I daily drive my truck because I don't have the want, need or room to put another vehicle in my driveway. I don't consider there to be a right or wrong on what a person dd's. It's personal choice.
RE American made, I'm also a big 3 supporter. World market for manufacturing? Yes. Similar content? Probably very similar. I've seen charts in the past that show the big 3 to be a little more but not a big difference. (no idea on the current contents) But I like the fact that the engineering, R&D and profits are primarily here for the big 3.
Agree, personal choice, everyone's situation is different. To some they don't put enough miles and depreciation into their commuter for it to matter, for others it can be silly. If skoots wants to drive an economy car for his commute to save some $$ more power to him. If he wants to drive a race car to work cause it's fun, more power to him. hell, if he gets amberlamps running and wants to drive that to work, more power to him.
Regarding the american made thing. There aren't the volume of engineers and R&D and other jobs available for companies like Nissan, Toyota, Honda, etc. But those companies still employ many of us.
The profits don't stay here in the same way, but it doesn't get me all bent out of shape like it would have years ago to see some of those brands, that I know still have Tech Centers and R&D facilities here in Michigan/US, driving down the road.
Let's not also forget some of the assembly plants, in certain towns across small town america, those manufacturing facilities are employing a high percentage of the entire local area and keeping those people working as well.
As an example, toyota has been for the last few months and the foreseeable future, interviewing over 250 line workers per week at one of their assembly facilities in the midwest. I don't have any data on the number of people they will be hiring and have hired. But that stat was dropped on a conference call yesterday. That's a lot of folks at the end of the day.
I don't drive a Chevy truck because it's american made, I drive it because I think it's the best option out there in a 1500 series truck.
I tried to drive an american made economy car that suited our needs. We all know how that has ended up for myself and a whole host of others.
We made our next purchase after driving the cruze, sonic, mazda 3, golf, passat, civic, honda fit, subaru impreza, nissan rogue, nissan juke, nissan versa, etc. The big 3 only had one offering in our class and size and style (hatchback), and that was the focus we had just gotten out of. We ended up with a car that's a touch bigger than the focus, has awd, the same mileage, and we leased it so if its a shit box we won't give a damn :sonicjay:
Gimme an AWD hatchback that gets 35+ mpg highway from the domestics, and I'll definitely consider it, you can see we considered a lot of options, but at the end of the day we chose the car that we felt had the best value for us. I think that's what skoots is trying to do, regardless of build, and I think that's what any smart consumer should do.
