting from biblical times. A nation-state can soar to great heights, then it becomes decadent and corrupt, and implodes.

When the Visigoths invaded Rome for the third and final time, do you think anybody left even cared?

Let's face it, the only way the American Dream could continue was if the other 95% of the globe remained poor, ignorant, and subservient. Oops, that didn't happen

There is no way that the U.S. and Canada can continue this lazy and surreal dream without consequences. Consider all the foreign funds, primarily Chinese, buying up mineral, oil, and gas rights in the Canadian arctic.

As long as hillbilly Canucks can be employed in those high paying sectors, and spend more than they make, do you think THEY care? Of course not!

Along with the U.S., Canada threw out Critical Thinking skills a LONG time ago. If you have more than 1/3 of a brain, and talk about something other than curling, hockey, fishing, or hunting, you get funny looks

Deal with it

All I do now is just profit where I can profit. One day when they legalize narcotics - as you know they eventually will - then I will profit off that too. I used to have morals, ethics, honor, all that good stuff, then I one day realized those things only allowed me to get it up the butt

I look after myself, and I suggest you do as well

 

Jayman, I think the revolution has begun. I heard a guy on NPR last night that was as irate as anyone I have ever heard in my life on NPR. The guests and host were speechless. As hard as it will be I am not giving up, I think the country can be taken back and get back on the path to prosperity and what the founders envisioned. LIFE, LIBERTY and the PURSUIT of HAPPINESS. Not cradle to grave everything, corrupted politicians, pork barrel politics. I still have faith. I think the truth will eventually win out.

Jayman I think anything is possible, if on the first of the year I would have posted on here that by the end of February that toyota would be reeling world-wide and especially in its largest market I would have been called just about every name in the book on here. today toyota is in more trouble than even I envisioned a month ago. I think 12% market share in the US from 17% in 2009 is very likely now.

 

The point is if we ended trade tomorrow we would be $400 billion to a trillion better off this year. Would there be some pain, of course in the short term, but if we built in the US everything that we currently import we would be far better off in the long run.

 

Domestic sourcing of parts, manufacturing and of course distribution to final domestic customers makes a lot of sense for simple reasons of reduced transfer cost and wasted resources for transport. But when it's still cheaper to buy parts or even assembled products from across the ocean the bean counters have a hard time resisting. End result is that demand drives up the price and things start to balance out. That was the inevitable fact once trans-continental shipping started getting cost effective. We're still in the balancing phase and it's painful.

But I have to agree, I'd be ECSTATIC to buy an American made car, American BRAND even, if it were the best car for my needs. Just hasn't happened yet and I really did shop for them before buying my used 2007 Prius at a local GM\Toyota dealer.

But since nobody has answered the question, here's some info on US domestic auto production from cars.com.

The Cars.com American-Made Index - Cars.com

An excerpt:

I was actually hoping for more complete info, maybe even a nice pie chart, but I'm only willing to expend so much Google effort on the task. A couple of other interesting links:

What Is an American Car? - WSJ.com

Born in the U.S.A. - Interactive Graphic - NYTimes.com

- D

 

If toyota is as American as some of you like to think why are the people in Japan so worried about production ove in Japan? Sure the camry is very sourced in the US but what about every lexus? 4 runner, prius to name but a few? Who imports the most vehicles into the US every year? What about the soft costs of engineering and design? The hearing pointed that out, Toyota USA is a sales and marketing company, nothing more.

 

You asked for some numbers so I found some (also because I was curious as well). Those stats on cars.com have a whole lot to do with which cars sell the best. The same will apply to the import numbers - if imported models sell better then of course there will be a lot of imports (heck, even if they are "American" automaker imports).

Nobody is claiming Toyota is an "American" company. They are an international company just like the U.S. automakers are international companies. Toyota is just more successful than the rest, globally delivering 1.7 million more cars than GM in 2008.

- D

 

From what I can remember about this, it took a lawsuit for Ford to finally issue a recall. ... and then Ford and Firestone began their battle with each other. How many people died because of this?

 

A quote I won't forget that my son told me when he was 14 (Dec 2008)-
"Dad, I don't want to be paying for their poor decisions. Every company eventually fails. Besides, if they had a GREAT product, they wouldn't be in this situation."

This was in response to the government giving my money to a greedy company called GM. I know you probably think is was the dad that was upset about this (and I am) but my son and all of his friends are PISSED at GM. They are the next generation that will not buy a GM product because they will be paying for the current generations mistakes for the rest of their life.

I (the dad) never thought about it that way. I now vote with my kids future in mind.

 

Yes and two months ago toyota was na instoppable juggernaut. I am sure he would have been happier with 20% unemployment in this country for the next generation.

Has detroit made mistakes over the past decades, of course but they have also been a victim of the mercantilism of foreign nations as have almost every other American industry. He will have to make a fundamental decision about he quality of life he will wish to enjoy in the future.

 

i'm of two minds. if detroit had their way, we would be buying the quality equivalent of the ugo. i know, my in laws had a 75 ford tempo? wow, that was a bad car. on the other hand, if we had kept import tariffs reasonable, imports wouldn't have been able to undercut domestics as drastically. there needs to be a balance between union wages and benefits, and price/quality or car prices will be unreachable for many americans.

 

What definition of suck are you using that gets Ford in there but spares Toyota?

 

They didn't make the Tempo in '75....

 

[sarcasm]Which makes it an even worse car! The domestics couldn't even make it! :hail: Toyota[/sarcasm]

 

I just got the latest Consumer Reports magazine, and they rated the car companies in it.

Toyota was penalized for all the recalls, and fell in the listings. They only hit number 3, below Honda and Suzuki. Number 4 was Hyundai...5 was Nissan, etc.

The US makers didn't show up until double digits.

So, despite the recalls and the "problems," it appears that Toyota still makes some of the best cars on the market, according to a well respected group.



Hey, it makes me feel better...

Chuck