We can start talking about domestic content but the Japanese and Germans and Koreans are expanding their manufacturing into the U.S., they’re sourcing more domestic parts, building more plants to build parts for the U.S. market and abroad, and even are domestically engineering product specifically for our market (i.e. the Tundra and Sequoia). In the meantime, the Big Three are continuing to outsource U.S. labor to try to undercut their substantial losses due to corporate mismanagement and squandering the enormous lead they had in the 1970’s.

There is NO ONE to blame for the Big Three’s losses and the foreign makers gains other than the Big Three excecutives themselves who have bean-counted, decontented, and raped/pillaged the company from a standing of leadership and quality to an also-ran status. By the time GM, Ford, and Chrysler have or will get competent leadership to turn the tide, it might well be too late. GM is on the right track with cars like the Chevy Malibu, Saturn Aura, the European-built Saturn Astra, and the entire Lambda platform CUV’s but they just announced absolutely colossal losses for ‘07. True, that’s without the Malibu and Astra and their hybrid-capable trucks/SUV’s on showroom floors but even there, I doubt it’ll be enough. Cars like the forthcoming Volt and the entire E-Flex architecture will do well to help make GM competitive in areas that they’ve been ignorant to for years. Even in that area though, public perception after years of inferior and buggy vehicles is hard to turn around over night regardless of what steps GM takes. It might take years to overcome.

Ford… what can you say? There’s few cars they’ve built in the last 10 years that people actually want. Their entire business model has almost hinged on the success of the Ford F-150. The Fusion has been a runaway success, the Focus has been a series of major missteps by Ford when they’ve had better designed product in the offering in Europe on newer platforms, and even the Fusion vs. Mondeo is a big argument. Outside of the F-150 and Fusion, the Edge has been a recent bright point but after how long it’s taken them to get there… they’re in serious woes and likely are in worse shape than GM even.

Chrysler… what is there to be said? They’re now a Canadian company having been taken over by a venture capital firm out of Canada that’s looking to try to prop them up and get them back to solvent so they can turn around and sell them. Odds are, when sold… they will continue to not be American owned. My wager is it’ll be a Chinese or Indian company that purchases them to get a huge head of steam into the very large U.S. market. In that vain, Toyota and Honda are actually apt to be more American than Chrysler.

Moral of the story… I’m happy for Toyota’s entry and hope they do well. Toyota’s increase in U.S. manufacturing is putting more American’s to work. Regardless of where the parent company revenues go, it’s all a bunch of executives. Yet in the end, what’s more important is that the American workforce has a place to work. In a global economy, it truly matters very little where the corporate headquarters are and matters significantly more who is doing more for the people worldwide. I think it’s safe to say that GM, Ford, and Chrysler are doing a great deal for the people of Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, and China… but it’s the Japanese, Korean, and Germans that are doing what they can for the American people by increasing jobs.

Any other rationale for hating on foreign automakers is pure and utter bigotry and zealotry by the uneducated and ignorant. Do some research and you’ll learn quite a bit.

Its like pink slipping a company’s employees and sending all the work oversees for cheaper labor. Just another excuse to sell out. Sad.