Foreign or North American brand vehicles

Do you think buying foreign brand vehicles puts the Big 3 auto workers out of a job?

I went to look at a ford focus don't know about there but here it is 73% made in Mexico needless to say I walked away

I saw a bumper sticker that said: Out of work yet? Keep buying foreign.
I like the looks of the newer Hyundais but could never buy one.
I'm driving a FORD now and have previously owned Pontiac, Chev, Dodge. I like the Pontiac the best.

yorkiemom wrote:

I went to look at a ford focus don't know about there but here it is 73% made in Mexico needless to say I walked away

I own a FORD FOCUS ZXW station wagon 2007
Bought it so the dogs can travel in the back.
So far it's good. Not sure where it was made but we have a FORD plant in Ontario ( Oakville)

My previous vehicle was a GM brand. I didn't do much research on it, only bought it (brand new) because my mother worked at GM and retired from there, and I wanted to support North American brand vehicles. Despite the fact that the two brand new Fords, and the one GM vehicle that I owned has issues outside of regular maintanence before they reached 2 to 4 years old. Had I done my research prior to buying that car, I would have found out that it was made in Mexico. I don't have the type of money to keep buying a new vehicle every 2 to 4 years, or fork out money in major repairs. I was so upset and pissed that I decided to go Honda with my current vehicle. Everyone that I knew of who that has owned a Honda vehicle has never had any issues with their car. Their cars tended to last until 9 to 10 years old before they start giving you issues. Not saying that is true with all Honda vehicles, or that every North American model car is of poor quality. But with my luck, I decided to go with what I saw in friends choices of vehicles and their experiences. Five people that I know of had purchased brand new Chrysler vehicles, and the transmissions went on them after 2 years of owning the vehicles.

I stated to my mom, that Honda vehicles are made in North America. So I'm not putting any North American out of a job. That bail out money given to GM, only went to give bonuses to the higher ups, while many assembly line workers were still being laid off, cuts to assembly line workers pensions were still being made (the contracts were not being honored). Why would I want to support a company like that by purchasing one of their vehicles. Yeah, I was really sour last year.

Jamn, I see quite a few of those bumper stickers on cars here "Out of work yet? Keep buying foreign." Funny thing is they are usually pulling up into a Walmart parking lot or Dollarama where majority of the products there are made in China or some Asian country. What they fail to see that is clearly right in front of their face is that it's those in the higher positions at the company they work for and their greed (the higher executive positions) that is putting them out of a job with no regards to the ones who actually assemble the product, or the quality of the product they are pushing out the door.

jamn53 wrote:

yorkiemom wrote:

I went to look at a ford focus don't know about there but here it is 73% made in Mexico needless to say I walked away

I own a FORD FOCUS ZXW station wagon 2007
Bought it so the dogs can travel in the back.
So far it's good. Not sure where it was made but we have a FORD plant in Ontario ( Oakville)

From what I could find Jamn. One site stated that the final assembly of your car is Wayne, Michigan for the 2007 year model. The 2006 was made in some town in Mexico and also in Wayne Michigan.


http://autos.aol.com/cars-Ford-Focus-2007/overview/

I couldn't agree with you more BBE,although I did buy sever GM vehicles and had really good luck with them,when I bought this time it was a toyota.

If the so called North American vehicles were actually built here I might reconsider but at this point I will continue driving a toyota or I love the hondas

I wasn't impressed with the Chevy Venture we had. I went Mazda this time around...so far so good.

For some reason I always stick to Dodge...I was going for a Mazda but I found a Dodge Charger for cheaper..

I drive all my cars till they die (or get totalled no fault of mine), hubby had a Dodge Caravan for 12 1/2 years.

Jamn, I'm the same way. I hate car shopping. What I hate even more than car shopping is buying a brand new vehicle that starts falling apart when it hits the 4 year mark. I'm hoping my current vehicle will last me at least 12 years before it time for a new car.

Some of mine and my husbands families worked in the auto industry so he thinks we must support local. I'm open to whatever car is a good deal and will last. So far in my life I've only owned one 'foreign' car.

Found out today, my mom's brand new purchased now 4 year old GM G6 is now giving her problems. Interesting, the thing is just paid off and she is now experiencing similar issues with her car that I had with mine when it hit the 4 year mark.

What problems bbe?

jamn53 wrote:

What problems bbe?

She mentioned the car doesn't always start and it was making some weird noise. I haven't ridden in her car lately, so I have no clue what the noise sounds like or where it's coming from. But with my previous car I did have to take it to 3 different mechanics because the issue with it not wanting to start was never really fixed.

Could be just something like a low battery, or starter going.....

Do you mean a Pontiac G-6? That's what hubby drives and I hate it...always sounds clunky to me.

Mousey, she drives a Pontiac G6. I've only driven it a couple of times when she first got it and at the time it drove ok, but then she didn't have the car all that long at that time.


Jamn, that could be the problem with her car. When mine didn't want to start, I had the starter looked at, the battery checked, and the fuel injection system cleaned. It still kept stalling on me. I was just glad to get rid of my car when I did, I can imagine how much money I would have forked out this year alone on it (minus regular maintenance) had I made the decision to still keep it.

My last three vehicles were all North American built.
Texas, California and Ontario.
Toyota Tundra, Toyota Tacoma and Toyota Corolla.
The car before those was a Pontiac built in Mexico.

I'm not really sure where ours were built.  2011 Mazda 3 and 2013 Honda Civic if anyone knows.

Angus.Black wrote:

My last three vehicles were all North American built.
Texas, California and Ontario.
Toyota Tundra, Toyota Tacoma and Toyota Corolla.
The car before those was a Pontiac built in Mexico.

My Honda is also North American built.  Toyota Tacoma's are nice and really hold a nice resale value.  A co-worker purchased one last year and if he only puts 10,000 to 12,000 km per year on it, it's estimated resale value in 5 years will be around $18,000.

GM products here, presently have 5, 4 on the road and one off and up for sale, had 2 fords the first I bought for $75 when I was 15 years old, got it on the road and drove it for 8 years, it was a 1965 pickup, ford does not build them like that anymore, 
YES I agree that if we don't put money back into our economy we will (most of us) be out of work or working for penuts

I should have clarified by NA made, I meant the Big 3 brand vehicles.  There are some foreign company vehicles made in NA.