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Originally Posted by Jimbuna
I must be missing something here Jamie...as far as I'm aware all production line vehicles are now owned by foreign parent companies  |
That's probably true, but it brings up an interesting point. If Fiat has already owned the controlling interest in Chrysler for the past five years, what has changed? What will change? Will Chrysler start building Italian cars? Probably for the average car owner nothing will change at all. Perhaps construction techniques will improve. Perhaps the opposite. Perhaps more jobs will be sent overseas. Perhaps not.
That video on British manufacturing was startling, to say the least. I'm reminded of a conversation between my friend Rocky and a biker. The part of the talk involved the fact that, until found out, Harley-Davidson used Keihin carburetors, along with several other Japanese-made parts. Harley had to spend some money overcoming that embarrassment. The point of the argument was that when the biker proudly said "My Harley was made in America!", Rocky replied "So was my Kawasaki."
And it's true. In 1974 Kawasaki became the first foreign company to manufacture motor vehicles in the United States with their plant in Lincoln, Nebraska. They save time and money not having to ship products from the home country to the point-of-sale, and employ local workers and management. Only the ownership is actually overseas. So what is the difference between that and Chrysler now being owned by a foreign company? I don't know.