American parts: Subi vs Ford

I worked with an engineer over 25 years ago that left Ford for a better job in R&D at DuPont. At Ford his last assignment was to adapt a Ford model to use a Japanese engine.

The last Ford I had, a Mercury Lynx, was assembled in Mexico. Real lemon BTW. I had to sue Ford and the dealer for the cost of botched warranty repairs.

Have some of those. Love having a big V8 in a little car at my command. Turbos suck (literally and figuratively).

Which means a good chance of buying foreign. Many "American" cars are made elsewhere and then assembled here. After all, they're called assembly plants, not parts manufacturing plants. Japanese automakers build 3 of 5 "most American" cars. The criteria for "most American" is mentioned below from the cars.com site. American-made just means American-assembled, not from where the parts come from.

Bet your friend doesn't realize that the USA has become the exporter of raw materials or parts for use in other countries that now produce the finished goods. Don't remember when that switched from when the USA was the innovator and producer to becoming the raw materials supplier. China is buying up the USA's trade deficients so eventually they'll own the USA.

Why Is America's Trade Deficit With China So High?

Due to the globalization of automotive manufacture, I'm not sure you can find any purely American-made car: made from materials sourced entirely from America to make parts using plants geographically located in America and assembled only by Americans. They all have parts or assemblies that are manufactured elsewhere. The USA is exporting the raw materials or parts where the finished goods are actually manufactured elsewhere that then get shipped back to the USA to be assembled into a larger product. American-made doesn't mean what it used to. Hasn't been that way for a long time.

Used to be cars.com ranked the top American-made cars. They've had to change their criteria to "cars assembled in the U.S. with high domestic-parts content, predominant U.S. sourcing for engines and transmissions, and high U.S. manufacturing jobs supported per vehicle."

My old semi-blueprinted Ford Mustang '82 with aspirated 302 (5 L) V8 with soft compound tires will easily outrace my stock '17 Subie 2.5 L Outback. The CVT is nice in the Subie for everyday or casual driving but I still like handling my Stang's stick. I can work on my Stang. The Subie is a bitch so let the shop do that work. Different cars for different purposes. One is for fun. The other is for everyday commuting. On my friend's farm, we use a tractor for other purposes.

Just beware that you don't become a flag-waving uber-patriot of a brand as is obviously your friend. So what is this Ford that your friend is so proud about? Where do the parts come from that are in his Ford? Where did the materials come from to build those parts that got imported back to America to build his Ford?

Print this post and put it in your friend's hand. Can your friend read? He certainly hasn't kept up on what's going on in newspapers, magazines, or online.

I got on this topic with a friend some time back and pointed out that Subaru has been making cars in Indiana for more than 25 years. My 1992 Legacy Wagon was made there, and of course so was my 2013 Outback.

Patty

Current solid content numbers seem to be hard to come by. Back in 2009 an Outback had 55% U.S.-Canadian content. IIRC Subaru was announced that whey would be raising the percentage and I believe they did but I can't come up with any verifiable numbers to back that up.

Oops. Forgot to mention that no Ford vehicle made the MSN list of the 30 cars with the most American content which means that all are below 65% FWIW.

Thank you! I win this argument! I should be a polite winner, should I be? Naaaaaa.

Just print out the replies, find your friend, say "Oh, as for Subaru not being American and Ford being American, read these and educate yourself." Don't grin. Don't ridicule. Just be calm. Not everyone knows everything about every product they use.