Toyota Named Official Car of NHRA

[Harry 6674]

Originally Posted by Ed Fernandez

Get real Harry.In todays world these Japanese companies are just as much American as the former Big Three.Most of their upper level designers are American.The sad part is that corporate profits go back to Japan.It's like the old cliche,if the American cars were the best most Americans would have bought them.

Get real? Not a chance Bozo. If you think their cars are better then ours maybe you should move there.

[goinbroke2]

It's not confusing at all. I start a company and take it worldwide, I make lots of money employing locals at where ever it is fiscally sound to do so. But I am Canadian and my company and profits go back to Canada.

Here's a little bit of history for you;
After ww2 Ford went to Europe (UK specifically) and built cars (they were before but they increased tremendously after) and they way they did it was convincing everyone they were just as british as british/leyland, land rover, jaguar, Austin, etc, etc. Because of this, from the early 60's to mid 80's Ford outsold everything there and guess what? All the "british" companies went under. Mid 80's Ford decided it cost too much to build there so they...moved to germany (deganham) and other European countries that were cheaper to build in.
A little parting shot is Ford bought out Jag, Rover, Bentley, Volvo(ok volvo's not brit but you get the idea)

Fast forward to 90's in NA, toyota starts the big "we're American" push and convinces the sheep that they're an American company because....you guessed it, THEY GOT THE LOCALS TO BUILD because it was fiscally responsible (for several reasons) for them. "it must be American, my brother works there"

So, is VW or Toyota or any car company that has it's ORIGINAL HOME BASE in a foreign country and sends it's profits there "American"? No!

And yes you can buy toyota stock and keep some profit here, but your doing that in spite of the trend, not because of it.

Rants over, but don't try to convince me a company is local just because they opened plant here.

[boostedf22c]

Originally Posted by Harry 6674

Get real? Not a chance Bozo. If you think their cars are better then ours maybe you should move there.

Their cars were better for quite some time. Nowadays, not so much.

[goinbroke2]

Originally Posted by Ed Fernandez

It's like the old cliche,if the American cars were the best most Americans would have bought them.

Unfortunately, your right. American cars were not the "best" because they didn't have to be.
The criteria was biggest, fastest, flashiest. When people are buying new cars every year or two, who cares how long they last? From the 50's to the 70's there was only competition in those area's. When the imports came here in the early 70's (some in the 60's) they were JUNK! They were not fast, or good ride, or flashy, or big...they were what people who couldn't afford a real car drove.
Enter the 70's gas crunch and guess what? They were good at something the big three weren't..MILAGE. Then when detroit woke up and started getting more efficient, where did the jap cars go to? The only other thing the big three weren't doing, RELIABILITY.

That is why they succeded, they had higher quality and better milage. Detroit was kind of confused, what is this "quality" thing you speak of? LOL!

Now we have quality,milage, power, etc and it's an AMERICAN company. (well ford and gm are anyway)

[Mark Ugrich]

This pretty much sums it up.

[jwsamuel]

Originally Posted by goinbroke2

A little parting shot is Ford bought out Jag, Rover, Bentley, Volvo(ok volvo's not brit but you get the idea)

Jag and Rover are now owned by Tata, an Indian company. Bentley has been part of Volkswagen since 1998. Volvo is owned by Geely Automobile of China.

Originally Posted by goinbroke2

So, is VW or Toyota or any car company that has it's ORIGINAL HOME BASE in a foreign country and sends it's profits there "American"? No!

So where does that leave Chrysler? The original home base is Michigan but the profits now go to Italy.

Jim

[Ed Fernandez]

Originally Posted by goinbroke2

Unfortunately, your right. American cars were not the "best" because they didn't have to be.
The criteria was biggest, fastest, flashiest. When people are buying new cars every year or two, who cares how long they last? From the 50's to the 70's there was only competition in those area's. When the imports came here in the early 70's (some in the 60's) they were JUNK! They were not fast, or good ride, or flashy, or big...they were what people who couldn't afford a real car drove.
Enter the 70's gas crunch and guess what? They were good at something the big three weren't..MILAGE. Then when detroit woke up and started getting more efficient, where did the jap cars go to? The only other thing the big three weren't doing, RELIABILITY.

That is why they succeded, they had higher quality and better milage. Detroit was kind of confused, what is this "quality" thing you speak of? LOL!

Now we have quality,milage, power, etc and it's an AMERICAN company. (well ford and gm are anyway)

Tell that to the guy who called me Bozo.
So Harry,who peed in your oatmeal today?

[HandOverFist]

My stepfather bought my mother a Datsun 510 in 1970 while he drove a new SS Nova. I remember him commenting on how straight and perfect the body panels/seams were on the Datsun...he was not one to heap praise on anything without merit.

[Rose Racing]

Originally Posted by Mark Ugrich

This pretty much sums it up.

This is my thinking and ya know what I DONT OWN A CAR THAT IS MADE TODAY! I drive a 100% MADE IN USA DETROIT STEEL 1978 DODGE MONACO with a 318 and a 2 barrel awesome in winter fits 5 or 6 comfortably still reaaaaaallly kooool ALLLLL AMERICAN and gets 20 mpg if you drive it right! THATS BETTER THAN ANY TOYOTY JAP SOAPBOX ANY DAY!!!!!!

[Greg Hill]

These threads kind of travel in large circles. The car business is a global business for all the big companies. GM makes more cars in China for the Chinese market than they do in the US. The Ford Fusion is built in Mexico. The Toyota Camry is built in Kentucky, the Honda Accord in Ohio and all the companies source parts from all over the world. All the companies are building good cars now, but that hasn't always been the case. The only way the Japanese could sell the amount of cars they do now is because in the 80's and 90's they were building much better products than their US competitors and their market share grew tremendously. Over the years I have owned German, Japanese and American cars and I can truthfully say that my Ford Flex is the best car I have ever owned.