Mike InMich

The Current Stagnation of Natural Gas Vehicles in America

Long after people have downsized their cars, changed over to electrics and hybrids, and moved closer to work, we will still have to heat our homes. Natural gas is the perfect home heating fuel with a grid largely in place. Any attempt to force natural gas to power generation of vehicle use will surely increase the cost of home heating dramatically. This was not mentioned so far in the article or this blog.

Is a Car Produced in Alabama Really an Import?

Here is my data.From corporate.honda.com/am...

Today, Honda employs more than 25,000 people in all 50 states.

From:
cargroup.org/docum...

Detroit Three employed 239,341 hourly
and salary workers in the United States at the end of 2007

A company with only 25,000 US employees did not design, develop and manufacture the cars you have listed. Design could mean styling, which can be done by a couple of artsy types. Develop could mean run a few emission tests. The vast majority of Honda engineering is done in Japan.

From world.honda.com/profil.../

Total number of employees
Consolidated: 178,960 (as of March 31, 2008)

So 25k of 178k Honda employees are in the US. I suspect over half of their sales are in the US. As I have said before, the Japs have calculated what presense is required in the US to make the gulible press and others think they are designing and building in america. The employment data tells the real story.

Is a Car Produced in Alabama Really an Import?

Wow c300man. Great post.

Those who read my posts know I am a fan of the US car companies because I am a fan of the US, and know the two are linked.

While I respect the historical importance of the UAW I think they are currently way overpaid and way over-bearing with their workrules. If these workrules are preventing modern plants like the one in the video from being built in the US by the big 3 then cars will be built elsewhere by others.

You can't stop progress and the march toward efficiency. Lookup the word "Luddite". en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Is a Car Produced in Alabama Really an Import?

Good point Deweyp
.
During the auto witch trials in Congress in the Fall a man from the U.S. tooling industry testified that the Japanese transplants, in particular, used almost no U.S. tooling in their final assembly plants. That is part of the reason why the U.S. tool and die industry has been wiped off the map, affecting shops across the nation but especially in the Midwest.

These final assembly plants are a facade calculated to be the least content possible to dupe the gullible (press) to think that the cars are US products. The first loyalty of Toyota and Honda is to the fatherland, which is not the US!

The worse part of this tooling trend are not obvious. I read recently that a man wanted to bring some textile production back to the US. He found that it was more difficult that anticipated because there were no longer tool makers in the US who could support his plans.

There is a lot more to building products, like cars, then the final assembly plant. I hope we can figure this out before it is too late.

Is a Car Produced in Alabama Really an Import?

There is a difference between the Detroit 3 and the two leading imports Toyota and Honda. The Detroit 3 cars are largely designed in the U.S., employing 10s of thousands of engineers, technicians and support staff. These people buy financial services, computers, software and a whole infrastructure that permeates the entire US economy. They also pay those federal taxes that allow our beloved federal officials to buy those foreign cars.

From corporate.honda.com/am.../
Today, Honda employs more than 25,000 people in all 50 states.

From:
www.toyota.com/about/o...

U.S. Direct Employment 36,632

From:
www.cargroup.org/docum...

Detroit Three employed 239,341 hourly
and salary workers in the United States at the end of 2007

Thus, Toyota and Honda employ only 25% as many employees as the big 3, but now make almost as many cars.

Note, I don’t have the data handy, but the multiplier effect in the supply base is much higher for the big three as well, as they tend to make and buy parts in the US.

See uaw.org for a list of union version non-union models in the US and Canada.