ABC Tackles Automotive Globalization, Crowns Camry Best for U.S. Jobs

Very nice Toyota infomercial!!!
What about the rest of the cars that are 80% made in the US, why are they not mentioned?
Nice one.

@ banhugh

Here are 2011's Top 15 American Made Cars (by percentage of parts content from US). You can cross off #2 Mercury from the list as Merc has gone the way of Pontiac and Olds.

1. Ford - Sport Trac: 90% Made in US

2. Mercury - Mountaineer: 85% Made in US

3. Ford - Explorer: 85% Made in US

4. Dodge - Dakota: 84% Made in US

5. Dodge - Avenger: 83% Made in US

6. Volkswagen - Routan: 82% Made in US

7. Dodge - Grand Caravan: 82% Made in US

8. Chrysler - 200 Sedan: 81% Made in US

9. Toyota - Tundra, Sequoia and Camry: 80% Made in US

10. GMC - Savana: 80% Made in US

11. Chevrolet - Express: 80% Made in US

12. Dodge - Nitro: 80% Made in US

13. Honda - Accord: 80% Made in US

14. Chrysler - Town & Country: 80% Made in US

15. Jeep - Wrangler 4 Door: 79% Made in US

ABC News clearly said that they were going off of the following question: "If you're about to buy a new car, which one would create the most American jobs?" If you want to go out and find out how many American jobs each one of the other cars on the list creates and get back to us on that, go right on ahead. But I will say that I highly doubt ABC is just shilling for Toyota. IIRC, they went particularly hard after Toyota following "Unintended Acceleration-gate."

Here's another list for ya banhugh, taking into account the number of jobs created. It appears that the Domestics and Japanese each wind up w/ 5 cars in the top ten:

2010's Top American Manufactured Cars*:

1.Toyota - Camry

2. Honda - Accord

3. Ford - Escape

4. Ford - Focus

5. Chevrolet - Malibu

6. Honda - Odyssey

7. Dodge - Ram 1500 (Quad cab and crew cab only)

8. Toyota - Tundra

9. Jeep - Wrangler

10. Toyota - Sienna

Source: Cars.com *Cars.com does not take into consideration R&D and headquarter jobs created by the various cars

"Tackles" not "Tackels".

Spell check, please.

the findings werent shocking, many made for the US Japanese brand vehicles have high US content because they share so little with cars of the same name sold abroad. The flip side is Japanese brands also have far more models with virtually NO american content and of course in these simplistic comparisons the design and testing of new models isnt counted. ABC was trying to surprise people by illustrating that a made in the US Japanese car is "more American" than many American branded cars. If you look at car models in a vacuum than their analysis is probably accurate.

I was just about to note the typo

This does come off as a Toyota infomercial, wether or not that was ABCs intent. Toyota has worked hard over the years to rebrand themselves as an American company in the USA.

Sorry. Automotive jobs need to stay outside of the US. I'd rather not compromise MY safety.

That "How American is Your Car" calculator seems to be a bit off. My Silverado, built in Indiana with an engine built in New York, is listed as 61% American. A Charger, built in Canada with an engine built in Mexico (at least for the V8), is listed as 70% American.

I'm guessing they are using North American content, as shown on the window sticker, and just calling it American. But then, why should I expect to get anything close to the truth from ABC News?

@ 120mmgun

It's US/Canadian parts content. Although I agree, it does seem a bit sketchy, maybe they averaged the V6/V8 versions? The data is from NHTSA, so I'd venture to say that it's the same as what's on the window sticker. Not sure what you meant by "But then, why should I expect to get anything close to the truth from ABC News?", I don't remember ABC News ever falsifying a story or any such scandal (a la Dan Rather/CBS).

teampenske3 your list should not include the Chrysler trio of vans, Caravan/Routan/T&C, they are all made in Canada.... Didn't the Ford Explorer Sport Trac end production with the 2010 year?

As others have indicated, it's not anywhere near as simplistic as ABC news indicates.

What does it mean to be made in the US? How many levels down are you going to track those parts? What weight do you apply to each part? How about assembly? Design? Engineering? Profit? If something isn't in the US, where is it made, friend or foe?

It'd be great if the Camry really were 80% American, but others have provided data to contradict it's #1 claim. ABC News gets a B for effort, but D for execution.

I think often people confuse North American production with products produced in the United States, huge difference!

@teampenske3

Uh, are you sure that list is accurate? 3 of the cars on that list aren't even in production any more (Sport Trac, Mountaineer, Dakota) Where did you get that list from?

@teampenske3

Whether it's North American or US/Canadian, I don't understand how products made outside the U.S. are counted as American. I've got to believe it's payback to the unions so it's more UAW/CAW rather than US/Canadian. Shame on NHTSA.

ABC, NBC, or CBS - it doesn't matter. They all put ratings far ahead of truth in their reporting which is why we end up with Rather, exploding pickups, etc. I stopped being a regular watcher long ago and my occasional view of one of these network "news" programs tends to reinforce that decision.

I'm totally surprised the Porsche Panamera is 62% made in the USA, according to this calculator.
Really?

My take: foriegn brands use far more non-union manufacturing. The US domestic automakers are saddled with more UAW plants and, to compensate, rely on more outsourcing. I love the irony in that.

"How about assembly? Design? Engineering? Profit? If something isn't in the US, where is it made, friend or foe?"

Great point. For some odd reason, people think the plants are in charge of the entire operation. They just put things together after nearly EVERYTHING ELSE has already been worked out. So, what of the rest? I think that would slant things away from foreign brands, in many cases.

@ kevm14

Toyota is union, FWIW.

Are they? If they have union shops, I think they pale in comparison to UAW shops for domestic automakers.

Yep...most of their US shops are UAW, including the Georgetown, Ky one. Honda is non-union though.

@teampenske3;

The knuckle-draggers have yet to organize the Georgetown plant:
http://www.tundraheadquarters.com/blog/2010/09/10/uaw-recruits-toyota-georgetown/

@ RB

I knew they had been working on that for a while...still haven't gotten around to it?

My GTI....1% lol

Much fuss about nothing. Almost of of the smaller components are made in Asia anyhow so really this is a pissing contest about where final assembly of the foreign made components is finally done.

And since I don't work for some over priced, over paid union I don't care.

@teampenske3;

Idiot UAW president Bob King really wants to organize the "foreign" US plants but their workers are smart enough to realize that the only entity that will benefit from organizing is the UAW...

Well foreign plants set wages and benefits largely on what UAW workers get to discourage them from organizing. The "knuckle draggers" help get better wages for the people in the non union plants. Toyota pays its workers almost as much as the top paid older UAW workers. There isnt a huge wage disparity between UAW and non union autoworkers.

If the knuckle draggers help keep the plants non-union then I'd have to admit that they serve a useful purpose.

firstwagon, I work for a union. I got paid a lot more when I didn't. Most things were better when I didn't.

I used to work for a union too (CAW). It paid well but the the union made it a miserable place to work and I got laid off anyhow.

All the best jobs I've had have been non union.