Toyota: America’s Car Company

July 6th, 2009

Via: Business Insider:

A new study from Cars.com sheds light on the absurdity of thinking cars have a “nationality.”

When you consider that even a post-bailout GM will expand its use of foreign labor, it shouldn’t be that hard to understand how an “American” car isn’t really so, just because its maker was founded in Detroit.

And more generally, there seems to be little reason to think that American cars are really more American in any metrics that matter: Namely, labor and parts inputs.

According to the new survey, the most American car in America is the Toyota Camry, containing the highest percentage of American inputs, even surpassing the Ford F-150. Actually, Toyota utterly dominates the top 10 list, with a Honda thrown in for good measure.

Now some might object to this, saying that even though these cars are “made-in-America”, the value still flows overseas, but really, even that’s not right. Toyota still pays taxes in America. Its stock is traded in the US, and is no doubt owned by individual retail accounts and mutual funds.

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