Minorities are not buying American

[Schadenfroh]

http://www.npr.org/2011/06/30/137524757/toyota-steers-ads-to-bring-in-more-minority-buyers

The earthquake and tsunami in Japan as well as last year's recall fiasco have helped erode the company's share of the U.S. car market.

But one place Toyota remains No. 1 is with minority car buyers — Latinos, African-Americans and Asian-Americans continue to buy more Toyotas than any other car brand, domestic or foreign.

Jesse Jackson and his investment group are not pleased...

One of Jackson's concerns? GM's dissolving share of the black car market.
...
Toyota's claim on the minority market has the Rev. Jesse Jackson questioning other car companies' practices.

"I have a concern about the role onstage, and on the board, and in the marketplace of people of color," he said at a General Motors shareholders meeting in May.

His organization, Rainbow Push Coalition, owns shares in GM.

Apparently, Toyota's race-based advertising campaign has worked wonders:

"All of our advertising for African-Americans, and same for Asian-Americans and Hispanics, it's uniquely designed for them," he says.
...
"Not to beat a dead horse, but every word, every image, the background, the storyline, the voice over, the music — everything is unique to that market," Zienstra says.

The race-based adverting is even allowing inroads for green technology into the African American community:

For example, when Toyota was worried that it wasn't selling enough hybrids to African-Americas, it aired an ad starring a young black couple who rented a Toyota Prius. Throughout the commercial the couple becomes convinced that the Prius is the car for them.

Prius sales nearly doubled among black buyers after this ad ran.

This great market share exists despite Jesse Jackson's efforts to label Toyota as racist and threaten a boycott in the past.

One particular commercial showed a close-up of a black man's smile with a gold Toyota SUV carved in the tooth," she says.

Jackson and his Rainbow Push Coalition threatened a boycott.

I wonder if Jesse Jackson owned GM stock back when he started the Toyota = racist campaign, hmm, manipulating the feelings of the masses for personal gain...

 

[shortylickens]

The other day I saw a black dude in a pickup and a mexican in an SUV.

I thought I was losing my mind or something.

 

[nonlnear]

Toyotas aren't American? And "American" cars are? I don't follow.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Toyotas aren't American? And "American" cars are? I don't follow.

http://www.autoloandaily.com/foreign-cars-vandalized-in-detroit-1188

I believe that the definition of an American car, to members of a certain union, is that it is manufactured in Detroit?

Most people are addressing the situation like adults, with public demonstrations, activist Web sites and snarky bumper stickers, one of which reads “Out of a job yet? Keep buying foreign."

One man, however, has decided that the best way to encourage his neighbors to buy American is to vandalize their foreign cars. The man slashed the tires of five different foreign cars in the parking lots of a Lowe’s and Kohl’s in the Detroit suburb of Woodhaven, Mich. The man also wrote on the vehicles with a marker, advising owners that he would have preferred it if they had bought American automobiles.
...
According to the Detroit Free Press, Detroit has a history of violence against foreign cars. In the 1980s and early 1990s, union workers smashed Hondas and Toyotas with sledgehammers.
...
The violence even escalated to the point of murder. In 1982, two laid-off auto workers killed Vincent Chin, a Chinese-American man who they assumed was Japanese and blamed for their employment situation.

 

[nonlnear]

http://www.autoloandaily.com/foreign-cars-vandalized-in-detroit-1188

I believe that the definition of an American car, to members of a certain union, is that it is manufactured in Detroit?

I prefer to support the economies of right to work states. If that means I piss off Jesse Jackson then that's just gravy.

 

[JS80]

Products made in America are almost always inferior to the ones made overseas.

 

[werepossum]

The other day I saw a black dude in a pickup and a mexican in an SUV.

I thought I was losing my mind or something.

 

[Jhhnn]

I prefer to support the economies of right to work states. If that means I piss off Jesse Jackson then that's just gravy.

Japanese carmakers have kept the UAW at bay generally by building in areas where the economy isn't that hot & where workers have been properly indoctrinated in the Conservative mindset, also by providing excellent wages & benefits relative to local conditions.

Their marketing arm is excellent, backed up by honest value.

Right to work? For less, always, by design.

 

[Xellos2099]

Maybe because american made engine plain.... suck compare to the one Toyota made?

 

[LegendKiller]

Products made in America are almost always inferior to the ones made overseas.

Ohh that's bullshit and you know it.

 

[Anarchist420]

I guess Jesse Jacksasson doesn't like Toyota because they're not govt motors.

 

[RbSX]

I guess they don't believe in buying shit products then.

 

[irishScott]

Products made in America are almost always inferior to the ones made overseas.

No, not really. They just cost more to get the same quality due to the average cost of living in America. Which is due the average quality of life in America.

And just to show you how much you're overgeneralizing, I'm pretty sure American-made toilet paper is superior to that in many parts of the world.

 

[JS80]

No, not really. They just cost more to get the same quality due to the average cost of living in America. Which is due the average quality of life in America.

And just to show you how much you're overgeneralizing, I'm pretty sure American-made toilet paper is superior to that in many parts of the world.

Hence, apples to apples, a $10 good made in America is inferior to a $10 good made elsewhere.

I will give you the TP though. USA or bust.

 

[JS80]

Ohh that's bullshit and you know it.

Huge asterisk to my statement , see above.

 

[Doppel]

Ironically the Toyota Camry is the most American car currently one can buy, literally. Its HQ (Toyota) isn't in the US but its parts and construction are most american. Second place is a Honda IIRC. In fact, Japanese cars are half the top ten, read it just a couple of days ago.

Hence, apples to apples, a $10 good made in America is inferior to a $10 good made elsewhere.

All things equal, I agree. But as the guy in the Lincoln commercial says "All things being equal...they aren't." Parts with high labor content this makes sense but the more automated a part is the less labor cost is relevant.

 

[woodie1]

Products made in America are almost always inferior to the ones made overseas.

Yet some of the best selling Hondas and Toyotas are made in the USA!

Go figure ...

 

[jhu]

Products made in America are almost always inferior to the ones made overseas.

Indeed. I imported my last Civic from Japan

 

[jhu]

No, not really. They just cost more to get the same quality due to the average cost of living in America. Which is due the average quality of life in America.

And just to show you how much you're overgeneralizing, I'm pretty sure American-made toilet paper is superior to that in many parts of the world.

Cost of living in Japan is about similar to if not higher than the USA. Same with Germany.

 

[jhu]

Ironically the Toyota Camry is the most American car currently one can buy, literally.

Wrong. It's the Ford Focus and Ford Escape (90% USA parts each vs 80% for Camry).

 

[wuliheron]

I wonder if Jesse Jackson owned GM stock back when he started the Toyota = racist campaign, hmm, manipulating the feelings of the masses for personal gain...

Yes, and the Illuminati control everything and in turn are controlled by the space aliens.

Jackson is a two-faced politician and anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar. You might as well start throwing darts at the world's most infamous serial killers and dictators. If these assholes don't produce results in the concrete terms of better paying jobs you might as well start your own personal cult.

 

[manimal]

nm

 

[evident]

Wrong. It's the Ford Focus and Ford Escape (90% USA parts each vs 80% for Camry).

its pretty close. give me an american /jap made honda or toyota over mexican built gm trash any day, with the exception of the cts-v. ford is the only "domestic" automaker that's worth a damn.

and it's not that us built products are inferior as another poster pointed out. it's just that GM and chrysler make inferior products

 

[Doppel]

Wrong. It's the Ford Focus and Ford Escape (90% USA parts each vs 80% for Camry).

Wrong. American made includes labor also.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/43562127/

Your turn.

And:

http://www.cars.com/go/advice/Story.jsp?section=top&subject=ami&story=amMade0710

 

[Dulanic]

Products made in America are almost always inferior to the ones made overseas.

Bullshit. There is a reason many people will pay more for American products now. At one point this was true for cars but not for the rest. I paid more for my weber genisis grill becuase it is made in america. It also has a longer warranty then the foreign made models they sell.

How about clothing? Notice all the defects lately? I have had more pockets sewn closed in the past year than I have seen my whole life. It is made cheap fast and replaceable. It is not made to be quality.