My husband is in politics. We only buy American. I drive a Town and Country. He drives a Ford Fusion.

We’ve also owned a Cadillac and a Chevy Malibu. And some Chrysler before that.

I’ll likely sell the Town and Country soon and get a Pacifica.

We have Fords. An Escape and a Flex.

My Escape has 200,000 miles on it. The Flex, which is a custom version, has about 70,000.

Before the Flex, we had a Buick Roadmaster with almost 250,000.

We gave up on Hondas and Toyotas. Too expensive for what you get.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t read through the entire thread to see if someone already addressed this: There’s a difference between “Made in America”, and the engineering behind them. Yes, Subaru an and Toyota (as well as some other foreign brands) both have manufacturing plants in America. But the engineering is Japanese. I will not buy an American engineered car. I will always buy a car with Japanese engineering behind it, regardless of where it is actually put together.

Yes because the Japanese tend to be smarter generally in tech/science/mathematical areas.

This is pretty old thinking. German cars -- yes ahead. Japanese and American are pretty close to the same.

Anonymous wrote:I notice that none of my immediate family members, friends and colleagues are buying American cars anymore, with the exception of Tesla.  When I visit California and Miami Florida, I see foreign made cars like Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Volk, BMI, Lexus, Acura, Audi, etc... everywhere.  I also notice when I walk in my Langley neighborhood, almost everyone in the neighborhood drives foreign cars.
The other day when I came to the office, I noticed that 90% of the parking lot was filled with foreign made cars.  Wonder who is buying Ford, GM, and Chrysler these days?

Odd question. GM got beat by Toyota this year but they are largely flat -- each sell about the same number of cars and that is a lot. Who buys American? Pickup trucks yes not just in rural areas or states. Jeeps -- wrangler grand cherokes and others -- lots of them. Minivans -- lots of choice but Chrysler still makes the best. Cadillacs. Tons of them. Mostly old people. They are quite good. SUVs. Suburbans, Denalis, Expeditions, Explorers, Escapes. Those are more than 2 million cars a year.

In upscale neighborhoods in the DMV, there are tons of suburbans, jeeps, and Cadillacs.

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t read through the entire thread to see if someone already addressed this: There’s a difference between “Made in America”, and the engineering behind them. Yes, Subaru an and Toyota (as well as some other foreign brands) both have manufacturing plants in America. But the engineering is Japanese. I will not buy an American engineered car. I will always buy a car with Japanese engineering behind it, regardless of where it is actually put together.

Yes because the Japanese tend to be smarter generally in tech/science/mathematical areas.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, Tesla.

Gross.

Yes, Tesla.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t read through the entire thread to see if someone already addressed this: There’s a difference between “Made in America”, and the engineering behind them. Yes, Subaru an and Toyota (as well as some other foreign brands) both have manufacturing plants in America. But the engineering is Japanese. I will not buy an American engineered car. I will always buy a car with Japanese engineering behind it, regardless of where it is actually put together.

That’s not how engineering works

I’m guessing you probably think the robotic vehicle assembly lines in South Carolina or Ohio are also somehow dumber than the same machines in Kobe or Stuttgart, too?

What? Lol. No. Read the response above this (23:31), and be enlightened.

As someone who grew up around the U.S. auto industry, those saying their Toyotas, BMW, etc. are made in the U.S. are a bit misguided. U.S. laborers (often non-union) assembled the cars here. But a car is also a sum of its parts. Foreign brands tend to sources their materials -- metals, gears, powertrains, motors, electronics, etc. from outside the U.S. The auto industry is so much more than the company that sells a branded vehicle. There are companies that produce camshafts, crankshafts, the sound system, the motors for seats, etc. and, in the U.S., when the U.S. car industry plummets, there is a ripple effect for those in the supply chain. Foreign car makers tend to focus on mainly assembly in the U.S., but the industry's much bigger than that. And those with headquarters here also employ thousands of engineers, designers, marketers, managers, etc. whereas the foreign companies have very skeletal operations here. Maybe some lobbyists in DC and some marketing people and regional CEO types.
Additionally, the profits from the sales of foreign cars return to their foreign-owned companies.

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t read through the entire thread to see if someone already addressed this: There’s a difference between “Made in America”, and the engineering behind them. Yes, Subaru an and Toyota (as well as some other foreign brands) both have manufacturing plants in America. But the engineering is Japanese. I will not buy an American engineered car. I will always buy a car with Japanese engineering behind it, regardless of where it is actually put together.

That’s not how engineering works

I’m guessing you probably think the robotic vehicle assembly lines in South Carolina or Ohio are also somehow dumber than the same machines in Kobe or Stuttgart, too?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In my close-in suburb, the only American cars you see are Jeeps and Teslas. One or two neighborhoods out, however, you see a ton of larger American SUVs - we don't have the space for them here.

OP here.  There are plenty of space here in Langley and yet I am not seeing that many American made cars here.  I drive a Tesla Model 3, wife drives a Lexus LX470, my daughter drives Toyota RAV4; son drives a Lexus IS350.  One neighbor on the right drives a Tesla Model X, his wife drives BMW X5; his son drives BMW 335.  One neighbor on the left drives an Audi A8; his wife drives an Infiniti SUV; his son drives RAV4; his daughter drives Toyota Camry. 
Just fascinating

Just terrible: all these cars in the US. A car per person. Awful. In Europe it's 1 car per family, and 30% of people living in cities don't have cars at all.

I have a Ford Escape. Love it.

Anonymous wrote:I hope you know that a lot of foreign car companies actually make their cars in North America. My Subaru is made in Indiana.

Our new Outback was made in Indiana, as was our old one.

I didn’t read through the entire thread to see if someone already addressed this: There’s a difference between “Made in America”, and the engineering behind them. Yes, Subaru an and Toyota (as well as some other foreign brands) both have manufacturing plants in America. But the engineering is Japanese. I will not buy an American engineered car. I will always buy a car with Japanese engineering behind it, regardless of where it is actually put together.

I hope you know that a lot of foreign car companies actually make their cars in North America. My Subaru is made in Indiana.