Re: Pick-up Truck Search Finally Over

The following is from LexisNexis.com (free to search but 3 dollars per
document that you read--not exactly Wal-Mart pricing).

It's especially interesting in the second half, when it talks
about the Camry and Avalon's percentages of domestic parts.


Chicago Tribune (August 11, 2002)

HEADLINE: Label of contents Window stickers of parts origin show how
tricky it is to 'buy American'

Since 1994, car shoppers intent on "buying American" have had an extra
weapon in their arsenal. But according to a study by the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration, they generally don't use it.

Shoppers who want to determine how "red, white and blue" a vehicle's
DNA is, can get some help by looking at the domestic content label, which
is near or included in the Monroney Label, the window sticker that contains
standard and optional equipment and prices. Yet most people have never heard
of it.

The American Automobile Labeling Act requires these labels on every
passenger vehicle made after Oct. 1, 1994.

In what is known as the domestic content label law, Congress requires
three pieces of information: the percent of U.S./Canadian parts that each
model contains, where the vehicle is assembled and where the engine and
transmission are built.

More than 75 percent of 646 consumers surveyed in the 1998 NHTSA study, even
those who described themselves as caring deeply about "buying American,"
were unaware of the labels. But 56 percent of those said awareness of the
label would influence future vehicle purchases.

Of the people surveyed, who had bought or leased new vehicles in the last
six months or were planning to do so within three months, 23 percent knew
of the label. Of those, 15 percent said they had seen it; 7 percent had read
the label at a dealership; 5 percent were influenced by it to some degree;
and 2 percent were moderately or strongly influenced by the label's country
of assembly information. Nobody used the labels to comparison-shop makes
and models by U.S.-Canadian parts content.

Yet, one-sixth of the people surveyed, which the study said extrapolates
to 2.5 million new-vehicle sales per year in the U.S., said it was
critically important that vehicles be made in the U.S. or Canada. They said
they try to "buy American" in general.

The catch was that even this group was no more aware of the domestic
content labels than the average consumer.

Most people in this group simply "buy American" by choosing a vehicle built
by one of the Big Three U.S. automakers. They were not using the information
about percent of domestic content to find models with the highest percent
of U.S./Canadian parts.

Using that approach, someone could buy a Ford Explorer built in Louisville,
which has 75 percent domestic parts, without realizing that he or she could
have considered several other vehicles built in the U.S. or Canada by
Japanese manufacturers Toyota and Honda with the same domestic content.

For example, the Honda Odyssey minivan, built in Alliston, Ontario, has
75 percent domestic parts, and the Toyota Avalon, built in
Georgetown, Ky., has 80 percent. [Built_Well's aside: Ray O. does your
Avalon's VIN begin with a 4 or a 1?]

That raises the question about whether there is an "American" vehicle
anymore. "We think it's reliable and accurate information and helpful
information for consumers who are looking for that information," said
Stephen Collins, president of the Automotive Trade Policy Council, a
trade lobbying organization that represents German-owned
DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp.

Paul Ryan sees it differently.

"It is outdated, inaccurate and misleading," said Ryan, director for
commercial affairs with the Association of International Automobile
Manufacturers, a lobbying organization that represents 15 motor vehicle
manufacturers and suppliers.

One of the issues, as Ryan sees it, is that "domestic" treats U.S. and
Canadian content as the same under the Auto Pact, which integrated the
nations' automotive industries in 1965. So it depends on whether you think
of Canada as "domestic." The other is that the law doesn't include the
value of the final assembly labor. So Japanese manufacturers with assembly
plants in the U.S. don't get to include the value of their American
workers' labor.

"This law is outdated in view of the global nature of the automobile
industry. With Ford owning Volvo and Jaguar, and GM owning all or
part of just about everybody--Saab, Subaru, Suzuki, Isuzu--these
simplistic approaches make no sense.

"You could buy the most quintessential American product--a Chrysler Jeep--but
do the profits go to Detroit or back to Stuttgart? The industry is highly
integrated and highly globalized and it makes it well-nigh impossible to
decide who is 'us' and who is 'them,'" Ryan said.

Collins agrees that the auto industry has become more globalized. But "it's
still also true that the Big Three employ the vast majority of auto workers
in this country. Also, the domestic content figures for GM, Ford and
DaimlerChrysler are going to be higher than for the transplants," he said.

That is changing.

The 1998 NHTSA survey showed that between 1995 and 1998 the domestic parts
content of vehicles built by the Big Three fell to 84 from 89 percent. In
that time, the domestic content of vehicles assembled in North America by
manufacturers such as Toyota and Honda has risen to 59 from 47 percent.

The NHTSA survey attributes these trends to two trade agreements. One is
the North American Free Trade Act among the U.S., Canada and Mexico, which
has reduced the U.S./Canadian parts content because more parts are sourced
and purchased in Mexico. The other is the 1995 U.S.-Japan Agreement on Autos
and Auto Parts aimed at increasing U.S. parts content in vehicles assembled
and sold in North America by Japanese-based companies.

Toyota is an example of what has been happening with "transplant" manufacturers.

"In our case, 65 percent of our products that are sold in North American
are built in North America. All our core products are domestically built,"
said John McCandless, spokesman for Toyota Motor Sales USA.

All 245,023 Corollas that Toyota sold in the U.S. in 2001 were built in
Fremont, Calif., or Cambridge, Ontario. [Built_Well's note: For 2006, anyway,
some Corollas sold in America were assembled in Japan--see Ackerman Toyota's
online inventory.]

All Matrix models are built in Cambridge. All Avalons and Sienna minivans
are built in Georgetown, Ky. All pickup trucks are built in the U.S.: the
Tacoma in Fremont and the Tundra in Princeton, Ind.

The Sequoia sport-utility vehicle also is built in Princeton. In 2001,
Toyota sold 68,574 Sequoias.

"Most of the Camrys sold in the U.S. are built in Kentucky, although the
demand has been such that in our limited capacity we do still bring in some
from Japan," McCandless said. In 2001, Toyota sold 390,449 Camrys in the
U.S.; 83,193 were imported from Japan with 307,256 built in Kentucky (sedans)
or Cambridge (Solara coupe and convertible).

In line with the findings of the NHTSA survey, the domestic parts content
of Toyotas has been increasing, McCandless said, as the automaker has
added a transmission plant to its engine plant in Buffalo, W.Va. And it
will continue to grow when the company begins to produce V-8 engines at a
new plant in Huntsville, Ala., next spring, he said.

From the 2001 to the 2002 model years, for example, the domestic parts
content has risen to 80 from 75 percent in the Avalon; to 50 from 45 percent
in the Tacoma; to 65 from 60 percent in the Sequoia; and to 75 from 65
percent in Sienna.

But it will take a few years before Toyota catches up to the Saturn
S-Series, which is built in Spring Hill, Tenn., with a domestic content
of 95 percent.
.

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