Autoblog

Toyota has been eying a takeover of Fuji Heavy Industries – Subaru's parent company – for some time now. When General Motors ditched its 20 percent stake in Fuji back in October 2005, Toyota snapped up 8.7 percent and the two have been undertaking a series of joint ventures since.

But that wasn't nearly enough for the Toyota Motor giant that's getting closer and closer to the #1 global automaker spot with each passing day. An acquisition of Subaru would bring them even closer, if only they could.

Continues after the jump.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req.]

While more and more import brands have opened up producton facilities in the U.S., a study performed by The Level Field Institute, a domestic industry promotion group (that's an important point, right there), found that domestic automakers (which includes General Motors, Ford and the Chrysler Group) support 2.5 more jobs for each vehicle they build in the U.S. than their import competitors. The study projects the number of jobs both groups will support in 2007, which include both blue- and white-collar jobs, and while domestic automakers will likely shed around 42,750 jobs this year, they will still be responsible for the paychecks of 378,250 workers. While import brands will add around 3,000 jobs to their payrolls in 2007, in total they will only be supporting 106,000 workers. One of the main reasons for this disparity is that while more and more import brands are building their vehicles in the U.S., much if not all of the development work takes place in their lands of origin.

The Level Field Institute is an orginization founded by retirees of GM, Ford and Chrysler and their suppliers. While one may question the report's outcome based on LFI's apparent loyalties, the group is open about its methadology and sources, which they reveal in detail here. You can check out the report in full by viewing the PDF file.

Thanks for the tip, Don!

[Source: The Level Field Institute via the Detroit Free Press]

The Level Field Institute - a group consisting of Big 3 retirees - has released a report detailing the impact of domestic and transplant automotive OEMs on the American auto parts industry, and it contains some interesting nuggets of information.

Of the $225B in auto parts purchased from the US last year, approximately 77% was bought by the Big 3. GM led the spending with $85B in purchases, compared to $20B by Toyota. Overall, the domestic content of vehicles from the Big 3 averaged 71%, while Japanese automakers came in at 48% (note that both figures include vehicles that were manufactured elsewhere and imported into the US). Honda has the highest domestic content of any company outside of the Big 3, with 59% of its parts sourced in North America.

As the Level Field Institute points out, if the Big 3 were to drop their domestic parts buying down to the level of import manufacturers, the net loss to the US auto parts industry would be about $83B and 232,000 jobs. On the other hand, if the import manufacturers bring their domestic component buying up to the same level as the Big 3, the gain would be about $47B and 131,000 jobs. In all likelihood, what we'll actually see in the coming years is a convergence of these trends, with domestic manufacturers buying fewer components state-side, and foreign manufacturers increasing their domestic content.

[Source: Level Field Institute]

Warning - the Read link below points to a PDF.

According to the federal government, a vehicle with a 75-percent or more domestic parts rating is classified as a domestic vehicle. The web-based resource site Cars.com has compiled the 'American Made Index' that lists the top ten vehicles made in the U.S. according to where their parts came from, where they were finally assembled, and even how many were sold in the U.S.

The ten vehicles and where they're assembled are:

1. Ford F-Series - Dearborn, Mich.; Kansas City, Mo.; Louisville, Ky.; Norfolk, Va. (Except Ford F-650, F-750)
2. Chevrolet Silverado - Fort Wayne, Ind.; Pontiac, Mich.
3. Toyota Camry; Camry Solara - Georgetown, Ky. (Except hybrid Camry)
4. Ford E-Series - Lorain, Ohio
5. Chevrolet Cobalt - Lordstown, Ohio (pictured)
6. Ford Explorer - Louisville, Ky.; St. Louis, Mo.
7. Chevrolet Malibu/Malibu Maxx - Kansas City, Kan.
8. Ford Escape - Kansas City, Mo.
9. Toyota Sienna - Princeton, Ind.
10. Chevrolet TrailBlazer - Moraine, Ohio (Except now discontinued TrailBlazer EXT)

What do you think of the definition of 'domestic' per the article, especially with the Camry/Solara and Sienna making the list?

[Source: Cars.com via PR Newswire]

Even as the domestic manufacturers lose the East and West coast, they can always count on Michiganders to buy something from the Big 3, right? A new poll by the Detroit News and WXYZ-TV7 shows that a rather surprising 51 percent think that Detroit is doing a "poor" or "only fair", and that 60 percent are "somewhat" or "very" concerned about the future prospects of the US auto industry.

Industry insiders, however, say that things may not be as bad as they look right now. David Cole from the Center for Automotive Research claims that people don't know what's going on at the Big Three and are "just reacting to the press". While that may be true, the public may also be reacting to their paychecks - or rather the lack thereof. Auto-related employment in the state is down nearly 30 percent in the last six years, and statewide unemployment is among the worst in the nation.

[Source: Detroit News]

The Detroit Free Press undertook what had to be an excruciating task - breaking down the content of vehicles from the top six manufacturers in the U.S. - to determine how much of the vehicle Americans are buying is actually "domestic" or "foreign". These are murky waters, even for those of us that work in the auto industry.

Various trade agreements make the task difficult right from the start. Canadian content is lumped in with that from the U.S. (perhaps because of the North American Free Trade Agreement), although parts from Mexico are still considered to be "foreign". Then there are assemblies built with parts from numerous countries, and trying to assign a yes-or-no label to something with content from a half-dozen countries can be an exercise in futility.

Then there's the tendency of automakers to fudge the numbers. For example, 64% of the Chevrolet HHR's parts come from Mexico, where it is built. But GM states on the window sticker that it has 85% domestic content. GM explains that it uses an average of content from its larger SUVs (mostly made in the US) when determining the HHR's content; a twist of logic that causes us here at the Autoblog Towers to furrow our brows and utter comments at our computer monitors that cannot be repeated in polite company.

It'll probably come as no surprise to most of our readers that the domestic content of the "domestics" is continuing on a downward trend, and that of the "foreign" manufacturers continues to climb. But we're quite certain that much of the general public is unaware of that trend.

We highly recommend reading the entire article, as it's one of the best "inside baseball" stories that we've come across in a while.