I really, really, hate that line of reasoning. It's totally illogical to justify spending money on one thing based on the amount of money spent on something totally unrelated. That's how politicians end up giving us deficits that spiral out of control.

Maybe the government should write me a cheque for $50 million dollars because, hey, they spent 100 times more than that on Corn Flakes in Iraq!

We really need to make every single government expenditure go to zero-based budgeting.

 

Toyota's stalled Prius factory project in Tupelo, Miss., might not be a Prius factory when work on the plant finally resumes.

The company is entertaining new ideas about other products it could build there, said Steve St. Angelo, senior vice president of Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Inc.

http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:...&ct=clnk&gl=ca

 

the point i was trying to make was that while the big three are moving production to canada and mexico, foreign automakers are building more and more factories here.

i used to think, like some people on here, that it was unpatriotic to buy foreign cars. but u have to realize that nowadays we live in a global economy and some of these "foreign" cars that people hate so much are more american than their beloved camaro

 

What about the turned in vehicles?
What's the domestic/foreign count for those?

 

u can thank the unions for that. the UAW wont allow the big 3 to build a non union plant here in the US, so we build them elsewhere, the imports dont have a union to tell them no

 

The foreign companies have unions in their home turf. There are automotive unions in Mexico, Canada, Japan, and Korea. Unions are not exclusive to the US.

 

well then please explain to me why any of the big three have never opened a plant in Missouri, which is a right to work state that doesnt have Unions?

Why also is Toyotas NUMMI Plant their only US UAW plant

 

Will there ever be a time when people finally get it out of their heads that there is MUCH more to a car company than where their products are assembled? If we were talking about "Toyota Assembling Company" or "Ford Assembling Company", I could see people's point. But I don't. There's a reason we don't call these companies that.

Yes, of course, foreign car companies add some jobs in America. However, re-read the post by Derek M as I think some have missed it. It contains some good information.

And beyond that, what about a company's stockholders and it's owner's equity? Where do you think the majority of that is for Toyota compared with GM or Ford?

 

Dodge built (still builds?) Rams in St. Louis.

 

Top 5 cars bought that used the program:

Ford Focus
Toyota Corolla
Honda Civic
Toyota Camry
Toyota Prius

All but the Prius and Civic have plants in the US. The other thing about trying to measure the "success" of this program is that you don't know how many people actually bought the cars because of this program. We know how many used it, but I'm willing to wager that the majority of those were going to happen anyways, with or without this program.

Speaking of tweaking facts to support an agrument . . .

 

First the "right to work" states is a misnomer and oxymoron at best. It would best be described as "Fire your *** for any reason the big man wants". That would be an more appropriate description. Therefore if one enjoys taking it from the BIG MAN, have fun with the "right to work" as it doesn't benefit the individual employee one bit.

Never opened a plant? Well never would be incorrect. All of the domestics have plants in Missouri along with the UAW. Most of these plants were opened long before most here were born.

Ford opened assembly in 1904 in St. Louis Missouri and produced multiple millions of vehicles.

GM opened assembly in Wentzville Missouri in 1983 and stamping in 1997. Over 1.9 million vehicles have rolled out of this facility.

Chrysler opened St. Louis South in 1959 and St. Louis North in 1966 with multiple millions of vehicles rolling off both these lines.

GM alone operated 47 US plants in 2008, down to around 42 now, and projected to be 34 in 2010. Toyota operates arguably 12 plants. 42 > 12 no matter how many ways you calculate it. Toyota is not the pillar of US automotive manufacturing base in the US like some try very hard to make it to be.

Assembly again is only a portion of the corporate infrastructure required of in automotive manufacturing, it's not the end all determination for company contribution to an economy. The domestics simply have a larger overall company foot print in the US and it's been that way for decades.

Toyota doesn't want to invest into US labor it's plain and simple. They only produce trucks here because they are finanically forced to, in avoidance of import duties, without this it would be an amost certanty the lowly selling Tundra and the like would come from Japan as well.

Toyota has been in business here over 50 years and only has 36k employees and a dozen plants. This is not their home market, they want to invest the very least in the US possible. If Toyota was really all that caring about the US employee, or truely supportive of American's having a great way of life, surely they would have found a way to not import over 1.5 million vehicles annually into North America. Toyota is not the pillar of US automotive manufacturing nor is critical to the financial success of our country.

 

Not as of July 2009, St Louis North was idled indefinitely. Over a million Rams have rolled off this line.

 

looked to me your point was the prius will be built in the states and the article i posted says otherwise.

 

Ford Escape should be #5

also Civic is built in Ohio

Yup, "right to work" is just a way to get the ignorant to support it. Should be called "right to fire without reason"

 

The domestics are right sizing production to fit the consumer consumption, not simply transitioning millions of units of production outside of the US.

The domestics seldom build a start from scratch facility because they already have a considerable amount of stamping, powertrain, and assembly locations within the US. Essentially new investment is poured into an existing facility to retool and upgrade, not a start from scratch new facility. This doesn't go without stating that investment happens all the time, just there's not much attention to it. GM is building a new battery facility in Browntown Township. Last month they opened a 25 million battery R&D laboratory. Additionally GM made public plans last month to spend upwards of $800 million in retooling another plant in Orion Township to build another new small car.

GM currently operates 42 facilities, Toyota 12. 42 != 12. The domestic companies expenditure of capital investment into the US far surpasses by an exponential amount the investments by foreign companies.