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If only "ALL" american thought that way, not just with their vehicle purchases but with their other purchases as well. I've run into people, not literally, who now say, because the WTO is trying to make "US" all a ONE WORLD, that my car truck / motorcycle / TV was made in the USA because it says so right on the door jam etc. WEll let me insert a little info in here, the most complicated vehicle made, assemblied, in the USA the assembly cost / time is only most just 18% of the TOTAL unit cost. Toyota Cars / Trucks total per vehicle USA input, assembly / parts / material, cost is 36%, Honda 55%, Issusa 27%, Susuki 26%, Sony TV's 21%. The TV that has the most USA content is Zenith with about 60% parts and labor being from the USA. Toyota even go one better on their truccks. They build them completely in Japan and ship them to the USA less the box. Now w/out the box they are not clasified as a truck, they're clasified as a three passenger car there by avoiding the 24% tariff placed on trucks and pay on the 4% placed on cars. Once they are here the box is attached, made & painted in Calif. I wonder just how much Value added there is there??? IN fact I wonder just how much USA VALUE ADDED there is in any Japanese product sold in the USA???
Cub, my Brother has two Harley's, a Sportster & a full dresser plus his wife just won a brand new 2002 stripped Fat Boy. So far it's cost her about 2K for a seat / pipes. chrome front end & handle bars. Of course they both drive Ford cars / trucks, unlike me and my new Flame Red 2003 Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab. It's the local Ford dealer's fault that I purchased the Dodge, of course Marion had some input being a Chrysler retiree and getting her discount and all. I took my 2002 F150 King Ranch in 5 times to have the front end fixed and they found nothing. But at a local tire store in Baltimore an 18 year old car jockey noticed the the lugs nuts were not seated properly.
RK
Manufacturer's of World Class Golf Club Repair Equipment
-------Original Message-------
Date: Monday, October 21, 2002 7:27:28 PM
Subject: Re: ShopTalk: Re: RK and My GMEvy Discovery
RK,
When I lived in Japan I thought it odd that US cars being imported had to meet Japanese standards. To me that meant all of the safety items had to be removed! I got some great deals on cars over there. I bought their version of the Camry for myself and the wife. I paid $700 for my stick shift model, with 18,000 miles on it, and $800 for her top-of-the-line automatic. To bring them back to the states would have cost me many thousands of dollars to bring them up to US standards.
I always liked the Taurus and use to specifically request it whenever I rented a car. Today, in my garage, you will find an F-150 4x4 Lariat, a Mustang, and a Harley. I've owned foreign cars and motorcycles but I think the US has come a long way in quality. As long as ours is good, I'll continue to support the US car manufacturers.
Cub
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, October 19, 2002 5:06 AM
Subject: Re: ShopTalk: Re: RK and My GMEvy Discovery
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Cub, almost the same thing happened to "THE WIFE". Being a loyal Chrysler employee she bought a Dodge Dart, SCAT" one time. The only thing was all the markings on the outside of the car were "Dodge SCAT" while all the markings on the inside were "Plymouth Road Runner". At Ford, back in the early 80's, a fellow co-worker bought a Ford "Fairlane" that had Red Door Panels, his first choice, on one side and Green on the other side his second choice. Being in Value Engineering also allowed me to see just about "ALL" makes and models sold in the USA, American, Japanese's, both US assembled and Japanese's assembled, plus most of Europe. The thing that got all of us engineer's was the Japanese vehicles. High Tech my ass, most were very low tech pieces of junk, put together fairly well, must say the early ones were built a lots better than anything we, All of the US based Car/Truck companies built. It was a wake up call. In the mid 80's we measure vehicles in "Repairs per 100, and the Camery was the best @ 117/ repairs per 100. The 86 Taurus was Ford's quality leader @ 174 repairs per 100 and it was also the fourth best built vehicle "Sold" in the US. Today, even with all of the transplants things have gotten 10 times better. When I retired in 93 we were measuring our quality in repairs per 1000 and today the best built/assembled vehicle ,mass produced, sold in the US is the Ford Taurus @ 114/ repairs per 1000. Running a very close second is the Camery @ 118/ repairs per 1000. We got all of our quality information through dual dealerships. I think the worst built vehicle sold in the US today, I forgot just what model Cadillac, is only 147/ repairs per 1000. And that's a whole lot better than the Camery was back in the the mid to late 80's.
Well enough of my soap boxing got to stumble on out and meet the day, and I do mean "STUMBLE"
RK
Manufacturer's of World Class Golf Club Repair Equipment
-------Original Message-------
Date: Friday, October 18, 2002 7:59:53 PM
Subject: ShopTalk: Re: RK and My GMEvy Discovery
RK,
I was at a Chevy/GMC dealer in Colorado one day. I was trying to deal with him on a new Silverado. While I was waiting I checked out a new GMC. When the salesman was ready to talk to me I asked him how much he wanted for the GMC out front. He said "Oh, that one. You must have looked at it from the right side". I gave him a puzzled look and he told me to go around the truck again. Sure enough the right side was marked GMC, the left was Chevy, the grill was GMC and the tailgate was Chevy. The truck must have been made on a Monday!
I ended up down the road where I drove away with a F150 4x4 King Cab ;-) I haven't owned anything else but Ford trucks since!
Cub
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