Buy American Cars (or Not)

We bought an American Toyota Sienna. It was made in Kentucky by American employees, with the profit margin going to a large, multi-national corporation. Its competitors were a Canadian Dodge, a Canadian Ford, an Alabaman Honda, or a Chinese Kia - each with its profit margins going to a large, multi-national corporation.<p>I'm not even sure what an American car <i>is</i>.

It's interesting to look at this kind of data, but there are a few correlation-causation flaws. For example, the final graph is titled "How Bad Grammer Affects Car Resale Prices". We cannot say that the bad grammar is the <i>cause</i> of the lower sale price, only that it is correlated. It is just as likely that undereducated individuals are correlatively more likely to own less expensive cars and use poor grammar.

The right thing to do is a buy a USED car with decent mpg. Saves massive amounts of energy creating a new car.<p>Of course it's not the "patriotic" thing because it would collapse a good chunk of the economy built around Detroit if no-one bought a new car for a year.<p>I don't expect everyone to drive a 15 year old car like I do, but I simply do not understand why people buy brand new cars when the previous year model with only a few thousand miles will be thousands of dollars cheaper.

Maybe I'm reading these graphs poorly, but doesn't the type of car people buy seem to correlate highly with the affluence of the area? There's more money in NY, LA, SF, San Diego, etc. (as shown by the graphs at the bottom), so more people in those cities drive nicer (european) cars.<p>What am I missing?

Honestly I am seeing simply randomness here.<p>If you plot any piece of random data, and then sort by frequency you'll get a graph that looks more or less like this.<p>I think you should verify your data in two ways:<p>1: Plot the graph for each year separately, and see how correlated the years are. If the rankings are the same year after year then you have something, otherwise it's just random.<p>2: A second thing is randomly divide American and non-American each into two groups by model (just randomly assign each model into american 1, american 2, non 1, non 2). Then plot the data for each group in each place, and see if the rankings are the same - if they are, then the American vs not distinction is valid. Otherwise, again, you just have random data.

Many commentators talk about what the "American car" means, that there is no such thing any more, cars are internationally designed and produced, etc. All correct, I suppose. But notice that the linked article is using the combination of words "American car" as a shortcut for the "American branded car", which they also mention several times.<p>And indeed I think a commentator has remarked that the focus is on the consumer behavior, not the car industry per se. If the distinction is ignored by the main body of the customers, it can be not too important for the researchers as well.

This is somewhat misleading and certainly not due to patriotism.<p>Car companies have massive discount plans for workers, friends and family, supply chain workers, previous customers, etc.<p>Detroit has lots of automotive industry workers, and thus for <i>many</i> people around Detroit, it's silly not to buy the car that you can get at a huge discount. This isn't necessarily an American vs non-American choice, since workers are typically eligible for a steep discount with only one car company.<p>Around the time that Japanese automakers began producing quality products, automotive execs in Detroit looked out their office windows and saw an increasing number of competitors' cars in the parking lot and it scared them. What kind of statement is it when a worker buys the competitor's product. So they offered steep discounts, which are pretty much guaranteed to result in workers buying their employers' product.<p>In more recent years, this has also been used to boost sales numbers in times of crisis. US automakers have had miles of unused tarmac near Detroit Metro airport filled with cars that they couldn't sell. At some point they just offer a steep employee discount and now a bunch of dud product that is losing money can be turned into a few months of strong sales. By using employee discounts for this, the firm is not seen to be succumbing to massive widespread discounting, and so the technique stays off the radar fairly effectively.<p>When you consider the cities that have automotive plants, supplier manufacturing plants, etc. and all the discounting going on in these areas, the chart starts to make a lot more sense.<p>Now for a small rant: Ironically, preventing workers from experiencing competitive products seems to have created tremendous myopia in Detroit and may be responsible for the decline of the US auto industry. Detroit is <i>still</i> using cheapo vinyl and plastic on midrange and even low end luxury cars, far inferior to the materials used on low trim-level Honda and Hyundai models.<p>One can imagine that if more workers had needed to think carefully about what they wanted to drive, the handwriting would have been on the wall and something could have been done about it before it was too late.<p>Note to business owners. If you have to discount your product by over 20% to get your own employees to buy it, take a closer look at what they prefer about your competitor's product.

tiny nitpick, the typical three letter code for Japan is JPN, not JAP.

This explains a few things to me:<p>I feel a particular affinity between D.C., SF and NYC, I wonder if it's the similar mix of cars that do it?<p>More importantly, I see sales figures for some American cars, and find them unbelievable. I see way more Hondas, Toyotas and Hyundais these days then just about anything else. Stop at a stop light and I guarantee there will be on of the above three cars one car away from you.<p>Then I travel to the midwest, lets say Ohio. And boom, American cars everywhere. Those three brands above are almost nowhere in sight. And suddenly the sales figures make sense. I can't remember the last time I've seen a a Ford Fusion, but they move around 20,000 a month. In Ohio, I can't remember <i>not</i> seeing a Ford Fusion.

Moving to the bay area from Detroit. The first thing I noticed was the lack of American cars.

I buy American cars for several reasons:<p>1. Most American cars are NOT world cars, I'm a big guy, 6'3 300 lbs, I dont fit well in a world car, so I'm always looking at vehicles designed for the North American market, plus I do a whole lot of long distance driving.<p>2. Less intensive maintenance schedule, my town car will never need its timing belt changed, nor a valve adjustment, the primary services done, are simply to change fluids.<p>3. While is sounds jingoistic, its patriotic, I prefer to buy something made here.

I love how you guys at Priceonomics include our little town of Eugene in your analysis. Nice to see how we compare :)<p>Keep up the great work, always a pleasure to read one of your articles.

Back when I was studying in Michigan this topic came up one night over beer. Almost everyone there knew a friend of a friend or family member who could get them a decent employee discount on American cars.

If you walk around in downtown Ithaca you might get the idea that Chevy and Ford are exotic nameplates like Ashton-Martin or Ferrarri.<p>Hang out at a gas station 8 miles away, however, and you see maybe 50% American cars.

I wonder what iPhone ownership is like in Microsoft's turf (Redmond WA)?

I'm surprised that Portland doesn't rate higher in Subarus. It always seems to me that 30% of all cars there are dark green Subarus.<p>Also, why is Salt Lake so high in used-car prices? Large Mormon families?

There is no such thing as an "American" car anymore. All (major) car companies operate at a global scale, and are dependent upon many different nationalities to produce their products. There are thousands of Americans employed by foreign auto manufacturers just as the opposite is also true. Yet Detroit is treated as if it were a sacred cow, and their advertising is geared toward instilling nationalism. However if you were going to buy a new car would you say it was any more patriotic to buy a Toyota that was manufactured in South Carolina or a Ford from Mexico?

I'd expect places with Real Winter to have different taste in cars than California, wouldn't you?

A bit arbitrary. Many "Japanese" and "German" cars are manufactured in the US.

Rhode Island is not a city.