MikeyFIN

Well a Buick GN uses the same front shocks as a 55 Chevy ...
The underpinnings are almost idenctical on my 65 GranSport...
The GMC pickups.well not much new there either.
The ZR-1... Engine made by Mercury Marine designed by Lotus, gearbox from Germany etc etc..
Others not much new there either the SVO´s used European Ford Engines as a base, like the Pinto.
The Dodges Shelbys although quite promising a boring platform and no worldbeater in any department.
Carrol had his hands tied there... sadly.

Eventhen like today the racetracks (not strips) were ruled by Europeans but there is some fine exceptions..like Nürburgring records for civilian cars.
And FYI the old Nissan L-6 that was in a 240Z-> Skylines and everything in between is almost a direct copy of a early 60´s Mercedes L-6.
So even today much of Japs stuff are copied form Europe.
Nowadays it´s mostly designs.

Jupiter Sunsation

Most of this list is straight line performance, the ZR-1 would be the exception. Run a single lap at any track in the country and the rest of that list would need to take a break (over-heated brakes and drivers that need a few beers to recover!)

bustedbrick

Exactly, agree 100%. My point on my last post is that for the automotive industry in particular, suppliers and OE's and shareholders are go global, that the impact of buying one of the Big 3 is not the same as it was 20+ years ago. 20 years ago (or maybe even more), when you bought American, most suppliers were local, most shareholders were local, and most plants were local. When you bought foreign, all the money and trickle down effect went overseas. Not so nowadays.

Manufacturing needs to return for us to regain our footing, and not only mfg for domestic consumption, but mfg for export. We will regain prosperity by profiting from global development.

Jupiter Sunsation

Wrong....catch the HBO documentary on the closing of a GM plant. 3rd and 4th generation autoworkers are being laid off with no jobs within 100 miles. The town had a 3 million sq ft plant shut down, real estate collapses (so even if you could move you can't sell/rent your house), local bars/restaurants close and the suppliers close as well (whether direct or indirect).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50qSV_F-nAE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm8g0...eature=related
The aftermath
I don't believe in buying American anything if it is a bad product but if a Honda is made in Ohio by Americans who then spend their paychecks locally it would be hard to argue buying an American brand made in Mexico is a better alternative!

Too Stroked

I always find it interesting when people say that buying a vehicle from a non-American company is bad because the profits got back to that company overseas. The American company I work for makes most of its profits overseas and ships them back here - but that's apparently OK. Hmmm.

rlj676

Except the assembly labor is 10% of the cost to make a car. So if the parts are of similar origin (and the window sticker is worthless in determining actual added value due to the many tiers, and foreign companies with a local "assembly" plant as suppliers) the value of the domestic salaried employees back into the US economy is far greater than the hourly's contributions from the transplant.

If you read the various studies, they all conclude that American cars, even the small percent built out of the US, contribute a higher "jobs multiplier" here than a transplant car. Point is, don't use the fact it's built here to rationalize the purchase of a foreign make. Just say you bought the better car if that's what you think.

As to the GTR, a super fast ride, but extremely expensive to maintain and just plain unattractive to me. I'd take a Z06/ZR1, 911, or modded Cayman over it every single day. Hell, a lightly worked CTS-V will run with one on a straight.

jbraun2828

buy american, the job you save might be your own. Anybody remember that saying. Too bad people really don't believe it. If you think buying a foreign car made here benifits us more than buying an american made car you are just plain wrong.

Catmando

How many American car mfgs have factories in Japan or any other Asian country besides China? At the end of the day, ricer profits here go back to Asia.

BUIZILLA

how did this great topic get so sidetracked?

Jupiter Sunsation

+1....the new Lexus LFA (or whatever it is called) is 375K and they are only building 500 for the world. Car is just as ugly as the Skyline. For 375K you could have a GTR, GT3, ZR1 AND a Z06 to drive daily!