^^^ an interesting anecdote ...
A big southwestern car dealer set up a publicity stunt to try and attract additional business re US made autos. The dealer took a big Dodge pickup and tricked it out with huge tires etc. He then scheduled a media event where this monster truck would run over a Honda Accord. However, after somebody checked the vehicle numbers, it turned out that the Dodge pickup was actually built in Mexico while the Honda Accord was actually built in the USA.
Yes, that's correct, while the media makes no mention of this subject, for a fact a significant portion of the US auto bailout will be used to preserve Mexican jobs ! Hey, at least the Canadian gov't kicked in a few billions to the bailout effort to preserve Canadian jobs.
yes but ... with the but being that with the current strength of the yen Japanese automakers find it much more profitable to sell American assembled cars (with mosts costs denominated in US dollars) in the North American market rather than selling cars imported from Japan (with most costs denominated in Yen). The majority of the losses just reported by Toyota are the direct result of the Yen appreciating 15%+ against the US dollar over the past few months with no commeasurate change in US dollar denominated prices for Toyotas sold in North America. In all probability, this will result in a disproportionate reduction in the amount of future Japanese built cars imported for sale in North America, with production of US assembled cars remaining essentially unchanged.Foreign autos manufacturers sell more foreign-made autos than domestic made autos. You have to include those in the zero-sum game, which is now less than zero
The more the US dollar gets trashed, the stronger the motivation for Toyota et al to avoid importing Japanese built cars into North America. The same phenomenon applies in reverse to Chrysler products manufactured in Canada and/or Mexico ! Arguably, this is one of the reasons that GM and Chrysler are balking at accepting loan money from the Canadian government, because the loan conditions would prevent them from closing down Canadian plants where rising Canadian dollar denominated costs threaten future profitability that is measured in US dollars.




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