The Made In America Camry Story Most Miss

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Take a quick look at the American-made list and one key point is easy to miss.

Cars.com’s most recent “Most American-made car” list is out, but most media reporting on the story miss the bigger picture. The Camry is not just the most American-made car by Cars.com’s methodology. What is equally important, or perhaps more important, is that the Camry supports about twice as many American workers in the U.S. than does the number two car, and more than four times the number of the most American-made vehicle built by GM.

According to Cars.com’s estimates, the Camry supports about 6,500 assembly plant workers in the US. That number does not include the workers who make parts for the Camry at the 270 supplier locations in the U.S. Cars.com estimates that the number of workers who support assembly line workers making parts is roughly 1.5 to one. Thus, a rough estimate of the workers whose jobs are related to the Toyota Camry is about 16,250. The most American-made GM product, the Chevy Traverse crossover, supports roughly 1,500 assembly plant workers and perhaps 3,750 workers overall.

Part of the reason for the Camry’s impact on America’s workforce is its sales success. The Camry is the top-selling car in America and has been for 14 years. The American-made index that Cars.com uses only calls a vehicle “American-made” if its parts content is over 75% U.S.-based. This year there are eight vehicles on the American-made list. Two are Toyotas, three are Hondas and three are GM vehicles. No trucks made the list, which is why the less than 75% U.S.-content Ford F-150 is not shown. No Fords or vehicles made by “Chrysler”, now called FCA US, make the American-made list. (More on page 2)

Toyota's U.S. operations are deeply rooted in the U.S. Toyota Motor Corp is a publicly traded U.S. company based in Plano Texas. It is traded under the symbol TM on the New York Stock Exchange. Jim Lentz is the CEO of Toyota North America. Bob Carter is Toyota's senior vice president overseeing automotive operations. The Sienna and Camry were designed in America and have American chief designers.

For the full Cars.com release please see this link.

Submitted by Andy Checchia (not verified) on July 10, 2016 - 11:34AM

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You are missing the big picture. Yes some Toyotas, BMWs and other foreign cars are assembled here. But the US employment numbers paint a very different picture than what you're trying to say. Are you intentionally misleading people? Or are you just misinformed?

Here's some job numbers for you:

GM employs 77,000 Americans
Ford employs 65,000 Americans
Chrysler employs 39,200 Americans

Toyota 30,000 Americans
Honda 26,000 Americans
Nissan 10,380 Americans
Hyundai-Kia 7,800 Americans

The Detroit Three employ two out of every three autoworkers in the U.S.

Also, if you buy an import brand even one assembled in the US, most of the white collar jobs we send our kids to college to get (design, engineering, finance, management, ect ) are overseas. All the taxes on those salaries and any profit the companies make are paid to other countries. So we get high taxes, bad roads and lousy schools. Is this what you want?.... I certainly don't.

Buy American the job you save could be your own!

What is your source for GM's US employment number? That would be handy to have. I find it very had to get that GM number with the Canadian and Mexican employees not included. According to every Toyota Press release "...we’ve built more than 30 million cars and trucks in North America, where we operate 14 manufacturing plants (10 in the U.S.) and directly employ more than 44,000 people (more than 34,000 in the U.S.)" Those numbers don't include dealership and marketing related jobs related to Toyota.
- The car in the story here, and most of the US-market cars Toyota produces in volume, are designed at Toyota's California design center. Toyota also has design in Michigan. The design chiefs of all of Toyota's top vehicles are American (Such as Mike Sweers the Tacoma design chief). The majority of TMS's white collar jobs are in Plano Texas. Having moved there from California. Plano and the other headquarters employ 4,000 people in America in white collar jobs. In-sourcing is a positive thing for the US, just as outsourcing is bad. No?