Its halftime in America....Clint Eastwood Chrysler ad. Cool!

[redmist]

Yea, cutting Chrysler slack and making excuses for them is what got us the '06 "Charger" and Mexican-made Hemis. All I know is every year they do those Made in America indexes and every year Honda and Toyota top the lists. That's pretty pathetic of you ask me, and it tells me that the "you have to use foreign workers to stay competitive" argument holds no water. I don't see the logic in demanding a mediocre performance from Chrysler in exchange for my loyalty. Like I keep saying, I never left Chrysler, Chrysler left me.

Toyota builds cars now in the USA ( well Assembles anyhow) because it is cheaper to build them here rather then pay importation costs on the new cars. It's the exact same thing US Auto makers are doing except in reverse. Difference is the Importation process is not the same for US manufacturers who build off shore, and then bring them back into the US.

Again, government regulation will be the death of the US manufacturing industry.

[redmist]

Think of it this way:

Toyota builds plants in the US and hires American workers to build it's products. It then pays those US workers and they go out and purchase a new Toyota to show loyalty to their employer. All money earned goes back to Toyota to be used to build infrastructural wealth in Japan, or augment infrastructure in the US in order to create capital as a whole. In the end, it goes back to Japan. Basically, Toyota can deal with the price of regulatory compliance because it's cheaper then paying importation costs.  Win. Win. Win.

Now think of it this way:

Chevy builds plants in Mexico or wherever in order to be competitive with Toyota and the likes. They do this to skirt regulation and taxation on the business. Reason being that the MANUFACTURING process is heavily regulated by our government. So Chevy hires folks in Mexico to build it's products. Those payed employees augment Mexico's infrastructural by spending in Mexico for basic living needs. These cars are then assembled (No importation on parts) in the USA by workers who are payed by Chevy. These folks, and most of America purchase a Chevy, and that money then goes back to Mexico to augment production facilities. No parts, No cars. They then hire more folks over there to manufacture. Loss. even. loss.

If that makes sense

I could be way off on this, but that's how I see it.

[bull]

So why does Chrysler build anything in the US? If it's nothing but costly trouble, why bother with it at all?

[Ghoste]

Good question.  Maybe it's guilt, maybe on some level they want to be good corporate citizens, maybe they see a need to have assembly facilities in all of the countries where they sell their product (even Canada), maybe it's a content legislation issue, maybe just want to be able to start debates like this on internet forums?  

[bull]

Good question... maybe just want to be able to start debates like this on internet forums? 

That's it!!!

[Ghoste]

lol
Hey we're still talking about it long after Superbowl, so who knows?

[hemi-hampton]

I don't blame any company for sending manufacturing offshore. It's getting more and more restrictive to manufacture in the USA, and be in compliance with federal regulations. Here is a small example of that based on my experience with my own company.

I am a co-owner of a high end CNC manufacturing shop focused on the firearms industry. We have an anodizing line setup to do hard coat Mil Spec T Black anodizing process. The regulatory rules put in place of our operation has become so costly that we have decided to shut it down. The EPA Wants water meters put on every tap in our building, and each gallon that is sent through that tap must be accounted for in waste barrels each month by the EPA. If we do not match our waste with flow numbers we are fined. What these Bozos don't understand is that water EVAPORATES!  This is especially true in an Ano process that runs tanks at 98deg all day long.

When we tested all the taps to verify water flow for the EPA, I ran three gallons of water into a brand new Home Depot orange bucket. When we were done verifying the water flow, I poured the water down the wash tub drain, and the EPA fella told me I was in violation because of oils that could have seeped out of the bucket from the manufacturing process, and I just poured it down the drain.

That was the final straw. Ano line is going away, we are not going to hire any people to run it now, and we will find another shop to do it. (If we were huge, we would send it all over seas)

From the above example, I think it's clear as to why manufacturing is going away in the USA. You folks should be able to figure out what must be done to fix it. 

Any Maufacturing that deals in highly toxic chemicals should be regulated. I work in a Paint shop & I can't pour waste paint down the drain. It gets recycled into a hard solid & then hard solid disposed of properly which can be expensive. I've worked at paint shops that had the money to dispose of properly but just didn't want to so they could save the money to buy new toy or 8 ball of coke. Really just greed in my opinion. If Mexico has no regulations then let Mexico turn into toxic cest pool of deformalties. LEON.