GM, Ford reputations take a hit

My point is: Mike the world is much more integrated than your little outdated view of it tells you and this flow of parts around the world has been going on for a long time.

-When the big 2.5 buy parts from Delphi it is very likely they are imported. Delphi import most of their parts. As of the Chapter 11 filing last April Delphi employed 32,000 UAW and other union workers in the USA plus 115,000-worker foreign factories, many of which operate in low-wage countries such as Mexico and China.

-Toyota builds engines in the USA, but Chrysler imports the 2.7L V6 from Mexico.

-In 1980 I removed a damaged wheel rim from my Chrysler Horizon and noticed it was made in Mexico. That was the Chrysler car using a VW engine made in Germany.

-Last summer I replaced the blower resistor in my wife's Sebring. The old resistor was made in Mexico, the replacement in Slovenia.

-Car carrying ships returning to Asia return with NA parts. Here we have a major Al wheel factory. They ship wheels to Japan and Korea on the returning car carrying ships.

You need to read more and become up to date:

Vehicles produced by companies other than the North American Big 3 currently account for about 44% of North American sales. However, many of the major foreign automobile companies now provide the bulk of their North American sales from their production facilities on this continent. As a result, imports account for only 20% of sales of light vehicles in the United States and just under 25% in Canada.

U.S. imports of motor vehicle parts are quite diversified with about 50% coming from overseas markets. At the end of the 1990s, Mexico surpassed Canada as a supplier of parts to the U.S. market. U.S. parts imports from China have just recently become important, and they are growing rapidly. U.S. imports of car parts from Japan have been flat, while the purchases of U.S.-made parts by the Japanese ³transplants² has soared, reflecting the fact that Japanese suppliers followed the Japanese assemblers in setting up operations in North America. Canada imports parts almost exclusively from the United States, although one should recognize that some of these parts may be originating overseas, but are landing first in the U.S. before being shipped to Canada.

I meant, WMIs, which are the first three characters in a VIN.

U.S. parts imports from China have just recently become important, and they are growing rapidly.

And this is what scares the heck out of me. How are the auto makers going to keep the counterfeit parts made in unauthorized factories out of their cars. If I had the opportunity to bet on this I would wager every last bit of my assets that this is going to become a MAJOR problem for Chinese sourced parts

U.S. imports of car parts from Japan have been flat, while the

Double Tap

Don't be fooled by that, Japanese companies assembling in the US and Canada buy the majority of the part from other Japanese companies operating in the US. The parts they buy from them are preassembled over seas and completed in the US or Canada so the parts can be labeled made in the US and Canada. I E Nippon steel which comes into the US by the boat load, Bridgestone tires, Desno Globe parts etc. they do it to take advantage of Japanese tax laws that permit them to take profit out of the US federal tax free.

One reason there are far few Japanese brands made or sold in Europe is the tax laws their are not so lenient. The must pay the Value added tax on all the profit they earn in Europe and do not get the capital return tax back in Japan for exporting or making cars and trucks outside of Japan, like they do on earning brought back to Japan from the US.

mike

Mike, The above was not my post you sniped my part out. Double Tap

Evidence, please.

And why would they do this? Japanese labor rates are just as expensive as they are in the US.

And pay Japanese tax on it.

That was a good guess. How about evidence to back your claims?

Yeah, and European companies in Europe don't pay the tax. ;-)

More speculation.

In Europe, Toyota sold about 850,000 cars and trucks. It is about as big a market as the US (about 15,000,000 cars and trucks a year). They are 8th in sales, behind VW. Peugeot, Ford, GM, Renault, Fiat and DC. They sell more than BWM. IMHO, there is far more competition for car makers in Europe, than the US. Europeans buy mostly small cars. And all the above mentioned car makers make small cars (unlike in the US, where no US company makes small cars without help from a Japanese company).

Jeff

= Firestone in the USA. Doesn't Firestone manufacture in the USA anymore?

Personally I don't care. I've had Firestone tires twice on new cars and they were the tires I've ever had. So bad I had to trash them very early in their expected life.

Or Korean in the case of GM's bottom end cars. From the cripple Korean company GM picked up on the bankruptcy trash heap. I looked at two of them when they first came out, obviously very inferior construction, just from a quick external look.

True- if you're talking pre-1955 or so. But I'm primarily talking 60s.

I still don't know what planet you're on. Solid lifters (except on air-cooled VW junk) didn't need adjusting more than every 50k miles or so. And my dad before me racked up a solid 25,000 miles per year back in the 50s and 60s, just like I do today. And he kept cars for 5-10 years each. That '63 Valiant was on the job every day until 72. Solid lifters and all, never was a "blue smoker" of an oil burner. Of course we're talking slant-6, not stovebolt Chevy in this case.

Which, God knows why, are back in vogue on German cars. What a wretched mess :-/

My reply was to the thread, not you particular response, OK?

mike

The cars GM sells that are made in Korea are Suzuki's, no Korean designs. They made in the former Daewoo factories GM acquired.. They are similar in size to all the Japanese cars that are imported into the US, by Toyota, Honda etal.

mike

Not really, if you are going to snip my entire post then also snip my name so it does not appear as if I posted something I did not. OK ? Double Tap

The Chrysler slant 6 was a very reliable engine, much better than others of the day. I've read of taxis with this engine going over 500k miles without engine work.

Please give Mike a break. Intellectual honesty is not is strong point.

His strong point is...Well I am not sure he has a strong point. ;-)

Jeff

Managing to keep threads based on ridiculous claims alive.

Those engines were legend for longevity.

On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 22:04:23 +0000, Double Tap got out the hammer and chisel and etched in the wall:

Of course, since you top-posted, you completely lost your argument on whatever it was.

HTH!

But then, since you're using Windows, I guess that can't be helped.

Here - at least replace Virus Express with something halfway (for a Wintendo program) decent:

Keeping awake by posting old history as current facts.

Yep. Although as I've pointed out, I've had a 318 and a 383 last longer than that slant-6. Pretty much all Chrysler engines from that era were legends of longevity, and very much on a par with engines of today. Better than the ones with rubber timing belts, IMO.