Imports vs. North American cars

Here are my thought about Import VS. North American cars.

The differences between Imports and North American Cars is as easy as price, quality and where they are actually made.

Where the vehicle is actually assembled is considered as the country of origin or domestic vehicles. See the American Automobile Labeling Act regarding this issue. According to Wikipedia the "Big Three" Ford, General Motors and Chrysler are considered domestic as they are primarily assembled in America for sale in the United States.

There are other import manufacturers with assembly plants in the United States such as Honda, Toyota, Subaru, Mazda for example. I would like to remind readers that several of the import companies are now subdivisions of the "Big Three" including Mazda, a division of Ford Motor Company.

The prices and quality tend to vary from manufacturer to manufacturer regardless of company. The prices will be determined by how the company's stockholders, unions and board of trustees will require due to costs, benefit packages and salaries. It is fairly obvious in the past few years that quality is a big issue.

Many times you turn on the news this past year alone and hear of a recall of some kind. Mostly by the "Big Three" while even their subdivisions are not having these issues unless in the case of Ford/Mazda where some models utilize the same parts/styles with different names on the vehicles.

I am not implying that Ford/Mazda have had any massive recalls that have not been announced merely pointing out the quality vs. models as utilized scenario. It used merely as an example of some of the manufacturers using the same platform for several models under different name brands. As when Ford sold the Mercury Voyager which was also a Nissan Quest under a joint venture between the two companies.