OT: new car advice

[Alan Dayley]

Kurt Granroth said:
>
> 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?

Some years back US Congress passed a law that cars must have a label that
shows a percentage of "American" content.  "American" means US and Canada.
 This label is usually found on the driver's window or the next window
back of a new car.

A bit of google searching found an article with some of the values listed.

http://www.tampabay.com/living/story.cfm?storyid=153307

This does not answer how much money "stays" in a country, which is much
harder to answer.  For example, go buy an all-American Dodge:
- Many of the engines are acutually made by Mitsubishi (ex. 3.3 liter V-6
in the Caravan and other cars).
- Assembly is in Mexico, Canada or the US.
- DaimlerChrysler is a company as a result of the merger between Crysler
and the german company that own Mercedes-Benz.  So do the profits stay
here or go to Germany?

So, is buying a Dodge, buying American?  Is buying a Toyota Sienna (90%
"American" and assembled in Princeton, Ind.), not buying American?

[shrug]

Alan