ORIGINAL: 2000Si

hmm... I think toyota will keep the assembly plants here, hell... I'll bet Toyota has more assembly plants in the US than Ford and GM do now.

ORIGINAL: 2001 GT

Thing is, nothing is made in America anymore. We're not the manufactuaring nation we once were. Most of us are typing this over our foreign made computer, wearing clothes made in india, sitting on a foreign made chair, surrounded by a house made out of foreign wood, carpeting ,rugs, linens, tile, flooring, and filled with tv's, phones, appliances, cellies, toys, and pretty much everything else foreign made.

The american consumer wants everything at the lowest price no matter what. Retail is so competive the the home depots and walmarts of the world will go to great lengths to get the cheapest product possible.

I think this doesn't effect the auto industry as much, plus many american cars have the majority of their parts build outside of this country anyway. I think the american auto industry can compete more favorabley then other sectors though because so many of the foriegn cars are built right here. That means a company like hyundai or toyota pretty much voluntary took away its possible labor/cost advantage to become more american and sell it as such. There succesful mainly because of design and quality, not some huge cost or wage difference like other sectors (though union agreements are currently hurting GM). Its much easier for GM to improve design and quality then it is to compete price wise if they had to compete versus south korean or chinese labor expenses.