The Stanifesto

Buying American

US automakers gave themselves a big pat on the back this week at the LA Auto Show. Mostly, they were just making promises to catch up with technologies that we've been getting from Asian automakers for years now. Meanwhile, Toyota has an operational new plant manufacturing their Tundra and it's in Texas. So what does "buying American" mean these days?

My mother, a thoroughly good-natured person whom I often use to gauge the pulse of America (to which I am somewhat deafened by living in San Francisco), has recently put forth the criteria for her next car purchase. It must be:

  1. A hybrid.
  2. Not an SUV.
  3. American.
It doesn't seem to be a terribly tall order, yet at this time there are zero models that obey those three simple rules. In short, US automakers can argue that there's no demand for whatever the West Coast Enviro-crazies are clamoring for, but they're simply not making the car that my mother—the elementary school librarian in Indiana—actually wants.

Being a good son, I tried to help her find the car she was looking for, even though I knew that the first available model to meet her criteria was the Chevy Malibu, estimated to hit markets late 2007. I pressed a bit more about why it was important to her to buy American and got more information. My great grandfather worked his whole life for GM on the assembly line and a family devotion to support his work had been passed on from generation to generation. This complicates the situation a little bit.

Ford Model-T

The Ford Model-T, which still gets twice the MPG as an Explorer.

The auto industry is fast on its way to a collection of platform companies where the products aren't even manufactured by the branded corporation, or at least not in the same country. For instance, while Ford closes its US factories, it's opening up factories in Mexico that employ half a million people. On the other hand, Toyota has factories in California, Kentucky, West Virginia, Texas, and even Indiana. In fact, Toyota and Subaru share a factory in my birthplace of Lafayette, IN.

The story gets even more complicated if you want your car produced not just by American labor, but unionized American labor. For that, you pretty much have to grab your car's VIN and use this reference on the UAW site. Though it really should be noted that "American labor" technically includes Canada, Mexico, and a bunch of other countries as they are part of North or South America after all.

If, like me, you just go by pithy statements to determine your allegiances, you might consider the classic Cal Coolidge aphorism: "The business of America is business!" In which case, it might behoove you to note that Toyota is outselling both Ford and Daimler-Chrysler now, making it the #2 largest retailer in North America and, consequently, more American than either Ford or Daimler-Chrysler. Considering that Ford thinks that being American means talking bold without backing it up, I can't say I'm surprised.