Fifteen years ago, I published the article below – and
somebody read it yesterday.
https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2010/10/baseball-hotdogs-applie-pie-and.html
Just for fun, I decided to update the list in the link above
to see what had changed since that time.
1)
5 of the 10 most popular vehicles on the 2010 list
were still in the top selling 25 vehicles in the country in 2024
https://www.kbb.com/best-cars/top-10-25-best-selling-cars-trucks-suvs/
2)There is no such thing as an
“American car” - if you define that as meaning a vehicle that is 100% American
in both parts and labor.
https://www.motortrend.com/features/15-cars-with-the-most-north-american-made-parts/
There are 15 vehicles that are at least 65% North American in
both parts and labor – and 4 of those are made in Canada. To confuse things a little
more, the Honda Civic is made in both Canada and America.
You will also notice that regardless of where the vehicles are
assembled, some vehicle have transmission, engines (or both) from other
counties. Those other locations could be Mexico, Spain, Germany or France.
On top of that, the same model from the same manufacturer
could have different compositions of their origin. An example of that is the
Hyundai Sonata.
My son’s 2016 Sonata hybrid was built in Korea, but my 2017
non-hybrid Sonata was built in Alabama.
In addition to the Camry, there are other Japanese nameplates
that are 65% or higher in terms of content. They are the Honda Accord, the
Toyota Avalon, the Acura TLX, and the Honda Civic.
The global economy has produced a few other oddities.
For example, Buick sells far more cars in China that it does
in America.
In addition, 2 of the three SUVs that Buick sells in America
are made in other counties. One of them is made in South Korea, and one (the
Envision) is made in China. The largest of the three is made in America.
There are no Chinese nameplates sold in America yet, but
Volvo, Polestar, and Lincoln all sell Chinese made vehicles in America.
https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/automotive-industry/chinese-made-cars-in-us-market-a3786571662/
One of the most popular sports cars in the 1960’s was the MG.
It is still manufactured today, but it is now built in China, although it is
not currently sold in the American market.
There are two ways to determine how “domestic” a vehicle is.
One is the Monroney sticker.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monroney_sticker
The Monroney
sticker or window sticker is a label required in the
United States to be displayed in all new automobiles. It includes the
listing of certain official information about the car. The window sticker was
named after Almer Stillwell
"Mike" Monroney, a United States Senator from Oklahoma who sponsored
the bill that resulted in the mandate of the label.
In 1955, Senator Mike Monroney chaired a subcommittee of the Senate
Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee that investigated complaints
from car
dealerships in the United States about abusive treatment by manufacturers.
The subcommittee continued working and investigated deceptive practices
by car dealerships. Since there was no price disclosed on each car,
dealers could inflate the manufacturer's suggested retail price to give the
impression that buyers received a significant discount allowance or higher
value for the used car they traded There were also hidden fees and
nonessential costs that were added by some dealers and consumers lacked price
information, listing of options, and destination charges as they were shopping
for new cars.
Monroney sponsored the Automobile
Information Disclosure Act of 1958, which mandated the disclosure of information about the car, its
equipment, and pricing for all new automobiles sold in the United States. The
act does not apply to vehicles with a gross vehicle weight
rating (GVWR) of more
than 8,500 lb (3,856 kg).
Since the mid-1970s, the United
States Environmental Protection Agency has provided fuel economy metrics in the label to help consumers choose
more fuel-efficient vehicles.
New requirements for the Monroney label were issued, starting with 2008
model-year cars and light-duty trucks sold in the US. This was included in the
2007 Energy
Independence and Security Act (EISA) that mandated the inclusion of additional information
about fuel efficiency as well as ratings on each vehicle's greenhouse gas emissions and
other air pollutants.
A more comprehensive fuel economy and environment label was mandatory
beginning in model year 2013, though some carmakers voluntarily adopted it in 2012. The new
window sticker includes specific labels for alternative fuel and alternative propulsion vehicles available in the US market, such
as plug-in hybrids, electric vehicles, flexible-fuel vehicles, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, and natural gas vehicles.
The new label allows consumers to compare alternative fuel and advanced
technology-powered vehicles with conventional internal combustion
engine vehicles
using miles
per gallon of gasoline equivalent (MPGe) as a metric. Other information includes greenhouse gas and smog emissions ratings, fuel cost estimates over the next five
years, and a QR Code that a smartphone can scan for users to access additional online information.
In addition to the Monroney stickers, information can be found
in the VIN numbers of the vehicles. For example, if the first numeral on the
VIN is a 1,4, or 5, it is made in America. If it is a “2”, it is made in
Canada, and a “3” would indicate that the vehicle was made in Mexico. The
balance of the 17 digits describes the year of manufacture, the model, the
assembly plant, and some equipment.
The 10th numeral of the 17 digits determines the year of
manufacture.
https://www.autozone.com/vin-decoder
Country of origin information can be found at the link below:
https://detailedvehiclehistory.com/blog/vin-country-codes
Keep in mind that this is not a complete list, since it does
not list Germany or South Korea.
At one point in the 1950’s, America sold more cars than any
other country in the world.
At one point GM had become the largest corporation registered in the
United States, in terms of its revenues as a percent of GDP.
In 1953, Charles Erwin Wilson,
then GM president, was named by Eisenhower as Secretary
of Defense. When he was asked during the hearings before the Senate Armed Services Committee if as
secretary of defense he could make a decision adverse to the interests of
General Motors, Wilson answered affirmatively but added that he could not
conceive of such a situation "because for years I thought what was good
for the country was good for General Motors and vice versa". Later this
statement was often misquoted, suggesting that Wilson had said simply,
"What's good for General Motors is good for the country."
At the time, GM was one of the largest employers in the world—only Soviet
state industries employed more people. In 1955, General Motors became the first
American corporation to pay taxes of over $1 billion.
GM operated six divisions at this time, one of which (GMC) only sold
trucks. The other five settled into a hierarchy, which consisted, from most- to
least-prestigious, Cadillac, Buick, Oldsmobile, Pontiac and Chevrolet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_General_Motors
Today, America how longer produces
more vehicles than anyone else.
We are still #2, with over
10,000,000 vehicles produced, but that is a lot less than the 30,000,000
produced by China.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/584968/leading-car-manufacturing-countries-worldwide/
I’m not opposed to foreign cars,
since our family has owned a few cars that were not made in America, but I will
have to admit that the cars that bring a smile to my face are cars that are “good
old American iron”, like the car pictured below.
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