If you had to have ONE car, what would it be (read before you pic!)

[SPATT]

got it after 4 years of want

[Tex]

^^^^^^^ An excellent choice. I love that car!

Originally Posted by LauraSVT

I'm with you there.



Aw, geez, here we go. The most important thing out of the gate is to have the company producing the car be American.

Toyota building Camrys in Kentucky does not make for an American car, except perhaps by the goverment's oddball yardstick. I'm more interested in where the money goes after the sale, and though Toyota and other foreign automakers do invest some in American factors of production, lots of money goes back to Japan.

Simultaneously, it is not my favorite thing to have Fords made in Mexico, but profits do make their way back to Detroit, not Osaka or Tokyo as in the above case.

The more truly American content, the better, both in terms of assembly and parts. Because today's world has blurred some of the distinctions regarding country of origin, the primary focus becomes the location of the company itself.

That said, I think a deep jewel green on mocha 1994 Taurus SHO with the 5-speed would do the trick nicely. And yes, I know it has a Japanese engine. I'm not against collaboration. But the car is a Ford built in Atlanta out of mostly US and Canadian parts.

I also like the idea of a 1984 Thunderchicken Turbo Coupe or an '89 Mercury SuperCat, but I think I'll stick with the SHO.

Well said, and my thoughts exactly.

[XKontour98]

I think this would fit the bill:



But I do also like this:




And this:

[MapOfTaziFoSho]

Blah blah blah, America, FACK YA!

Content production, development and engineering. Yadda yadda...

I don't think it really matters. People will buy whatever they want and have every right to buy a foreign or "domestic" car. The RA RA, American cars argument is dead.

Move on with your lives kids...

[qbcsvt]

I am saving for a Mercedes Benz 190e and slowly converting it to Euro Spec

- amyn

[hectik1]

Evo X MR!

[BadDoctorFrost]

Originally Posted by qbcsvt

I am saving for a Mercedes Benz 190e and slowly converting it to Euro Spec

- amyn

Please, please tell me it's a 2.3-16.

[RoadiJeff]

Originally Posted by MapOfTaziFoSho

I don't think it really matters. People will buy whatever they want and have every right to buy a foreign or "domestic" car. The RA RA, American cars argument is dead.

And so is the American economy. But of course people can freely buy whatever they want. Go for it.

Heading for Tougher Times
Published 11/06/09 LNC - Print Article
E-mail - editor@economyincisis.org

This article originally appeared on TradeReform.org .

Encouraging foreign manufacturers to produce in the U.S. creates a big negative for us. Cars for example. Ohio and Indiana competed to get a new Honda auto factory. Indiana succeeded. They gave Honda an $81 million enticement gift and other intangibles. Honda said they would put up a $500 million facility to produce 200,000 cars per year. They did put up a facility, cost unknown. And 23,000 Americans applied for 2,000 jobs. Two thousand Americans are now turning out 200,000 Honda cars per year in Indiana which translates to one American supplies the labor to turn out 100 cars per year. One American can earn on average about $50,000 per year to turn out $2,000,000 worth of cars (Average car sale $20,000 x 100 cars =$2,000,000). This may be a simplification, but the American labor cost is approximately 3%. Almost nothing is made in that factory.

If it is like the factory that Honda has about 150 miles away in Marysville, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus. The Japanese have 74 Japanese-owned, American-registered subsidiary companies in a seven-county area around Columbus. They are shipped components from their Japanese parent corp. They are then modified and sent to Honda and assembled to produce a finished car.

These corporations are charged by their parent, costs for the components, plus administration, and other costs which doesn't allow for much profit. So there are very little taxes to pay, very few jobs in relation to output and no technological residual benefit to us. This is the reason no matter how much stimulus money we may give to American car companies, they can't compete with all the "goodies" we give to their competitors. What are we thinking? If we want to create jobs, can't we give benefits to our own American-owned companies? Why do we need foreigners to produce for us in America or even out of America?

To compound our problems, we have sold 16,613 of our best companies in the last 30 years to foreign interests.(See the list on www.economyincrisis.org .) See the percentage of whole industries that are foreign-owned and see the debt we owe to foreigners. With the approximate $6 trillion convertible reserve dollars (economic bullets) that China, Japan, and Arab countries now have, that they earned through their balance of trade surpluses with us, we (unbeknownst to most of us) are inextricably heading toward colonial status, owned, controlled and managed by our new colonial masters.

All our companies are for sale on the open stock market. If an owner of a company doesn't sell it, he is crazy as our capital tax is only 15 percent. Japanese, and Chinese companies almost never ever sell their companies to foreigners. It isn't permitted. They have a stock market, but they, for the most part, don't get their money from stock sales. They get their money mostly from banks. We are clueless and leaderless and are heading for unimaginably tougher times and a much lower standard of living. What do you think we should do about it?

http://www.economyincrisis.org/articles/show/...
Click here to CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE Representative in Congress.

[ZoomZoom Diva]

I don't believe it is critical that we either base our economy on manufacturing nor that a company is necessarily chartered in the United States or that it the shares are owned by U.S. citizens or that the main headquarters is in the U.S.. As long as we have the ability to produce good income jobs in whatever sector they may be, things will be fine. We do need to focus on what we can sell to other nations as well, but I see this as yet another case where the word crisis is being inappropriately used to spread paranoia.

Frankly, if an American company cannot produce the car that meets my needs, they have not earned my business... and if they cannot produce a car to meet enough customer's needs at least as well as other companies, they don't deserve to be in business. Protectionism to that extent is almost a form of economic xenophobia.

[FIND]

My wife has really been wanting an Explorer Sport Trac to replace the neon... I am kinda for that idea, since it does give me a small cargo space and a little bit of towing, which would suit my needs since it is just the occasional engine or tranny or stripped car that I haul...... Plus it seems like it would be roomy enough for the 5 of us, at least more so than my escort or her neon....

Sorry for the thread hijack, but yeah, anyone with thoughts on those or experience with them? Is there an appreciable difference in room, or are they gonna be about the same?