Toyotas not so easy ride

[Guest Sixcav]

LMAO Thank you for that insightful analysis. You must be like some kind of roaming internet Dr. Phil or something. Travelling from website to website dispensing free information. By the way I tried the Britney Spears website and apparently she's on tour or something, not available for argument. lol

[bec5150]

If that were true, then you wouldn't be here so often trolling. Yet you still do it. Again, no one here is saying Ford is without faults. Richie and others provide a well constructed opinion based upon fact and actual product. Then trolls like you come in, say everything will fail and the sky is falling down. Then when someone post back showing how you have certain errors in your judgement you automatically percieve us to be 'worshipers'. Personally buying a Ford, whether it be CAW, UAW, or Mexican, is more money give to the American tax dollar than any foreign manufacturer. A dollar for Ford goes towards American owned business, engineering, and manufacturing. I guess you must of fell asleep in Economics 101 and never heard of terms like "gross domestic product".

This is 100% grade A bullshit!! How can you make such a blanket statement like "Ford = better for America" and "Japanese make = bad for America?" Even my little Ranger, about as American as they come, has all kinds of imported parts hanging off of it. The Fusion is a foreign car and I don't give a flip if it has a blue oval on it or not. It's an import, period.

 

They had to move the manufacture to Mexico because they couldn't afford the legacy cost AND the UAW pay and benefit levels while selling the vehicle at a profit. If they could, the Fusion would be getting assembled in Atlanta. Right??

 

Now that Toyota and Nissan is entering the truck market, you can buy a full sized domestic truck for a fraction of what they sold for 7 years ago. I bet the profit margin is pretty damn slim as well. It might even be immeasurable. Ford was selling the Taurus for a loss over the last 5 years, but they made it up on trucks. That's not the case anymore, thus, again, the move to Mexico.

 

Which brings me to my next question. What circumstance is going to keep Ford from moving the next F-150 manufacturing effort to Mexico? Well?

 

At this point, the only thing that UAW seems to be doing is postponing what seems to be inevitable.

 

So the trend is Ford is moving manufacturing OUT of the US and Honda is moving there INTO the US.

 

You are right, Ford does manufacture more domestically than Toyota, but the graphs show Fords % going down and Toyota and Honda going UP. And, as I said, legacy cost and UAW levels of pay and benefits are the reason why.

 

What can the UAW do to keep the manufacturing in the US while mainting "their" cut of the business? That's the $60,000 question and I honestly don't know the answer.

 

It doesn't make a hill of beans to me. I have to buy with my wallet. I will buy the best product on the market overall. When Ford makes it, I buy. If someone else makes it, then I buy theirs. I figure if I would have bought an Escape instead of a CR-V, I would have cost myself well over $5000 (purchase cost, resale, and projected life span of the vehicle) and had am overall lower rated vehicle. However, you woudl be interested to know that if Honda did not support the US economy, I would have purchased another brand. But as I said, Honda does more for the Ohio economy that Ford does right now and that's a fact. So I bought a Honda.

 

When I buy my next truck, it might be a Ranger as well, but I have a feeling when that day comes, it won't be a domestic vehicle. The trend and reasons behind those trends simply support no other train of thought.

Edited September 25, 2006 by bec5150

[StevenJ]

But here's the thing you fail to see. Even though foriegn competitors are building more plants here, they'll never build any where near as many as Ford or especially GM have. It's funny, I made a very general blanket statement in one paragraph and you go for a whole essay's worth. You people and your 'foriegn' love affairs, come on. BTW, you still don't take into account engineering for thoose vehicles into your "Japanese is better for America" statements.

[bec5150]

But here's the thing you fail to see. Even though foriegn competitors are building more plants here, they'll never build any where near as many as Ford or especially GM have. It's funny, I made a very general blanket statement in one paragraph and you go for a whole essay's worth. You people and your 'foriegn' love affairs, come on. BTW, you still don't take into account engineering for thoose vehicles into your "Japanese is better for America" statements.

Yes I did...the big "three" of Japan all have separate engineering centers located in the US for the US market. Furthermore, I have stated that in 10 years, not even GM or Ford are going to have as many factories in the US as they do now. You are living in the present and for the present, you are 100% correct. However, as I stated, if the UAW doesn't give GM and Ford an incentive to keep their factories open in the US, there will be serious reprocussions.

 

Think about it. Ford took it's #1 bread and butter sedan and moved it's manufacturing to Mexico. That's a big, BIG deal. You treat it as a trivial "bleap" in an otherwise "red, white, and blue" company. I see it as the beginning of a trend and it concerns me greatly. It should concern you. I know if Honda closed it's Ohio manufacturing plants and moved them back to Japan or down to Mexico, I would take big time notice.

Edited September 25, 2006 by bec5150

[StevenJ]

I don't know about you but Toyota certainly manufactures and is considering moving even more production to Mexico. Even after the plant closings, I still doubt that the foriegn automakers will match the number of plants Ford and especially not the number GM has.