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The automobile industry has long been a volatile, complex, globalized affair. Big conglomerates like Volkswagen (who owns Lamborghini, Bentley, Porsche, and Audi, to name a few, and hosts operations in 150 countries) always seem to be dropping or bidding on brands. Even the most "American" cars are only made with 80 percent of U.S.-manufactured parts. And the vehicle that "won the war" (we're talking about the Jeep Wrangler here) is now owned by Italians. So what are we getting at? Gone are the days when iron-ore was taken from the ground in Minnesota, sent to Pittsburgh to be made into steel, and shipped back to Detroit to be stamped, welded, machined, assembled, and beautified into cars. Car companies now pick from international parts bins to build cars, and if there's one thing we can be certain of, that's never going to change. Call it greed; blame technology, Wall Street, or politicians; argue that it's a good thing -- whatever you want to do --but at least Mazda and Toyota are about to do the best thing a modern car company can do -- they're going to continue to
assemble cars here in the USA.
Just last month, Toyota and the fun-loving brand Mazda announced they're partnering up to build a $1.6 billion manufacturing plant, which will produce up to 4,000 American manufacturing jobs. Toyota said it plans to use the plant to build the popular Corolla model, while Mazda will be producing its increasingly sought-after fun-to-drive crossovers.
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A location has not yet been determined, but the automakers said that the plant would be fully operational by 2021. States are lining up and getting their books in order to try to incentivize the automakers.
As for me, maybe that Mazda CX-9 Touring I've been dying to take skiing won't be as sinful as I once thought.
What are your thoughts, people? Do you care where your car is actually made? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments below!
