What's better for American economy: American-made foreign brand or foreign-made American car?

Question

I want to help America as much as I can. Part of that is buying a vehicle that helps the American economy.

Would it be better to purchase a Foreign brand with American parts or an American car with many foreign parts and foreign assembly?

For Example: Toyota Camry with almost 100% American parts and American assembled versus the Saturn Vue that is assembled in Mexico with many Mexican parts.

Answer 1

sorry, my usa birth certificate prohibits me from purchasing a foreign brand. yes i do know that there are lots made here, but where do the end profits go?

Answer 2

This is always an interesting question to answer.

Unlike the foreign owned companies, Ford and General Motors (I'm not sure if Chrysler, LLC has to follow this since they're privately owned now) have to have at least 68% of their vehicles sold in the United States made in the United States.

As of last year, Ford (this only counts for Ford, Mercury, and Lincoln since they're directly owned by FoMoCo) had 85% of it's car lines made in the US and GM (Buick, Cadillac, Pontiac, Chevrolet, Saturn, Saab, and Hummer) had 76% of their vehicles made in the US. So, more chances out of none, you're going to be purchasing an American vehicle.

As for the Saturn Vue, more parts for that are shipped from the United States (particularly Michigan, Ohio, and Texas) and simply assembled in Mexico. But what hurts with Mexican made vehicles is the quality tends to be lower than US or Japanese made vehicles. Example: Cadillac Escalade, which has had the worst quality rating for GM.

Though, when you buy an American car (I'm talking American owned company: GM, Ford, Chrysler LLC) the profit stays in the United States, with the profit going into the company and back to the employees.

In the case of foreign owned vehicles, more are being made in the United States, but when a foreign vehicle is sold the profit goes back to Japan, Korea, or wherever. The only guaranteed money that is going to come back to the US is the pay for the facility and the employees. Though, if the company is interested in expanding their operations in the US, they'll invest more money here, helping our economy and gross domestic product.

Summary: Research your vehicle. If it's a Japanese car made in Japan, then almost no money is coming to influence the US economy, but it may come if they want to expand their current US operations. But even an American brand car made in Mexico is still putting money into the US economy, since the money is staying here.

Answer 3

This is totally up to you as a matter of choice but, keep in mind when purchasing any out of "states" automobile. Take a look at what China and Mexico are doing now with the imports on just about everything they send to us.
It's inferior, poor quality (inferior) set to match our price medium whether it's worth it or not. Unsafe parts and products are being used and to top off anything that should be looked at with scrutiny is "slave labor" what, whom and how long are these workers "working" on the products we're speaking about.

It's a well known fact that Wal-Mart purchases products from China that use small children for their labor and freely admit it. The Mexicans are just as bad with horror stories coming out of the small cities.

So, well judging all this, maybe you'd want to stop and think about your next purchase. We won't go into companies that moved to these foreign places to save money and put thousands of our people out of work. Buy union and buy U.S. of A.

Answer 4

Foreign brand with American parts. Though the car is manufactured in another country, the parts are what make it what it is if you know what I mean. The American parts are the one's that make the car; the brand just represents the country and where it's made in.

Answer 5

Things are getting confusing anymore, I have an American flag that says it was made in Taiwan, what is that suppose to mean?
It's getting to be a small world when you can buy something American made in Taiwan! lol