Still buying imported cars.

OldWiseGuy

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Allowing the consumer to choose what to do with their own money is the core doctrine of Ronald Reagan

Reagan was a 'free trader' but left out the 'fair trade' part. We trade with other countries for their goods, they trade with us for our money. This is not good (for us). :cry:
 
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MorkandMindy

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Allowing the consumer to choose what to do with their own money is the core doctrine of Ronald Reagan

Reagan was a 'free trader' but left out the 'fair trade' part. We trade with other countries for their goods, they trade with us for our money. This is not good (for us). :cry:


They were very aware of that at the time, we were complicit in keeping the trade unfair against our own industries and trade balance from the Reagan administration onward.

The key was the 'misery index' that was part of the media weapon used against Carter.

The 'misery index' has virtually no grounding in reality since it is based on two relatively unimportant factors. The important factors are ones that set a person's view of the future - optimism factors and also - motivation factors.


What Reagan did was cash in the future for a boost in the present - 'eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die'.

Buying goods from other countries brought the prices down as long as those countries refused to allow their currencies to float up to balance the trade loss, if that had happened then market forces would have rapidly brought inflation back.

So we continued running a huge balance deficit as long as they kept their exports artificially cheap.




That brought inflation down and all those cheap imports kept inflation down and led to an 'import led boom'.
 
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MorkandMindy

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The country is still borrowing money on the basis that a future generation will pay it back

The country is still building more weapons and attacking more countries to secure oil supplies to be used now and in the near future,

and this will leave the next generation with no one to attack and no oil to steal because it will all be gone by then.
 
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jayem

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What exactly is an imported car? The best selling car in the US for several years now is the Camry, which is assembled in Georgetown, KY and Lafayette, IN. (Toyota Avalon is also made in KY. The Tundra and Siena, are assembled in the US, too.) Honda Accords are made in Ohio, and the Odyssey comes from Alabama. Mercedes-Benz makes SUVs in Tuscaloosa. Nissan has a design studio in Calif., and 3 production plants in the US making the Altima, Maxima, Pathfinder, and several other models. OTOH, Ford and GM make cars in Mexico, and all of the big 3 have plants in Canada.

So what is really an imported car? A Camry made in Kentucky, or a Ford Fusion made in Mexico?

Full disclosure: I am a Toyota shareholder. :wave:
 
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OldWiseGuy

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What exactly is an imported car? The best selling car in the US for several years now is the Camry, which is assembled in Georgetown, KY and Lafayette, IN. (Toyota Avalon is also made in KY. The Tundra and Siena, are assembled in the US, too.) Honda Accords are made in Ohio, and the Odyssey comes from Alabama. Mercedes-Benz makes SUVs in Tuscaloosa. Nissan has a design studio in Calif., and 3 production plants in the US making the Altima, Maxima, Pathfinder, and several other models. OTOH, Ford and GM make cars in Mexico, and all of the big 3 have plants in Canada.

So what is really an imported car? A Camry made in Kentucky, or a Ford Fusion made in Mexico?

Full disclosure: I am a Toyota shareholder. :wave:

No matter if the car is made in the U.S. if the company profits don't remain here. Toyota's profits alone account for 5 per cent of the entire Japanese GDP. By locating their plants here they're killing us by the inch instead of by the yard, but they're still killing us. :cry:
 
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jayem

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No matter if the car is made in the U.S. if the company profits don't remain here. Toyota's profits alone account for 5 per cent of the entire Japanese GDP. By locating their plants here they're killing us by the inch instead of by the yard, but they're still killing us. :cry:

They're providing well-paying jobs to American workers. How is that killing us any more than when American companies move jobs to Mexico?
 
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MorkandMindy

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Allowing the consumer to choose what to do with their own money is the core doctrine of Ronald Reagan

No matter if the car is made in the U.S. if the company profits don't remain here. Toyota's profits alone account for 5 per cent of the entire Japanese GDP. By locating their plants here they're killing us by the inch instead of by the yard, but they're still killing us. :cry:

They're providing well-paying jobs to American workers. How is that killing us any more than when American companies move jobs to Mexico?

The key to our success has always been FREEDOM

and that means not robbing the public and allowing MAXIMUM CONSUMER CHOICE just like Ronald Reagan always said.

Somehow that Reagan magic never works when anyone else tries it.
 
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MattRose

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The Soviet Union had a closed economic system for car production. Among others, they produced the Lada and the Yugo. Lack of competition made these cars the worst in the world in quality and reliability. The same thing would have happened to us if we had listened to the "Look for the union label" folks when we decided to buy Hondas and Toyotas in the 1970's and 80's. Some of our cars are now beating some of the Japanese brands in quality and reliability. They sure didn't in the 70's and 80's did they? What incentive would Ford and the others have had to work harder and improve quality if we all just blindly bought American? Our companies wouldn't be players in the international market and we would be driving Fords whose doors fall off when they hit speed bumps.
 
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MorkandMindy

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The Soviet Union had a closed economic system for car production. Among others, they produced the Lada and the Yugo. Lack of competition made these cars the worst in the world in quality and reliability. The same thing would have happened to us if we had listened to the "Look for the union label" folks when we decided to buy Hondas and Toyotas in the 1970's and 80's. Some of our cars are now beating some of the Japanese brands in quality and reliability. They sure didn't in the 70's and 80's did they? What incentive would Ford and the others have had to work harder and improve quality if we all just blindly bought American? Our companies wouldn't be players in the international market and we would be driving Fords whose doors fall off when they hit speed bumps.


Lots of people have enjoyed the various Lada models, you do have to adjust the tappets and cam chain but otherwise mostly pretty good. The Lada Niva is considered reliable but there is the balance between customer and factory worker visible in it - the factory worker doesn't clean up any sharp edges - the customer has to deal with those.

US cars picked up a bad name because when there were faults they kept the production line going and expected dealers to fix the faults. But in the main they were pretty good though they do drink fuel.

Way back before Japanese competition the Ford Model T (1908 - 1927) was a World beater in reliability and price; it was built in a number of countries and sold pretty well everywhere and used for plenty of things apart from a four seat car.

Various traditional Plymouth's were known to last almost forever, and of course the Checker Cab was hard to beat for toughness reliability and with jump seats it could seat 8.
 
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MattRose

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Lots of people have enjoyed the various Lada models, you do have to adjust the tappets and cam chain but otherwise mostly pretty good. The Lada Niva is considered reliable but there is the balance between customer and factory worker visible in it - the factory worker doesn't clean up any sharp edges - the customer has to deal with those.

US cars picked up a bad name because when there were faults they kept the production line going and expected dealers to fix the faults. But in the main they were pretty good though they do drink fuel.
I have driven and ridden in a Lada in Georgia (Black Sea one). I'm aware they have some fans and can run for 200k+ miles. That is an oddity in an otherwise POS car. I remember feeling rocks hit the underside of the rear armrest as it doubled for the rear wheel well and was just sheet metal with plastic covering it. When we drove through small puddles the water inexplicably splashed onto the windshield. The car cost so little that it had fans, but the quality was never close to the worst American car (at least of the same era). Same goes for the Yugo. The Soviets could not compete with cheap cars from western and asian nations which could match the price and far exceed the Soviet cars quality.

Buying American without regard to competitors offerings would lead to American car quality taking a nosedive.
 
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Johnny Todd

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Americans, in the face of back-breaking trade deficits, are still buying foreign made vehicles by the millions. Have we learned nothing? :confused:
Ahhh! I think we learned Toyota and Honda make longer lasting, more economical, and better on gas cars. If American car manufactures were on the ball, they would of developed comparable models, but they are always a few years behind. The saddest thing about capitalism is people want the best buy for their money, and America just isn't producing the best stuff anymore, and China is making all the stuff for people who don't care about quality but just need somthing cheap
 
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abysmul

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Americans, in the face of back-breaking trade deficits, are still buying foreign made vehicles by the millions. Have we learned nothing? :confused:

How about I buy whatever car I feel is the best for my money and that best fits my list of requirements?

I've had vehicles from Chevy, Mazda, Toyota, Dodge, Mitsubishi, and currently Ford.

Want people to buy more American cars? Make cars as good or better than non-American cars at a better price. Just a thought.
 
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OldWiseGuy

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I guess then it's really up to Washington to formulate better trade policies with our trading partners. Which party do you think would address this most effectively? My guess is the Democrat party, however they must first be made aware of the problem. (You would think someone would notice nearly $500Billion leaving the country every year.)
 
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A_maize

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The OP has no idea how dominant American firms are across the globe. American products have penetrated deeply into pretty much every market in the world, and hold a huge number of patents in every field. Anyone someone buys a cell phone in India, guess who they pay?

Also, american financial firms own a big chunk in pretty much every successful company in the world, including Toyota and Honda. I'm not kidding. We're complaining that the Japanese make good cars. The Japanese are complaining that Toyota is owned by the U.S. anyway.

I find it funny the OP concentrates on the cars while conveniently ignoring all the other huge amount of profits our companies rake in. It's a market economy, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.
 
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