Autotalk: America’s Big Three

There was a time that anything labeled “Made in USA” was seen as a product of world-class quality and along with it comes a leg breaking price tag to back-up the “top notch” reputation. But the lure of cheap labor and manufacture costs from countries such as China, India, Vietnam and other Third World countries has turned the tides in favor of a low cost/high profit mentality for a vast majority of brand name companies. The end result was astounding for both parties as they have mutually benefited in a business perspective- a win-win situation with the homegrown talent losing out as a result. The onslaught of the most recent global recession even made things worse for American workers wherein thousands have been laid-off from work due to domestic cost cutting measures.

The same holds true in the automobile industry wherein well known American brands such as Ford, Chrysler and General Motors have gone “half-baked”, so to speak. Salvaged from bankruptcy by the U.S. government (excluding Ford), these companies have actually taken their parts production overseas (as majority of car companies do) and then simply assembled and sold the end product on US soil. In this light, anyone who owns an American branded vehicle must be wondering if it’s still worth their money to spend for the replacement of their auto parts or even buy one. For the practical minded people, it might not be a matter for discussion but for the patriotic ones, it could be an issue. So before you sell or trade-in your vehicle for another brand of manufacturer, consider the following points before you do.

• High quality assurance. Just because everything else is made overseas for cheap labor doesn’t mean it hasn’t passed a stringent inspection for the required quality standards. Car companies may have profit first in mind but consumer safety is also tops in their list. Ford, Chrysler and GM are American companies and as all American brands do, they follow and uphold a strict code of standards for top quality fabrication on their products regardless of where it was manufactured.
• Research the make and model for the percentage of domestic parts content. The American Automobile Policy Council (AAPC) has reported that GM and Chrysler auto parts are 73% domestic made while Ford hovers around the 80% mark. Although some makes and models may vary with minimal plus/minus rate depending on which assembly plant the model rolled out from, you can still consider this option in finding an American vehicle with the highest ratio of domestic auto parts content.
• Look up for the three key components that make your vehicle as American as possible. These are the chassis, the engine and the transmission. While any one of those three may be sourced overseas, it doesn’t really make the vehicle to qualify as an import. All the other parts are just minor percentage details and are usually sourced domestically making parts replacement easy to acquire.
• There’s nothing more American than a large vehicle. Ford has the Expedition and the F150 pickup truck, GM has a varied lineup of SUVs and pickup trucks such as the Suburban, Escalade and Silverado, while Chrysler has the Ram 3500, Durango, and Jeep. All of those vehicles have one thing in common and that is being supersized vehicles. So regardless of the domestic content ratio of the vehicle, be assured that its size alone is as American as it will ever be.

Considering all those factors and to sum things up, it is actually still worth buying any vehicle from Detroit’s Big Three even with the globalization of the automobile industry. The shared manufacturing technology alone is proof that these American brands has not been diluted but has instead been improved to produce world-class quality products that will last for years. Some of the parts may have been outsourced but the brand spirit has remained American all throughout.