Lost Your Job Yet? Keep Buying Foreign
Today I was cursing on my way to hockey today and I saw on the back of a Ford escape a bumper sticker that read “Lost Your Job Yet? Keep buying Foreign” it was sandwiched between two war support ribbons. As I up-shifted my Mazda (who is was in bed with Ford) I thought to myself damn this car is going to cost me my job right?
Wrong.
I hate bumper stickers, they are an ugly way to get an often incorrect opinion/statement/propaganda/gibberish across to people who are not effected by whatever witty quip you are flaunting about.
I have owned a few cars in my day, 3 to be exact, one domestic two foreign. To be more specific, one German, one American, and my current is Japanese. By no surprise the American wound up on the bottom in terms of reliability, fun to drive, and fit and finish but that thing was damn curse and deserves an entire blog of it’s own.
It would be entirely to easy to ridicule domestic cars for their turdiness (Aztec anyone?) but if Mr Escape owner were to look at the readily available facts foreign car manufactures DO employ Canadians, and not just in retail but, also the manufacturing sector.
Honda has plants in Alliston Ontario and Markham Ontario, and Toyota has plants in Cambridge and Woodstock, and both are going to continue expanding into Canada, and probably no doubt have plants in the states.
Now I can hear Johnny Escape screaming ” My uncle Will lost his job because of people damn buying foreign cars!”. That sucks, really, I am not an ass, losing your job and supporting 2.5 kids on one income must be tough, especially when one of your kids its just the bottom half. However he didn’t loose his job just because of foreign cars.
Like most things in this word there is more to this issue than meets the eye (Transformers references are awesome), the economy is hurting right now, and the reasons why people are loosing there jobs are far too complicated to be fit onto a “witty” bumper sticker.
But hey, you can always
Tags: Automotive, Bumpersticker, Foreign Cars, Wrong
December 6th, 2008 at 11:53 am
HONK!!
December 8th, 2008 at 8:55 am
Hazah! All good points.
And how bout that bail out? If domestic companies just bit down on the union and stopped paying their workers an avg. of $70 an hour after benefits and pension they might save enough money to stay in business.
Toyota uses non union shops for manufacturing and they just opened a brand new state of the art facility IN CANADA.
December 8th, 2008 at 10:15 am
I am staying away from the bailout topic. Too heated, and everyones talking about it already.
I agree domestic companies unions went crazy and jacked up the hourly wage and now they are in a hole.
Toyota run forever!
January 26th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
Here are some actual facts for you foreign car lovers to chew on. I realize there is quite a bit to mull over and its not in Japanese or German so good luck.
Trade policies such as NAFTA have forced US automakers to compete uphill on a tilted global playing field; the vast US consumer market stands wide open to foreign competition while the growing foreign markets remain closed to US made products. In short, so-called free trade has been free in name only, and American companies and workers have paid the price in lost sales and lost jobs.
In 2007 alone, the US incurred a $53 billion dollar trade deficit in automobiles with Japan, $31 billion with Mexico, $15 billion with Germany, and $10 billion with South Korea. While South Korea automakers sell more than 700,000 subsidized vehicles in the US annually, restrictions in their domestic market limit sales of American-made vehicles to fewer than 7,000 a year. Overall, we import twice as much as we export, which is simply not a viable business model for Gm, Ford, and Chrysler – or for our nation.
Tax policies are equally unfair to American companies. The value added tax (VAT) represents another competitive disadvantage for the American companies. Japan has a five percent VAT; China, 17 percent; Germany, 19 percent; and France, 19.6 percent. This tax relieves automakers in those countries of the social costs of production (health and pension benefits). The economic consequences to US manufacturers have been horrific and compounding for decades. For example, when a German automaker exports a $50,000 vehicle to the US, it will receive a 19 percent VAT export rebate, worth $9,500. When one of the Big 3 automakers exports a $50,000 vehicle to Germany, however, it must pay a $9,500 VAT-equivalent tax to the German government. Thus, American products are price disadvantaged in both markets. (These discriminatory VAT rules also provide a powerful incentive to outsource production from the US).
Domestic policies also work to disadvantage the US companies, which must shoulder extremely large burdens, particularly for health care benefits but also workers safety and environmental compliance, for both workers and retirees. Most other countries provide national health insurance, which relieves the companies from that cost. Countries that fail to enforce labor and environmental laws give their companies an additional advantage against US companies. And countries such as communist China or post-NAFTA Mexico, which allow their workers to toil in dangerous conditions for a fraction of the wages as workers in industrialized nations such as the US, create an artificial advantage that make them attractive to production platforms.
January 26th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
Honk
January 28th, 2009 at 11:02 am
Breaker, you obviously know your stuff… Drop me an e-mail at Chromacolor2@yahoo.com, I’d like to discuss something with you of mutual interest.
January 28th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
Ok, so American Car companies are dinged a fair bit due to trade policies. But then why do they still make inferior vehicles?
Should they not come out with a better product that sells more units to offset production costs?
February 2nd, 2009 at 10:18 pm
Hello. Great job.
February 12th, 2009 at 10:39 am
I totally agree with the poster! Also as a consumer why would I care about all these politics? I just want a reliable car that is fun to ride. If you want me to drive a ford, Chrysler or GM you are more than welcome to buy me one and fix it as needed.
There is another side to that coin (or shall I say another side to that bumper sticker), it says.
“Still fixing your car? Keep on buying American!”
February 12th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
HONK HONK
February 15th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
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February 15th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
Lost Your Job Yet? Keep Buying Foreign was interesting. You seem very knowledgeable in import car insurance.
February 16th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
Hey everyone I have added a sort of follow up to this here: http://www.havokproductions.ca/randomasrhyme/?p=443
February 20th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Lost Your Job Yet? Keep Buying Foreign was a perfect blog in the world of import car insurance.
February 24th, 2009 at 12:07 am
Yeah I mean when I go to cruise-ins and car shows all the time I always see 1970s and 80s Toyotas and Hondas…oh wait that’s a LIE. For some reason they just don’t seem to LAST! Okay so the engine kept running, but what’s the point if you’re going to fall through the rusting floor board? Wonder why the police forces around the nation use cars from the Big 3…does Toyota make a Firetruck yet? Or a diesel engine that lasts over 400,000 miles in a truck that delivers goods all across the country? Wait a minute…did Toyota and Honda help us win WWII buy stopping production of their vehicles to keep this country from being turned into a war zone? Seemed to have forgotten about that. Funny how I see fleet and construction trucks everywhere that are Chevy, Ford, and Dodge. They must be doing something right! Maybe you guys should try buying American one more time. Sorry if you purchased a lemon in the 80s but the honest truth is…the Big 3 didn’t have much to compete against a rusting piece of crap, now did they? But for some reason I still see American cars still around and at car shows all over the country! Just step back and take a look next time folks.
February 24th, 2009 at 10:17 am
First to clear things up a bit I am Canadian not American. So all that stuff about ww II I am just going to ignore for sake of being out of my element.
Yes at car shows you see a lot of American cars because I will admit, muscle cars are bad ass. I hope to one day own one of my own, but I can tell you right now it won’t be my daily driver. It’s just not efficient or practical.
American cars do rust, and I bet a lot of the cars at shows needed new floors put in. Don’t pretend you don’t know that.
My blazer was a huge rust bucket when I got it I had to do new rockers, floors, and rear quarter panels. American cars rust out just as easy as imports. Take a look at recent Sunfires and cavaliers, most have rotten rockers and rear qps.
Let’s not forget Dodges where the paint basically falls off after a few years.
Cars were just built stronger before. But they were also heavier and less efficient.
How often do you see American cars from the 1970s and 80s with a motor worth talking about as a daily driver?
Ok, in the industrial side Americans motor companies are still fairly prevalent. Probably because a lot of older companies have long standing reputations with them and American manufacturers are great at making big loud powerful motors.
But for arguments sake I did find a Toyota fire truck: http://www.flickr.com/photos/robinthom/2372465112/
I don’t hate American cars, but it is hard to imagine myself ever owning one as a daily driver again.
February 25th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
@Ryan
1. Why would Toyota and Honda stop production to help the US win a war? Last I checked they were on the opposite side of said war. Also the police forces around your nation use cars from the big 3 because if they didn’t people would shit because they weren’t buying domestic.
2. Fleet after fleet of domestic shipping vehicles isn’t much of an argument either. Go to Japan and you won’t see Mack trucks. Or England and you won’t see Freightliner. No company is going to pay to ship the whole truck and parts over seas. That’s just common business sense.
February 28th, 2009 at 8:33 am
Regardless of who makes a better rust bucket, it is about saving jobs on home ground. Even though Canada is Canada and the US is the US we are all from North America, consequently Americans, and I can tell you that Canadians have a very large stake in the US auto industry. Not only are there plants in Canada that make parts and cars, but I work first hand with Canadian vendors that do integration of robot automation, lasers, etc.
I also think that everyone that criticizes the quality of a domestic vehicle compared to foreign vehicles hasn’t been in a domestic vehicle in awhile and hasn’t seen data on domestic quality versus foreign quality.