20th May 2022, 13:27
The biggest bulk of profits goes to the parent company. For largest amount of growth $ for their economy. A brand needs to be clearly identifiable for taxation. On any product you can have employees working all over the world. Even then you are identified as a citizen from your respective country. You can work remotely anywhere in the world, but your parent company writes your check. Even a little kid can walk behind a car and know what car company. A car can be manufactured in 18 countries, but it’s still a Ford, Chevrolet, Toyota etc. with headquarters in respective country. I retired from a large company based in Sweden. With other Americans working. I earned a paycheck, but no way on earth consider it American. They got the big profit, not us workers.
23rd May 2022, 16:20
And once more.... who cares? It's a truck that was designed in the US, built in the US by US workers and uses over 90% US-made parts. So what that it happens to be Japanese? Seems to me that meanwhile, the US auto manufacturers seem happy to send jobs out of the US seeing as how a TON of their cars and trucks are made in Mexico, Canada, Korea and so on.
This is such an old fashioned debate. Just TRY and buy an American car that isn't absolutely full of imported parts. You won't and can't.
23rd May 2022, 18:17
Again it’s not an American brand or manufacturer. The biggest bulk of profit goes overseas. Can the moderator make a call on this and call it a day? This has reached a point where it’s overly redundant. Is Toyota an import? Yes or no?
24th May 2022, 13:56
Why don’t you write Toyota corporate in Japan with your complaints? Maybe they will right it for you. As a suggestion a front license plate with U.S.A. not Japanese might dress your vehicle up. That would most certainly declare your position on the matter. You might need to explain it to every passerby; maybe they will buy your view.
24th May 2022, 18:57
Steven (the moderator) here.
So as a one off, probably never to be repeated, I will give my view, and for background I'm British and live in the UK.
It's very complicated:
Many car companies are in effect multinational. Their headquarters may have even moved country. What nationality are Stellantis, a Netherlands company formed by a merger of Fiat-Chrysler (Italian/American?) and PSA (French)?
Plus even if you consider it a French or Netherlands based company, it will have many shareholders in other locations such as BlackRock in the USA and Dongfeng Motor Corporation in China (just over 3.3% each).
Despite living in the UK, I own shares in investment funds that span the globe. My funds are biased towards the UK, but a good percentage is diversified into other markets (with likely more growth potential and risk). I may well own a small amount of shares in Apple (USA) and Sony (Japan) for all I know.
That said, some companies have large stakes held in them by their own governments (often the case with French or German manufacturers), so those may be more country based.
One last issue is that it's quite common for car manufacturers to not be profitable, and so the argument becomes moot.
Like I said, it's complicated in terms of where the profits go and who even owns the company. There are some examples where it's more clear cut, but in many cases it's not.
Steven Jackson (steven@carsurvey.org)
p.s. I'm not going to become a participant in this discussion any further in public as I don't think it's fair. I can be emailed privately though.
24th May 2022, 23:39
https://www.motorhills.com/domestic-vs-import-cars-the-differences-explained/
"If the company’s headquarters and the majority of their operations are outside of America, it’s an import car"
25th May 2022, 21:23
GM and Ford equals American cars. Not sure where Chrysler stands anymore. Everything else is an import regardless where it’s built.
26th May 2022, 22:02
Based on very strong arguments on the thread, if Toyota is Japanese, Chrysler is and always will be American. If Chrysler via Stellantis specifically designed and built a car in Italy narrow enough for Italian streets, with a 1.5 turbodiesel hybrid and a manual gearbox, in a hatchback format, and badged it as a Chrysler, only sold in Europe, could never sell in America, then it is an American car. Clearly. Right? Like the Tundra is a Japanese vehicle because it is a Toyota, built in America with American parts and labour, not built elsewhere in the world, not sold outside North America, and only in LHD.
27th May 2022, 15:42
This post has been so beaten to the ground. The fact is we own our cars. Or the bank does. My suggestion is pick whatever car you have in the garage or driveway that has the most gas in it. Or drive your electric; just don’t trip over the power cord getting in.
27th May 2022, 19:46
How can you trip over the cord getting in, when you are supposed to unplug it before starting or driving the car?
28th May 2022, 02:36
Well, this is a website that really is for expressing someone's experience with their car - good or bad. THEIR experience, not yours or mine. The very moment someone mentions even in passing about how their car was made in America - or Germany, or Japan instead of somewhere else - but especially America, out come these zealots. Turn everything into a debate which no one will either back down, or see that the comments are from a different angle which is also correct.
28th May 2022, 19:26
Agree, I like this site but unfortunately the comments section can sometimes go on forever over some petty things.
If it's not which country makes which car or parts the best (or where they come from), the other argument I see is usually over reliability.
Wrote a couple of genuine reviews on here on a lot of cars I have had, (both negative and positive) and sometimes if I do not mention every single little fault and maintenance item (hard to remember sometimes) you get comments like "No way is this car that reliable over 100,000 miles" or something like that.
Generally now I rarely respond and just leave any review as it is and leave it up to the reader to decide, I have no bias towards any car manufacturers, and give criticism but also credit where it's due.
29th May 2022, 03:18
Because you aren’t uses to a cord. You get in the gasoline car, turn the key and go out for a snack.
31st May 2022, 15:53
Yeah but when you do actually go to drive your electric, you can't trip over the power cord because the vehicle won't start or run with it plugged in. I don't own one, but did read about that being a car enthusiast. Good luck!
31st May 2022, 18:45
Well, I sold my Tundra and bought an F150. Look for my review of it, titled "Reliable classic Italian truck" (it has Brembo brake pads).
31st May 2022, 22:10
I think the moderator summed it up well. I don't think I could say it better than that myself.
2nd Jun 2022, 04:24
General Motors Company (GM) is an American multinational automotive manufacturing corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is the largest automobile manufacturer based in the United States and one of the largest worldwide. That’s my main choice. I can live with that.
19th May 2022, 13:47
And at the end of the day, the Tundra is still built by Toyota. A Japanese manufacturer.