Trump has it out for Mexico, and Germany, and China. So what’s a company to do? Ford provides the answer.
The New York Times reports Ford Chooses China, Not Mexico, to Build Its New Focus
Ford Motor said on Tuesday that it would build its next-generation small car for American consumers in China rather than Mexico, where the automaker canceled plans for a new factory this year.
The company was building a $1.6 billion assembly plant for the next Focus model in Mexico, but it ran into stiff opposition from President Trump and then canceled the project.
Goodbye Mexico, Hello China
Bloomberg reports Ford to Save $1 Billion Building Focus in China Instead of Mexico.
Ford Motor Co. is canceling controversial plans to build the Focus small car in Mexico, saving $1 billion by ending North American production entirely and importing the model mostly from China after next year.
The U.S. automaker will start making the next-generation Focus in China from the second half of 2019, a year after output ends at one of its plants in Michigan. Ford will trim about $500 million in costs by shifting production to China, adding to the $500 million already saved from canceling construction of a small-car factory in Mexico earlier this year.
The company will be testing both consumer appetite for China-built cars and the tolerance of President Donald Trump, who has criticized automakers for importing vehicles from overseas.
“We’ve done a lot of research and consumers care a lot more about the quality and the value than they do about the sourcing location,” Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s president of global operations, said in a conference call with reporters Tuesday. “iPhones are produced in China, for example, and people don’t really talk about it.”
Vote of Confidence
CNN Flashback January 3, 2017: Ford cancels Mexico plant. Will create 700 U.S. jobs in ‘vote of confidence’ in Trump
Ford CEO Mark Fields said the investment is a “vote of confidence” in the pro-business environment being created by Donald Trump. The $700 million investment will go to the Flat Rock, Michigan plant to produce more electric and self-driving cars.
This is a major U-turn for Ford. Trump repeatedly slammed Ford on the campaign trail for shipping U.S. jobs to Mexico (a claim the company said was wrong). The president-elect has kept up the pressure.
Trump tweeted “thank you” to Ford Wednesday and said, “This is just the beginning – much more to follow.”
“Only the Beginning – Much More Will Follow”
Trump’s reaction should be interesting.
It would have been better for the US and Mexico to have the plant in Mexico rather than China.
Stupid things (like this) happen when governments interfere in the free market.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
“Only the Beginning – Much More Will Follow”
…
As President – Elect the possibilities are boundless.
As President they are, er, a little more bounded … say, why are these walls closing in ??
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“We’ve done a lot of research and consumers care a lot more about the quality and the value than they do about the sourcing location,”
…
Sure, as long as you don’t currently have a job in a Ford factory … or one in their supply train.
The shareholders (aka “the rich” who are hollowing out middle america for their benefit) heartily approve, no doubt … and Jim Cramer, of course.
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“We’ve done a lot of research and consumers care a lot more about the quality and the value than they do about the sourcing location”
Until they can’t afford to buy the item because there’s only low paying service sector jobs available… until those are replaced with robots… as even jobs in China are being replaced by robots and moves to even cheaper labor markets.
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Cost of government is about half the US economy. That funds death and destruction throughout the world.
Since Americans are incapable of stopping their Beserker Government, impoverishing the morons is a just solution.
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one version of Econ 1.01 is that to sell you have to have consumers. The super wealthy donor class parasites can’t see that. It doesn’t matter where you build the plant, if customers disappear it’s of no value. The middle class is the economy’s driving force. Shredding it serves no good purpose but we see it being hollowed out all the time now. Like with the aristocracy after the French revolution, compromise suddenly was on the table. It looks like we have to have a repeat of that before we see any improvements.
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The only way to NOT shred the middle class, is to provide them with the ability to source every tiny little thing as cheaply as possible. Do that, and no other place will have a cost advantage wrt any input product. Every little thing including services like health care as well. Not a bunch of nonsense about how “US companies benefit from access to lower cost immigrant labor”, but somehow, sick Americans do not. And, no restrictions on land use, ensuring the housing available to the middle class, and the companies that employ them, is always capped by straight up production cost. Not a bunch of rent seeking, idle trash; collecting above market rents. In the process, driving up the cost for US companies, making them less competitive, and driving down quality of life for Americans.
Then, make sure the middle class get to keep almost all the fruits of their labor entirely unimpeded. As in, no “mandatory” anything. Not health insurance, not “liability insurance” (aka lawyer welfare). Not anything else. Every ounce of added value, goes to them, no drag. If they want to spend it on insuring against something, fine. If not, fine too.
Then, get rid of the insult to humanity that is fiat money. Just use gold, or bitcoin. Pick one. Compared to the current theft device being passed off as the dollar, they are both so much of an improvement that internal differences between them are just roundoff.
Pretending one can, in any even remotely lasting fashion, make people better off by restricting what they can do, is about the high point of idiocy, even in an era where idiocy is pretty much all that’s left.
The erosion of the middle class has never been about Mexico and China. But instead solely about America’s own, homegrown leeching class, using free-to-print-without-constraint fiat money to simply steal the output the middle classes are producing. All the rest of what passes for “debate” in this dystopia, is just (unfortunately successful) attempts to obfuscate this simple fact. End the theft, and you get the middle class back. It really is that simple.
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What vehicles was the Mexican plant scheduled to produce?
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When the new Ford Focus has a 50% failure rate….
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and costs over $60,000 due to import taxes…..
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What a joke. Ford shows political savvy: the US can beat up on Mexico, but China is too big. Mexico should take a cue.
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Ford will be able to sell all they can manufacture right there in China, if they work it right.
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Or the locals will copy all the manufacturing tools and features necessary to produce their own line of cars ( remember Fellowes?) and then undercut them – of course with ‘not quite the same quality’ goods. As Ishmael says, “Go for it, Ford”. You get what you pay politicians for.
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But the plant in Mexico was not supposed to produce for the Mexican market, and they will not build two plants.
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I have a general rule — never buy anything from China. Always crap!!! Steel pipe — leaks, lamps — stop working after a couple of days, tires — don’t wear, apparel — don’t last! Electronics — high failure rate, ask Dell who started manufacturing there — did not end well for them. Go for it Ford (I guess Ford wants to live up to its old name — fix or repair daily.
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LOL. Fix Or Repair Daily
We used to say Found On Road Dead.
Some British manufacturers had to move manufacturing away from China, as the defect rates were so high. The Raspberry Pi is one example, production was moved from China to Wales during 2012. Great success in Wales, the production has increased from about 300,000 to several million units per year.
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“I have a general rule — never buy anything from China. Always crap!!!”
They can make great stuff as long as their manufacturing and QC are designed and closely monitored on-site by personnel from the western firms(s) manufacturing there or so I read years ago in a forum where experiences from western individuals who had experiences there were discussed.
Japan was the same after WWII – cheap toys as exports until the Japanese applied US manufacturing standards and methods which even the US companies themselves weren’t applying because there wasn’t adequate competition forcing them to do so… until the Japanese became the ones to beat.
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There is a total difference in Japanese culture and Chinese culture. Japan is founded on a culture of honor and China is founded on a culture of fraud. Fraud is rife through out anything they do. They would kill their fellow citizen to make a dime. Having worked in the Oceana area my general impression is when ever I am dealing with someone from China they are lying as soon as they open their mouth. The last guy I dealt with from China is now sitting in the pen (thrown in there by the FBI). Within five hours I knew they guy was lying to me. If you start manufacturing anything there then you have to look at every component manufactured in China down to the quality of the steel which went into the product. Here is an example. My father worked among other things as a plumber and gas fitter. Put in a gas line and pressured it up leaked like a sieve. Had to pull the whole 100 feet of line out and took it back to the supplier. Chinese made. The quality of the steel was so poor it could not take pressure. The iphone works probably because most of the components are made outside of China.
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I’m old enough to remember cheap crap from Japan. There was never any question about it. Even with Demmings efficiency introduced they were still a relatively poor country. They gained entry into our markets by selling things so cheaply that no one cared about quality. What Japan did was use these markets and experience to raise their quality and earn market share. Almost every business starts this way (or at least used to) selling at below cost and sometimes dicey quality.
We bought their crap and they bought our markets. US manufacturers thought the Japanese were a joke….until it was too late. We see the exact same thing today.
Back in the seventies people were screaming about the Japanese wiping out our auto manufacturers, yet news crews would go to Ford factories filming employee lots full of Japanese cars. As always we look for OTHERS as the solution to OUR problems.
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I used to work for a loudspeaker manufacturer who depended on Chinese manufacturing to compete. The sample run of components would arrive nearly perfect. Then the first production run would be ordered. That run would have a 25% failure rate. By that time the factory in China knows they have you over a barrel. No way to get a sample run done at a competitor factory soon enough to fill orders. So you eat the loss. Next production run has a 50% failure rate. By that time the owner of the loudspeaker company is ready to kill someone. Switching to a different supplier solves nothing because all Chinese manufacturing is crooked as fuck.
Bad glue, bad wire, bad cabinetry, bad magnets, bad tool & die … shipping delays, you name it. The entire Chinese nation is a fraud.
I just had a party at my house. Blew up some balloons. Half of them popped before the first guest arrived. Even their fucking party balloons have a 50% failure rate. And now they’re gonna make cars? And planes?!?!?!?!?
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I have a NAD C370 amplifier that I purchased second hand about 9 years ago, which must be over 12 years Still working fine. Made in China.
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Anosmic squirrel finds acorn. Proves nothing.
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You cannot blame China over quality issues like that Blame instead the importers specifying inferior products to save money. The Chinese will build to whatever spec is provided. The source of the specs lies with the importers, Americans wanting to profit at home. The iPhone spec is for a good product and the Chinese work to that. It is a straight cop out to blame them for one’s own failings. Think about it!
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yea! the flooring that lumber liquidators made in china were recalled cuz they found out they had fermeldahide(not sure of the spelling). but they interviewed the factory in china and they said lumber liq. approved it! so they knew they could get away with it there!
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“never buy anything from China. Always crap!!!”
That’s what they’ve been saying about iPhones for a decade now. “Always Crap!!!”.
No, I got that wrong. Nokia and Motorola just said “Crap!!!”
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we don’t buy the new small Ford then.
Problem solved, bitches.
I bet we could build some sweet small cars here in the US with voluntary prison labor at a cheaper price, and no shipping charges. This might start a whole new wave of American production
Their CEOs are so out of touch, it would be sad if it wasn’t pathetic.
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The CEOs are more in touch than some people.
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I currently drive a 2013 Ford Focus Electric that was made in Michigan and that I’ve been very happy with – no mechanical problems, and the only maintenance I’ve had to do in the 4.5 years I’ve owned it is a wheel alignment. My wife’s 2013 Hyundai Elantra was made in Alabama and has also been very reliable.
I like Ford vehicles and products, but will never resort to buying a car that’s made in China, whether it’s a Ford, Obama Motors, or whatever. There’s no place in my garage for anything from China.
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Might want to check your garage door opener.
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Burn unit is en route
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Hecho en MAY-JEE-CO.
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I would believe that Ford is going to find out that through Creative Accounting 506 (Master’s level), they should have gone to Mexico. In a word, Ford will be importing pre-owned Ford Focuses. Nothing like a hypothetical new vehicle for that wonderful subprime loan. Even the banks won’t know what to repossess from whom when. The service taught me not to walk into a game that was rigged against me. You can’t fix stupid or a sucker is born every minute.
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Electric cars don´t have a very high complexity. i drive a Nissan Leaf that is made in England, great car. will save me a fortune over the next decade. Thank you Nissan.
Btw, don´t underestimate china, i think the iphones are great. This is the reality if we choose to have a global economy, it means wage dumping with a big D.
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I’m glad you’ve had a good experience with the Leaf. I like the car, but Nissan’s decision to use air-cooled, instead of liquid-cooled, batteries has severely compromised their range and expected performance in the US Southwest. It’s been the subject of several lawsuits in AZ and NV.
My Focus Electric has been fabulous, albeit, the price is ~ $10k less than when I bought it. That said, I’d still buy the same car and like you, expect to drive it for many years. The weather in coastal Orange County, CA is perfect for electric cars, with little need to run the heat or AC.
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this is one of the problems with the 1st gen electric cars, but I think it will be solved with the next gen Leaf coming in september. tesla already adressed this in all of their models I think. now I happen to live in northern europe (norway), so our climate suits the car fine. my leaf can quickcharge at 50 kw, and the battery can heat up if I do more than 3-4 quickcharges in one day (30 kwh version). That is not a problem with my use. Now Tesla superchargers can do 130 kw i think, and they have active cooling. No doubt Tesla is in the spearhead of this revolution, and I don´t understand why so many people are talking tesla down. They have proven themself for someyears in my country, and when the model 3 was unveiled, i said to my brother, this is like when america invented the car. Btw India and China are heavily into EV because of their bad air pollution. Tesla is also much more than a car company, they are into the whole valuechain of renewable energy. German carmakers are shivering because of this company.
This is just a short ramble by me, read eg. Elektrec.com
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‘Electric cars?’
You mean coal-fired, or nuke plant fired cars.
Unless Shell has new tech on drilling for ‘electricity?’
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Great headline Mish
Chinese consumer products often are second rate but very often they saturate a market and it’s hard to find high quality alternatives – like Korean!
Ford assembles consumer vans in Turkey which really gives me pause for a number of reasons, I’m sure the auto sales guys are tight lipped about that origin.
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Same as Chrysler does not advertise that Jeep Renegade is built in southern Italy.
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“After a great deal of research we have determined that Americans really don’t care where their crap comes from or if it’s actually any good, as they only care about price….and easy credit availability.”
Our future looks bright.
Why on EARTH would Americans care about jobs? After all, aren’t ALL jobs the work that Americans won’t do? If Mexicans won’t do it, the Chinese will, or any number of other poverty stricken populations of the world. They are just begging to be our slaves.
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Nice sarcasm if I understand it correctly. It takes planned, concerted, long term dumbing-down to get to this state. It served it’s political purpose, but now it’s just a liability.
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“It would have been better for the US and Mexico to have the plant in Mexico rather than China.”
—————————————–
If you were an outer space alien looking at where the America is trending to the future, it surely looks like an empire crumbling.
Fast forward 20 years to 2037 and what will the world look like?
Should America be looking to strengthen its North American Trading rather than looking for scapegoats for its incompetent practices. What will world trading look like 20 years from now?
Interesting perspective from Goldmoney:
https://www.goldmoney.com/research/goldmoney-insights/end-of-empire
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“Why We NEED Wage and Environmental Parity Tariffs:
One of the central necessary actions I put forward in Leverage is that the United States must implement wage and environmental parity tariffs to prevent companies from arbitraging not only slave-labor conditions in third world nations but also to prevent them from exporting intentional destruction of the environment as a means of evading perfectly-legitimate laws intended to prevent despoiling the land, water and air in the United States.”
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=232142
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I notice in the comments above people complaining about the quality of Chinese products. I wonder how many of them were using Chinese made Apple products to make their comments.
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John Smith – that’s because they’re American products. China was U.S.-made.
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The point is that every major importer that eventually came to dominate US markets started out selling very low cost inferior products, that due to low cost and in spite of low quality, Americans purchased prolifically, creating the manufacturing empires that eventually dominated ALL markets. China currently HAS no American competition, be it low quality or high.
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Not true! For instance Alden shoes. People around the world beg for Alden shoes. I walked into a men’s store in London and a salesmen asked if the shoes I had on were Aldens and I said yes. He went on talking for 10 minutes how great those shoes are. I know a store that sells Aldens in LA and they indicated that the Japanese will fly in and buy a dozen at a whack. Yeah they are expensive but I have pairs that I have worn for 20 plus years and they will refurbish them for half the price and they look brand new. By the way, the boots worn by Indiana Jones in the Crystal Skulls are Aldens. I have a pair and people walk up and ask wear I got them.
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And what percentage of US consumption do these types of businesses represent? I build custom high end furniture for mostly corporations and I can tell you that while customers want quality, they almost always look at price. After thirty years in business my sales are now less than in 2009. Great recovery.
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I just responded to your comment “China currently HAS no American competition, be it low quality or high”.and said it was not true and gave you an example. I can think of other examples ie Bill’s Khakis (they last forever) and Gitman shirts. I can think of examples in tool manufacturing also. I do not buy Chines products because in the long run it always cost more.
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So I suppose their massive trade surplus is just a mirage, as is our employment metrics which show 95 million not working and those that do are largely part time multi job holders.
Keep feeding you livestock more and more sawdust, and when they finally die, your first assumption will be inferior livestock.
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Just wanted to respond to the comment by Ishmael about Alden shoes. I looked it up; the cost in the region of 700 to 800 USD…
I’m in India. In 1998, I bought two pairs of black leather Oxfords from Rasoolbhai Adamjee, in Mumbai. I used them almost everyday in London for the next two years, walking about 5-6 miles every day. Thereafter I used them in New York for another year, similar use. I then returned to India and used them (not so often) till I gave them away about five years ago because the uppers tore a little on the side. Amazingly, I never had to resole them, just had to fix the heels from time to time. Leather quality was superb. Apart from the tear, they still looked good when I gave them away.They cost me a little under USD 30 when I bought them.
The Alden shoes may last a little longer, but at 20x the price…..
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From Paul Craig Roberts:
“There is no sign that American leadership in any area is actually capable of thought. Consider Wall Street and corporate leadership. To boost share prices Wall Street forced all corporations to desert their home country and move the production of goods and services sold to Americans offshore to where labor and regulatory costs were lower. The lower costs raised profits and share prices. Wall Street threatened resistant corporations with takeovers of the companies if they refused to move abroad in order to increase their profits.
Neither Wall Street nor corporate boards and CEOs were smart enough to understand that moving jobs offshore also moved US consumer incomes and purchasing power offshore. In other words, the financial and business leadership were too stupid to comprehend that without the incomes from high value-added, high productivity US jobs, the American consumer would not have the discretionary income to continue in his role as the economy’s driver.
The Federal Reserve caught on to Wall Street’s mistake. To rectify the mistake, the Fed expanded credit, allowing a buildup in consumer debt to keep the economy going on credit purchases. However, once consumer debt is high relative to income, the ability to buy more stuff departs. In other words, credit expansion is not a permanent fix for the lack of consumer income growth.
A country whose financial and business leadership is too stupid to understand that a population increasingly employed in part-time minimum wage jobs is not a big spending population is a country whose leadership has failed.
It is strictly impossible to boost profits by offshoring jobs without also offshoring US consumer incomes. Therefore, the profits from offshoring are temporary. Once enough jobs have been moved offshore that aggregate demand is stymied, the domestic market stagnates and then declines.”
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2017/06/12/vladimir-putin-powerful-person-world/
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That is exactly the issue that I tried to bring attention to in Mish’s earlier post on cheap steel and steel tariffs. I think Paul Craig Roberts did a good job of explaining it.
As for Ford making cars in China, I say go for it and they should sell as many of those cars *in China* as they possibly can. The thing they should not be allowed to do is import them to the US without any adjustment for the differences in labor laws, environmental laws, and other regulations that increase the cost of manufacturing the cars in the US. If the Congress (and Mish?) does not like the economic consequences of that, then Congress should consider which of those local regulations should be repealed to remain competitive.
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Wall Street didn’t force anyone to do anything. All Americans had to do was simply refuse to buy imports or any product produced by non US citizens.
It’s always the bankers fault, the corporations fault, the government’s fault, but never OURS. OH NO NEVER SHOULD WE BE HELD TO ACCOUNT FOR OUR CHOICES.
just because EVERYONE presents us with poor choices, self destructive choices, does not mean we are not responsible for making those choices. There is NOTHING new about this.
The absolute power of the devil is in the choices he presents us with, and the devil will always be with us.
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madashellowell – no, firms were not forced, but once one does it, the others, if they want to survive, follow closely behind. And look at the profits – wow! Witness your own business – sales lower than 2009. Asia awaits you.
Yeah, it usually is the bankers/corporations/governments’ fault for allowing this shit to happen. The God-damned citizens are never asked, are they? If they had said, “Look, everybody, we’re going to ship the jobs off to Asia where we get to pay dirt-cheap wages and have no environmental controls. Don’t worry, you probably won’t save much as we’ll try our darndest to keep our prices up, but we’re going to make a killing in corporate profits. So what do you think?” Gee, I wonder what the answer would have been, if the question had been asked in the first place!
You want to make your products elsewhere and then have the gall to sell back into the consumer market you’re screwing? Fine, then pay the price. Fair trade, with wage and environmental parity tariffs.
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We have always been lied to. We have always been offered the “lower COST” alternative. It is up to us to understand the truth, but I contend it requires blatant self delusion to believe that buying imports will not effect our job markets, ESPECIALLY after decades of watching it at work.
Or are we going to cling to the notion that our actions have no consequence…..unless it involves climate change…..and even THEN it’s always someone else’s fault. Someone else is always to blame?
Real profit is based upon mental weakness, on the willingness to be duped, to pay more than something is actually worth, while they claim it is pure capitalism, the MARKET, but for markets to work efficiently, they require transparency, not hype, not lies, not SPECULATION. Truth.
No system of economics or government can survive long without truth and transparency. Tyranny is the system of lies sustained by force. People pretending to work for a system that pretends to pay them.
How long can we pretend?
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Focus is a tiny car more suitable to Chinese cities than to most of the US (excepting enviroterrorist centers like San Francisco). Its sold in China, it makes sense to manufacture it close to where its sold. Move the SF crowd to China and everyone will be happy.
And lets remember that Ford is a private company, its not an instrument of foreign policy. Its wrong for the criminals in Washington (or the allegedly “social conscious” libtards) to assume they have a right to dictate corporate decisions to accomplish foreign policy goals that most of the country doesn’t share.
Honda and Toyota (and BMW) all make many of their most popular US selling cars right here in the USA. No one complains about that (nor should they).
Ford is doing exactly what they should do, and if the UAW doesn’t like it — too bad. Maybe they could ask Michael Moore to share some of his “Roger and Me” movie royalties with them…
If Trump wants to create more jobs in the US, he needs to keep his promise to repeal Obamacare. It prices US workers out of the global market and it is fraud. To hell with Paul Ryan and the rest of Congress if they don’t agree — they exempted themselves (even witch Pelosi and Bernie the socialist) because they know the government cannot (is not able) to control costs on anything.
Get rid of the fraud of Obamacare or plan on even more jobs leaving the USA.
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Ford sold over 1 million Foci and derivatives globally, so it is a VERY important car to them. I would hardly call it a “tiny car” – unless you’re point of reference for a “regular sized” car is a ridiculously large SUV such as an Expedition. Consumer Reports considers it a compact.
The Focus is also in the same class of vehicle as the Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic – both made in Ontario, Canada and Hyundai Elantra made in Alabama, and are considered by rental car agencies as “mid sized” or compact.
Whatever the terminology, this is a stupid move by Ford.
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I don’t think you have your facts straight… Honda civic is one of the smallest cars they make. Accord is their mid-sized sedan.
Focus is a tiny car — there is nothing mid-range about it
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Regardless of your Asian-centric ideas about car sizes, you continue to ignore the health care COSTS in the USA price most US workers out of a job already — and the problem continues to get worse and worse while Washington DC obsesses over obstruction of Russia crap.
The TOTAL cost of hiring a worker is salary plus benefits, and as long as health “benefits” costs are climbing 30% yoy from a starting point higher than anywhere else in the world — US workers salaries are going to get crowded out by benefits costs, and due to compounding effects, it will get worse and worse.
Ford is building a factory to last 20 years (or more). US workers will have to accept negative salaries (to pay for Obamacare) within the next five years.
Its math, not politics or car sizes. 30% Obamacare costs are growing faster than, and crowding out 3% economic growth. China is supposedly seeing 6-7% economic growth (according to their numbers) — which means they can’t afford Obamacare either.
Why build a 20yr factory in a country that will face collapse in 5 years and remains in denial about it?
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You are confused.
Healthcare is a RIGHT, that will paid for by rich business owners who sell us the things we require for survival.
How could that possibly be adding cost to our employment?
Ridiculous.
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I know you are being sarcastic, but the libtards don’t.
Doctors are not going to spend 12+ years in medical school so they can get paid less than a government bureaucrat who clocks out at 4:30 and “retires” after 20 years of doing close to nothing.
Don’t get me started on the army of hospital administrators, FDA bureaucrats, insurance adjusters, and generally useless “overhead” staff that now vastly outnumber doctors and nurses.
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PS — I wonder how many of the socialist medical school “professors” are willing to train doctors for free? you know, since they are the ones claiming this is a human right that should be dispensed like a free lunch?
Last I checked the socialists teaching at US colleges were demanding pay levels 4-5 times higher than the average US worker.
Jon Gruber, the econ “professor” who scammed taxpayers for $500K designing Obamacare, was quite indignant when MIT suggested he and his fellow socialists should pay part of their medical costs. Gruber didn’t like being treated like common man that he despises so much.
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The entire point of socialism is about class , the thing they claim to despise most. Wealthy elites making choices for the “democratic” masses that are too ignorant to care for themselves properly, only smart enough to know who butters their bread, and it’s NOT conservatives.
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“The Focus is also in the same class of vehicle as the Toyota Corolla and Honda Civic – both made in Ontario, Canada”
—————————————————–
Corolla is transferring its Corolla plant from Canada to Mexico and starting production in 2019.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/toyota-moving-corolla-production-to-mexico-from-ontario-1.3033661
“Toyota will spend $1 billion on an assembly plant in Guanajuato, Mexico, and move production of its popular Corolla sedan there from another plant in Cambridge, Ont.”
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“Focus is a tiny car more suitable to Chinese cities than to most of the US (excepting enviroterrorist centers like San Francisco). ”
I am currently in China. I’ve been to Shanghai, Chongqing, Xi’an, Beijing, etc. The cars are primarily full size (Mercedes, BMW, Buick, Honda, Hyundai etc). Very few small cars.
Chinese branded cars are also evident, but the people here prefer the quality of the name brands. The Chinese are still a little behind in the quality department. However, just like the Japanese and Korean automakers, they will improve. I would expect the Ford Focus to be decent quality at first, and improve each year.
As mentioned before, international competition and the subsequent weakening of unions, is one of the largest contributors to your shrinking middle class. You can’t change this.
Even if you manage to keep your auto manufacturing, it will become so automated, that the number of jobs will shrink.
If you think Trump can turn back the clock 50 years, and provide good manufacturing jobs, you are going to be disappointed.
Time to face reality. Embrace the future. Embrace technology. Embrace education. Get the skills you need. The winners will be those who embrace the future, the losers will be those who fight it.
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Let’s divide the world into two groups. The first is:
Russia, Italy, Germany, Australia, Japan, South Korea, China, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Denmark
and the second group is:
Argentina, Venezuela, Columbia, Zimbabwe, Sweden, Greece, France, Spain, Portugal, Congo, Nicaragua, Finland, Honduras, Egypt, Austria
So, the question is which group would you like to be similar to as the people of a country. Which group should the US be included with. Well if you believe the US belongs to the first group you are wrong. That group is countries which run consistent trade surpluses. The second group are countries which run consistent trade deficits. Not only does the US belong to the second group but it is the leader by a mile. Does not take a genius to see how this will turnout. The US (and I am sad to say I am a US citizen — why did I not stay in Norway or Australia when I had a chance) is going to get it good and hard and it will probably come fast when it happens.
The buck stops with Washington DC and anyone elected to an office in the last 30 years as well as all the banksters.
Source: https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/balance-of-trade for each appropriate country
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The true test will be in how many Americans will buy those imported cars from Ford
You know…
Those very same buyers who voted for
AMERICA FIRST
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I just bought a Honda CRV — made in Kentucy and Tennessee. Its engine was made in Japan (and shipped here almost assembled), but total US made content is still higher than Ford or Govt Motors
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My new CRV has floormats and a cargo area mat that are made by a company in Ohio, by US workers, using material from from recycled rubber tires. The mats are indestructable (I just traded in the set from my old Jeep after 15yrs of abuse).
Amazon doesn’t sell the mats (sorry Bezos!!!), but you can order them online or on the phone (you will do a double take when someone with a midwest US accent answers — no Mumbai based telemarketers).
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We apparently don’t have the nerve to impose any protectionist measures, so the least they can do is post the percentage of US made content on the label of everything we buy. If we are provided the data we MIGHT make good choices, and there would no longer be any delusions about it….NO EXCUSES.
If we just don’t care about our job or anyone else’s, the least we can do is be honest about it.
Look at me. Proposing transparency and honesty. Easy to see who is deluded here!
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Such disclosures would
Many of the popular (in the US) models of Honda, Toyota and BMW have higher US content than Ford or Govt Motors — and final assembly takes place in Kentucky and/or Tennessee for the Japanese manufacturers. BMWs get final assembly in South Carolina.
Ford and Govt Motors make a greater percentage of their cars in Mexico, Canada and overseas.
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Something I found really back@ssward, Honda has a contest each year with a dozen technical colleges (mechanical engineering majors) to make improvements to Honda’s engine systems. Students get engines to experiment on “for free” (its in the entry cost), and they get access to Honda’s in house engineers. The top teams get flown to Honda’s plant in Tennessee to present their ideas, some of which get incorporated into future engine designs.
At graduation, guess who offers the top competitors jobs? Govt Motors or Honda?
That is why the US car companies keep losing ground. Govt Motors sponsors Ditech mortgage commercials and spends millions bribing — I mean lobbying — Congress for bailout money. Honda sponsors student contests and Indy Car racing teams, both of which give real world R&D benefits to Honda’s engine designs.
Its a sad situation, but Honda does a lot more for US manufacturing than Govt Motors. Ford declined Obama’s bailout money, but Ford is losing ground too.
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Screw Mexico.
We’ve sent thousand of jobs down there and they send millions of their unwanted illiterate indigents to us in return. What a great deal, eh???
And then their slimy politicians like former Presidente Vincente Fox trash talk us for not giving Mexican illegal aliens US citizenship.
I don’t favor Ford offshoring our jobs anywhere. But if you forced me to choose between Mexico and China – China would win hands-down.
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We still have some choice left, although not desirable ones, but if you look at our predicament it is apparent that our problem has always revolved around taking the easy choice. Unfortunately that trend only generates even worse choices the further down the path of best intentions we go.
Hey, we WANT a good deal, we DESERVE a good deal, and we will get the deal we DESERVE.
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I agree,obviously the plan was to get China, Fords investment in a new plant In China vs Mexico and along with it the jobs for China’s economy and China’s “do nothing support” with USA vs North Korea.
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Ford sees the long-term trend for electric cars and the best place to tap into that is China.
It is not only the Chinese and Indian markets but also Chinese Technology in this field that Ford will be able to tap into.
Depending on taxation and tariffs, Ford will export this technology to factories in Asia, Europe, North America, and South America.
Where necessary, Ford will build locally. Where necessary Ford will ship these cars.
Gasoline and Diesel powered Focus cars are only the first step.
Mexico can get the Ford Plant built if they offer a deal attractive to Ford.
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Ford knows the individual buyer will soon be obsolete. No one will care where an autonomous vehicle is made.
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