Quote:
Originally Posted by edeeZee
The Japanese cars you see in the U.S. are the "mainstream" Japanese cars. The esoteric or JDM ones e.g. Suzuki Cappucino, or the recent wave of "Scion-type" cars i.e. Nissan Cube and the likes are innately Japanese. However, the mainstream Japanese cars a la Z, Accord, Camry are probably desgined here for the raw concept, but the refining and final touches are Japanese.
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Agreed. Scion box cars nissan cube etc and other quirky subcompact designs are usually native origin cars as also are the expensive cars. (In most cases)
But let me also add.
The general market cars. (Cars catered to the middle class) are designed and produced
In what is now a globalized market. The days of one country taking credit for a car or design are days that are 85% over. Examples:
Randy Rodriguez entered what was a designer lottery and won. Nissan wasn't sure which way to go with the 370z and asked over 200 designers globally to come up with there next design. And Randy, a filipino american designer out of california won that bid. The engineering in the car. The structural chassis design and functional design are all japanese.
Randy designed the body style and gave the general synopsis of how the car should be built around his design. It was the collabo of marketers and engineers who gave the designers the summary of what they wanted out of the next Z design. So this car is truely a global effort but not as thick of a global effort as our american corps.
Chevy Camaro... designed in Australia. Built in canada.
As much as redneck america wants to buy american with this car. Most profits will be outsourced appropiately to the corresponding offices and a low foreign corporate tax will be paid in that country stimulating there economy. We pay the import tax in the msrp in camaro.
2011 Chevy Cruze. The upcoming game changer of the american econocar market is actually a South Korean research,design and enginnering. Where it will be built is being discussed but my guess this platform will most likely be built in mexico, where the cobalt was built.
Most cars from gm are built outside the country. Only the SUV's were exclusively built here except for the equinox.
Hyundai genesis coupe is the car that interestingly is very american though its built in south korea. This car was designed by young american desgners. Engineered mostly by americans as well. 80% of this car is american. In many ways the hyundai genesis coupe is more american than camaro when u look at all who are the shotcallers on this car.
This car was John Krafcik's project and he was the american 90% responsible for this car.
Not to mention that north koreans pay nearly 30% more for this car so we don't pay import tax in our msrp and keep the cost down. Foreign countries look out for our pockets more than our own companies.
The only americans responsible for anything on the camaro was a board of directors that either approved or disapproved design aspects of the camaro. The camaro is really a collaboration of australian and german engineers.
So basically what your uncle is tellingu is a sliver of truth as to show patriotism even if he so called "sold out" for a foreign car. He can say it was designed here or whatever.
Now u can go back n tell ur uncle that the market is a global one and the global economy gets stimulated no matter which car u buy. Its just how companies manage there money and make there logistics decisions is how companies fail today. Its not about u not buying domestic. Remember, gm had saab. Ford is partnered with mazda, jaguar, rolls royce and volvo. I probably missed a couple more.
Chrysler was with benz and now with fiat. Not to mention they are partners with mitsubishi.
All econo cars made by chevy in the 80's n 90's were mainly toyota and suzuki derived. So its also been going on for a while. It just got bigger.