QOTD: What Does American Made Mean To You?
I spent a few days last month with Nissan learning about its production operations in America.
It's been an issue with President Trump's tariffs, but it was already a topic before Trump returned to the White House this year. American-made, when it comes to cars, is a complex conversation.
So, I ask of you -- what does that phrase mean to you when it comes to automotive production?
You know the drill -- go ahead and sound off below.
[Image: Berry Medley/Shutterstock.com]
Become a TTAC insider. Get the latest news, features, TTAC takes, and everything else that gets to the truth about cars first by subscribing to our newsletter.
Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
More by Tim Healey
Comments
Join the conversation
To me, American-made means only final assembly in US The parts and assemblies come from all over, with some components partially assembled outside of the US, though most are assemblies made by component suppliers so final assembly workers can just bolt it on.
The days when your Model-T was made of steel smelted from Ford mines in Ford steel plants, with wood from Ford forests, cut in Ford mills and fashioned in Ford wood shops, is long over. The n even outlawed it as a vertical monopoly.
The only part of a car that is ''local'' is likely the design and engineering, but automakers are so incestuous they ''borrow'' ideas, designs, and processes from everybody else. There is a REASON all SUVs look alike!
Final assembly. By that definition, many foreign brands I would now consider American made. Honda was the first, iirc, with Marysville, right?
I think Whirlpool does this as well.... Foreign produced parts with final assembly stateside.
Between you and me, this whole focus on where a car is made is more a result of grooming in white supremacy doctrine than anything. But hey, if it weren't for white supremacy and colonization, there wouldn't be a Big Oil, now would there? So whatever floats your boat, just be sure to fill up your tank this Sunday, OK?