I don't think you've ever worked in the auto industry - most cars are not built outside of North America. In fact, I can't think of a single car that is built in a radically cheaper country like China that's currently on the American market.
You get imports from Japan, Germany, the UK, etc, but those are hardly cheaper manufacturing grounds.
The only major "cheap" source of cars is Mexico, and in general consumers have reacted badly to this sort of cost-cutting (the massive drop in the Mercedes-Benz C-series build quality after moving to Mexico has resulted in an exodus of buyers to other brands, same goes for VW).
By and large the cars you buy today, even ones from Toyota and Honda, are built in the US or Canada, both of which are hardly cheap when it comes to wages and benefits.
And keep in mind that Toyota and Honda are suffering greatly right now. I have many colleagues in the auto industry, and Toyota has already scaled back production in a major way - the demand is simply no longer there. IMHO the American public is waking up from decades of the suburban dream, and car ownership is something that will decrease in importance in our culture as time goes on, especially as new spending in mass transit kicks in and the urban culture takes center-stage.
You get imports from Japan, Germany, the UK, etc, but those are hardly cheaper manufacturing grounds.
The only major "cheap" source of cars is Mexico, and in general consumers have reacted badly to this sort of cost-cutting (the massive drop in the Mercedes-Benz C-series build quality after moving to Mexico has resulted in an exodus of buyers to other brands, same goes for VW).
By and large the cars you buy today, even ones from Toyota and Honda, are built in the US or Canada, both of which are hardly cheap when it comes to wages and benefits.
And keep in mind that Toyota and Honda are suffering greatly right now. I have many colleagues in the auto industry, and Toyota has already scaled back production in a major way - the demand is simply no longer there. IMHO the American public is waking up from decades of the suburban dream, and car ownership is something that will decrease in importance in our culture as time goes on, especially as new spending in mass transit kicks in and the urban culture takes center-stage.