OT: new car advice

[Kurt Granroth]

On Nov 21, 2005, at 1:52 PM, <vodhner at cox.net> <vodhner at cox.net> wrote:
> BTW, this was built in Fremont CA, so I "bought
> American".  Of course I could have bought something
> built in Detroit with Japanese parts . . .  So if
> you want to "buy American", you need to study the
> whole "domestic content" issue.
>

That's one thing I've wondered about for years but could never find  
an answer to: how much of the money for any given car goes to a  
particular country?  If I buy a Honda Accord which is built in KY or  
TN or somewhere around there, how much of that money stays in the US  
and how much goes back to Japan?  Flip that with a Ford Fusion which  
is built in Mexico.  What's the percentage there?

I'm not surprised that those numbers aren't readily available since  
there would be so many factors.  If, say, an Accord was assembled in  
the US but all of the parts were produced in Japan, then that might  
skew the numbers in one direction.  But what if the designers were in  
the US and the engine itself was built here... it skews the other  
direction.  And that's not even counting the static costs like  
shipping, sales and marketing (all of which are necessarily local).

Still, it would be very interesting to see some estimates, at least.   
If I spend $X on car Y, how much of that money stays in the US?

Kurt