Why Buy American?

[notsoaveragej0e]

I got this in an email today, and found it somewhat thought provoking. It's long, but worth it. Just one of many reasons to keep American money in America.

Subject: Arsenal of Democracy
Date: Sun, 9 Sep 2007 11:45:28 +0000

By Jim Sponseller
The Lakeshore Guardian
Harbor Beach, Michigan

Most of the time, this column takes on a
light-hearted attitude. Today, it's a heavy-hearted
one. It's heavy-hearted because I'm both
disappointed and worried about th e way that so many
car buyers are ignoring the products of America's
automobile manufacturers. Yes, I know all the
arguments pro and con. The reasoning for buying from
foreign manufacturers abound in letters to the
editors and columns by auto writers in our
newspapers and magazines.

Up front, I should admit that I worked for two
U.S. auto manufacturers in addition to several
decades in the newspaper trade. The first was
Kaiser-Frazier, back in 1953. I had worked there
only six months when they locked the doors of the
huge plant in Ypsilanti because of the lack of
sales. I later had a stint with General Motors that
lasted longer. I personally believe that most of the
models produced by American car makers are just as
good as those offered by foreign
companies. Many are even better.

But besides the fact that I have been completely
satisfied with the cars produced by American-based
companies, one of my main reasons for never
considering the purchase of a foreign vehicle is
quite different than most Americans would think
about. Here it is:

Not until I went to work for the Fisher Body
Division of GM did I realize what an impact our auto
companies had in the defense of our country. I had
heard of Detroit being called the "Arsenal of
Democracy" but really didn't ap preciate the
meaning of it until I thumbed through the historical
files of Fisher Body. One of my many jobs was to
keep them up to date. Fisher Body was the division
that produced the bodies for nearly every GM model
since they started in 1908 until the division was
merged into other units in 1984.

While the "Arsenal of Democracy" tag wasn't
applied until World War II, Fisher Body's
involvement started during the first World War. Soon
after the U.S. entered the war in 1917, the Army
granted a contract to Fisher Body for the largest
order every written in this country for airplanes.
Although Fisher Body had never before made a single
airplane, it produced the first one 48 days after
taking over a government-owned building near
downtown Detroit (later used to assemble Cadillac
car bodies.) It eventually reached 40 a day. By the
time the war for the U.S. ended, the plant had
assembled 2,005 planes. Within months after Pearl
Harbor, Detroit's auto industry shut down its
assembly lines and converted to the tools of war.

Ford Motor was soon turning out such items as
aircraft and tank engines and gun mounts. It was
most famous for its vast Willow Run plant where
8,685 B-24 bombers were produced. Chrysler converted
its assembly lines to tanks, Army trucks,
anti-aircraft guns and assemblies for B-25 medium
bombers. Detroit's Hudson plant made sub-assemblies
for the B-29 bomber and marine engines. Packard
produced engines for fighter planes and PT boats.
The hundreds of automotive supplier plants all
became involved.

I don't have a record of the items produced by the
score of other General Motors divisions but I
discovered that its Fisher Body Division alone
contributed a remarkable assortment of material to
the war eff ort. Twelve Fisher plants were assigned
for use by other GM divisions and other companies
such as Boeing and Firestone. The remaining 13
plants, mostly in Michigan, tallied up production
numbers such as these:

-Aircraft assemblies, such as wings and tail
sections, were produced for 5,214 Mitchell B-25
bombers.
-In Grand Blanc, 17,213 tanks rolled off the
assembly line, most of them the famous General
Sherman.

-Over in the Grand Rapids plant, the assembly line
produced 2,359 anti-aircraft guns and later 550 huge
5-inch guns for the Navy's ships. They also shipped
out over a half million high-explosive 155mm shell
casings, plus aircraft and tank components.
In plants of the Ternstedt Division of Fisher
Body, a total of 293,100 intricate gyro aircraft
instruments were manufactured. The division also
produced 1.2 million parts used in fighter plane
cannons.

-Five Fisher east coast plants were merged into
the GM Eastern Aircraft Division and was the source
of three-quarters of the nearly 18,000 Wildcat and
Avenger planes produced for the Navy carriers.
-In Cleveland, a 400 acre plant was built for
assembly of wings, tail sections, ailerons, flaps,
tail gun turrets and other parts for the huge B-29
bombers as well as parts for tanks and Naval guns.

-Also pouring out of these facilities, along with
plants in Flint, Lansing, Detroit and Pontiac, were
such items as 200,000 rocket fins, 86,000 droppable
fuel tanks, 1,500 cowlings for Navy
fighters and 9,352 huge crankcases for diesel
engines to power Navy ships and submarines.

Today, dozens of auto plants are closing.So are
hundreds of automotive supplier plants.

One can only wonder how we could ever gear up to
fill wartime production should the need ever arise.
Just what would we do, call up Japan, Germany,
China, Korea or our beloved friends in France?

All of this wartime production stuff may sound
boring and trivial to most Americans now, but back
in the 1940's it was a life and death matter for our
troops and for the defense of our country. Back
then, when I was among the millions of GI's serving
overseas, I had no idea of how vital the efforts
were of our auto plants and the men and women
working there in achieving final victory.

Today I do.

You can call me a sentimental old geezer still
living in the past, but I'll just keep on buying and
loving the cars that best support our country's
economy today and played a huge role in keeping it
free over 60 years ago.

Oh yes, during those war years, 14,761 Fisher
body employees left their jobs and families to
serve in the armed forces. And 288 gave their lives
to keep us free today.

Buy American!


GRNS

[Exodus]

Not all American car parts are made/assembled here. My Jeeps transmission is assembled in Germany. A few other parts come from different countries.

Originally Posted by Exodus

Not all American car parts are made/assembled here. My Jeeps transmission is assembled in Germany. A few other parts come from different countries.

Unfortunate but true. The car parts may be "assembled" here but guaranteed most all parts of 'American' cars are actually produced in another country.

[AaronGTR]

Originally Posted by bigstanklo

Unfortunate but true. The car parts may be "assembled" here but guaranteed most all parts of 'American' cars are actually produced in another country.

Wrong. While a percentage of american car components are made in other countries and assembled here, the larger percentage are made in america (say 60/40 american/foreign). The reverse is true for foreign cars. The profit for those cars still goes to a company in another country to you know. So even if you buy a foreign branded car that is assembled in america, you are still supporting the foreign economy more than america's.

[GregFarz78]

More old time thinking. Who cares American and foreign cars are built here in the US which in turn creates jobs for US citizens. How are we supporting japan buying a foreign car? We're supporting American workers that will put that money back into our economy, I realize the profits funnel back to japan but part of that supports the local economy. The whole american vs foreign debate is lame buy the best car for your dollar "I'll only buy american" is close minded 1960s thinking

[notsoaveragej0e]

Originally Posted by GregFarz78

More old time thinking. Who cares American and foreign cars are built here in the US which in turn creates jobs for US citizens. How are we supporting japan buying a foreign car? We're supporting American workers that will put that money back into our economy, I realize the profits funnel back to japan but part of that supports the local economy. The whole american vs foreign debate is lame buy the best car for your dollar "I'll only buy american" is close minded 1960s thinking

That's fair enough for 2007, but my issue is when people start saying foreign cars are "so much better" than ANYTHING made in America... that's total crap.

[Exodus]

Originally Posted by notsoaveragej0e

That's fair enough for 2007, but my issue is when people start saying foreign cars are "so much better" than ANYTHING made in America... that's total crap.

You can thank partly advertising and marketing for that one....

[notsoaveragej0e]

Originally Posted by Exodus

You can thank partly advertising and marketing for that one....

Well the good news is that GM at least has caught on, and now a lot of their advertising focuses directly on the foreign companies- I've seen commercials where they directly say something to the effect of"JD power has rated us higher than Toyota and Honda in quality reliability, etc" and that is the only point of the commercial... so at least they know whats going on.

[GregFarz78]

Originally Posted by notsoaveragej0e

That's fair enough for 2007, but my issue is when people start saying foreign cars are "so much better" than ANYTHING made in America... that's total crap.

GM is making a nice turn around the quality has gotten a lot better, the resale value is still in the crapper though

[tomh]

Originally Posted by notsoaveragej0e

That's fair enough for 2007, but my issue is when people start saying foreign cars are "so much better" than ANYTHING made in America... that's total crap.

i agree i know people that buy kias and other pieces of crap for the reason of the foreign cars are better.. but guess what most people i know that have foreign have major problems engine/transmission problems. or that annoying honda that keeps killing the battery if the car isnt started everyday.

i owned my grand am for about 3 year (over 100,000 miles), and besides tires,brakes,rotors i put a $40 water pump in it and like $80 on a rubber power steering hose.

my family has nothing but GMs and a ford
all of the GM only have required minor work (water pump/alternator etc)
1 is just a 1990 chevy with just shy of 200,000 miles and still running great since it was new.

and the other one is my beater car my dad got it with like 80,000 miles on it.. now has over 225,000 miles and we have put 2 alternators in it.


hence my decision of why i had no doubt of buying my G6.


imo american so much better then foreign

[onesexyga]

I love the people who say, 'i bought a hyundai because american cars suck and japanese are so much better.' You tell them that Hyundai is Korean, and theyre like, well, its asian, theyre all the same. WTF? Tell me how Japan is the same as Korea. Thats like saying a German car is the same as a French car because theyre from the same continent. Germany makes supercars while the French make pieces of garbage that even the french dont want. As stated, buy a car based on the specific car, not a generalized rumor you hear about a brand or a country as a whole.

[notsoaveragej0e]

Originally Posted by GregFarz78

GM is making a nice turn around the quality has gotten a lot better, the resale value is still in the crapper though

I would say within the next 2-3 years, the resale will be a lot better. Between the build quality and the 100k mile warranties, people know the product will last.

[AaronGTR]

Originally Posted by GregFarz78

More old time thinking. Who cares American and foreign cars are built here in the US which in turn creates jobs for US citizens. How are we supporting japan buying a foreign car? We're supporting American workers that will put that money back into our economy, I realize the profits funnel back to japan but part of that supports the local economy. The whole american vs foreign debate is lame buy the best car for your dollar "I'll only buy american" is close minded 1960s thinking

That's a load of crap. You obviously don't understand how the system works. Let me break it down for you.

You buy a japanese car that's assembled in the U.S. Congrats, you just gave 40% of your money to U.S. workers and suppliers. You are still sending 60% of your money to companies and their suppliers who make their components somewhere else. If you buy an american car, not only is the profit staying here with american companies, but since they use a larger percentage of american made parts, you are putting a larger percentage of your money into the pockets of american workers who will put it back into the american economy instead of a foreign economy. It all trickles down into the second and third tier suppliers and from there even into other markets like housing, home improvement and repair, consumers purchases, etc etc.... the list goes on forever. Myself and my family have worked in these industries and seen the effect first hand.

Personally, I think american cars ARE the best car for your dollar, and your dollar is better spent there since it will keep americans in jobs and make the other products you buy better and cheaper in the long run, so you benefit from it. Thinking it doesn't matter if you buy foreign or american is lame!

[tomh]

thats true, just like going to walmart and buying a cheap piece of crap made in china.. it will break quickly


recently i got a $12 lamp for my apartment (i got what i paid for it) about 2 weeks after got it it started to lean in the middle and now it will not tighten up at all, and is leaning several inches. way to go china!



anyhow: GM ftw!

[Rich]

Originally Posted by notsoaveragej0e

Well the good news is that GM at least has caught on, and now a lot of their advertising focuses directly on the foreign companies- I've seen commercials where they directly say something to the effect of"JD power has rated us higher than Toyota and Honda in quality reliability, etc" and that is the only point of the commercial... so at least they know whats going on.

whereas before theyd try to compare themselves to foreign cars (european styling etc.) i dont think that helped in the long run.

[notsoaveragej0e]

Originally Posted by Rich

whereas before theyd try to compare themselves to foreign cars (european styling etc.) i dont think that helped in the long run.

Good point. That definitely helped them in the short run, but long run, not so much.

The best commercials are the ones GM runs that say "Go to JDPower.com and search for GM" etc etc... they aren't saying "go to our website to see how great our product is" they are telling people to look at the facts from an outside source... I want to see more of those commercials, because I don't think enough people research real fats before they buy a car- they just go off of preconceived notions based off of the 80's and 90's.

[Rich]

yeah, id say going to jdpower.com would be better than picking up a car and driver...

[onesexyga]

yeah, Nissan has a new commercial where they say their car get 23 mpg and has 175 hp. Im like, what the hell, my 7 year old grand am gets 26 mpg and has 175 hp. Its one thing to make claims, but telling people to go look at outside reviews is something else. Don't get me started on car and driver. If its not bland and it doesnt have an 'h' on the grill, theyre not interested.

[cardude007617]

Originally Posted by onesexyga

Don't get me started on car and driver. If its not bland and it doesnt have an 'h' on the grill, theyre not interested.

good god he's right....everytime they review an american sedan, the bash the living hell out of it. i bet i can find just as many things wrong with an import as i could a domestic car

[notsoaveragej0e]

Originally Posted by Rich

yeah, id say going to jdpower.com would be better than picking up a car and driver...

I canceled my CD subscription months ago... I stopped reading it even longer ago though. Every head to head comparo was either a BMW, Porsche, or Merc. The only good asset to that magazine were the Jay Leno column and the occasional "Cannonball Run" they would do with old random cars.