Mazda to make new Toyota subcompact in Mexico

[Absolutely Red 12]

Originally Posted by fnkngrv

either way if how poorly the VWs are built in Mexico I am not holding my breathe for a solid product.

Fiat 500 Made In Mexico too!!

[fnkngrv]

Originally Posted by Absolutely Red 12

Fiat 500 Made In Mexico too!!

What is your point? They haven't been out long enough to prove anything. The whole idea that an automobile is a reliable and solid one no matter where it is built is a totally inaccurate one. Case in point is the issues that Toyota faced in the last few years and the whole problem with Q&A. These issues were all with models assembled and produced in North America. It is just a plain fact. Of course we do have those that work their fingers to the bone to produce top notch products every day of their lives and I applaud as well as thank them, but that has become the exception rather than the rule. It is very sad to admit it, but our countries manufacturing as a whole has really gone down hill over the last couple decades and because of it other nations have caught up to include surpassing us.

A lot of folks ding the Chinese for poor quality, but they are getting better and fast. Our biggest issue as a nation when it comes to production is that we feel we have the God given right to high or higher wages just because we are American. This is reflected in today's youth in a very outspoken manner and one of the key reasons that today's generations are called the "Entitlement Generations". Things were going so well for this country that sight was lost of the big picture which in turn also caused the collapse in the middle of the previous decade.

I am sure that you could kick it back in my face that production in Mexico is getting much better, but it does not wipe away the fact that there is one single reason why any manufacturers built plants in other countries...the bottom line. They can pay those residents of those nations the lowest possible wage. It sure as the hell isn't to save some money while at the same time educate them on quality workmanship. It is all about the bottom line. If Toyota does this it will sadden me greatly and will provide evidence that they are becoming more about the bottom line than quality. Just my two cents. Take it or leave it.

[tk-421]

Originally Posted by fnkngrv

It sure as the hell isn't to save some money while at the same time educate them on quality workmanship. It is all about the bottom line.

I agree it's about the money (most businesses understand this). But you can't make that kind of money if you don't focus on the quality, no matter where the factory is located. Recalls cost too much cash (and a good reputation even more so), so why come out with a product at all if you're not sure you can hit the high notes consistently?

[DeathBeard]

Originally Posted by fnkngrv

either way if how poorly the VWs are built in Mexico I am not holding my breathe for a solid product.

i agree 100%

[bestyaris]

My old VW beetle (2004) was built in Mexico. and reliability was somewhat bad. (leaking sunroof, jumpy transmission. etc)

Current Yaris is very solid product built in Japan. It seems it will be changed soon.

[junorico24]

Toyota has collaborated with Louts, Daihatsu, Subaru and the latest edition Mazda.

[bentjazz]

Yeah, I'm with Nook on this one. I'd also never buy an American car because I refuse to support the UAW. I have a friend who retired from Ford and the stories he has told me coupled with their overt sense of entitlement should make any thinking, sentient individual think twice about buying American cars. They won't get a penny from me, and it's not that I'm entirely against unions, per se, but the UAW is ridiculous. Not to go off on a tangent, but I am 100% against public unions. They are the biggest group of bloodsuckers on the planet....
By the way, is Why? still around? Haven't seen him post in a long time....

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by bentjazz

Yeah, I'm with Nook on this one. I'd also never buy an American car because I refuse to support the UAW. I have a friend who retired from Ford and the stories he has told me coupled with their overt sense of entitlement should make any thinking, sentient individual think twice about buying American cars. They won't get a penny from me, and it's not that I'm entirely against unions, per se, but the UAW is ridiculous. Not to go off on a tangent, but I am 100% against public unions. They are the biggest group of bloodsuckers on the planet....
By the way, is Why? still around? Haven't seen him post in a long time....

Yeah, I hope Why? is okay.

I think in the early 1950s (and earlier) there were many hard working people in private industry who took their jobs very seriously and were being taken advantage of. The unions, at that point, served a, what some might consider, more noble purpose. Unions also had more leverage at that time because industry didn't have as many (on in some cases any) alternative production locations.

I think there are still some union workers who have quite a bit of pride and obviously take their jobs very seriously (the right attitude, IMO). Some of them are right here on Yarisworld. Billiam comes to mind. His passion and serious mindset permeates his words. However, I think the pool of union members with that (IMO) correct mindset is getting smaller with each passing year.

There are even a few UAW workers with the right mindset. One line worker in Michigan (who I believe has since retired) was profiled on one of the newsmagazine shows (60 minutes, etc.) His goal was to reach an net value of 2 million USD in his brokerage account and then (even though eligible for retirement) keep working and donate all of his wages to charity. Fast forward to 2012 and there was a measure on the Michigan ballot to codify collective bargaining into the state constitution. Sanity prevailed, and it didn't pass. The UAW has, however, certainly has had excesses revealed...both publicly and privately. In a public way, look at the Chrysler workers interrupted while smoking and drinking in a park by a local reporter...TWICE. One would have thought that they would have learned after this happened the first time. Privately, the best friend of a girlfriend of mine in the 90s started dating a guy who worked at the NUMMI plant. This guy was as dumb as a rock. My girlfriend had never known any union workers before this and, although very intelligent, wasn't very well versed in the world of unions. The girlfriend's boyfriend had the job of taking the car off the end of the line driving it to where it would be kept (temporarily) on the property. My girlfriend thought this guy might be making minimum wage (or a bit more) because his job was so simple. Her friend (the girlfriend of the UAW worker) said her boyfriend was making 40.00 per hour. My girlfriend was outraged.

At least with some unions in private industry, the consumer has a chance to vote with their dollars. With public sector unions, they don't. Even FDR (32nd POTUS) thought public sector unions were wrong, that in essence, the fox would be guarding the hen house'. In the 1950s Mayor Wagner in New York City first allowed public employee unions, and afterward got reelected. President Kennedy (even though he had already said 'Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country') saw what Wagner..........POSTING NOW (I'M AT A CAFE THAT IS CLOSING) WILL EDIT/FINISH IN A FEW MINUTES.

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by nookandcrannycar

Yeah, I hope Why? is okay.

I think in the early 1950s (and earlier) there were many hard working people in private industry who took their jobs very seriously and were being taken advantage of. The unions, at that point, served a, what some might consider, more noble purpose. Unions also had more leverage at that time because industry didn't have as many (on in some cases any) alternative production locations.

I think there are still some union workers who have quite a bit of pride and obviously take their jobs very seriously (the right attitude, IMO). Some of them are right here on Yarisworld. Billiam comes to mind. His passion and serious mindset permeates his words. However, I think the pool of union members with that (IMO) correct mindset is getting smaller with each passing year.

There are even a few UAW workers with the right mindset. One line worker in Michigan (who I believe has since retired) was profiled on one of the newsmagazine shows (60 minutes, etc.) His goal was to reach an net value of 2 million USD in his brokerage account and then (even though eligible for retirement) keep working and donate all of his wages to charity. Fast forward to 2012 and there was a measure on the Michigan ballot to codify collective bargaining into the state constitution. Sanity prevailed, and it didn't pass. The UAW has, however, certainly has had excesses revealed...both publicly and privately. In a public way, look at the Chrysler workers interrupted while smoking and drinking in a park by a local reporter...TWICE. One would have thought that they would have learned after this happened the first time. Privately, the best friend of a girlfriend of mine in the 90s started dating a guy who worked at the NUMMI plant. This guy was as dumb as a rock. My girlfriend had never known any union workers before this and, although very intelligent, wasn't very well versed in the world of unions. The girlfriend's boyfriend had the job of taking the car off the end of the line driving it to where it would be kept (temporarily) on the property. My girlfriend thought this guy might be making minimum wage (or a bit more) because his job was so simple. Her friend (the girlfriend of the UAW worker) said her boyfriend was making 40.00 per hour. My girlfriend was outraged.

At least with some unions in private industry, the consumer has a chance to vote with their dollars. With public sector unions, they don't. Even FDR (32nd POTUS) thought public sector unions were wrong, that in essence, the fox would be guarding the hen house'. In the 1950s Mayor Wagner in New York City first allowed public employee unions, and afterward got reelected. President Kennedy (even though he had already said 'Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country') saw what Wagner..........POSTING NOW (I'M AT A CAFE THAT IS CLOSING) WILL EDIT/FINISH IN A FEW MINUTES.

.....Argh....Argh....Argh......................... ................I came back to this post.... posted quite a bit more.....was almost finished.......then my browser shut down and the whole computer started shutting down...I then got a 'configuring automatic updates for windows' message and my computer finished shutting down and then restarted. I'm too tired to retype what I just wrote....will have to do much later today........argh again (after posting what I thought was an edit) a 'duplicate' post was inadvertently created.

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by nookandcrannycar

Yeah, I hope Why? is okay.

I think in the early 1950s (and earlier) there were many hard working people in private industry who took their jobs very seriously and were being taken advantage of. The unions, at that point, served a, what some might consider, more noble purpose. Unions also had more leverage at that time because industry didn't have as many (on in some cases any) alternative production locations.

I think there are still some union workers who have quite a bit of pride and obviously take their jobs very seriously (the right attitude, IMO). Some of them are right here on Yarisworld. Billiam comes to mind. His passion and serious mindset permeates his words. However, I think the pool of union members with that (IMO) correct mindset is getting smaller with each passing year.

There are even a few UAW workers with the right mindset. One line worker in Michigan (who I believe has since retired) was profiled on one of the newsmagazine shows (60 minutes, etc.) His goal was to reach an net value of 2 million USD in his brokerage account and then (even though eligible for retirement) keep working and donate all of his wages to charity. Fast forward to 2012 and there was a measure on the Michigan ballot to codify collective bargaining into the state constitution. Sanity prevailed, and it didn't pass. The UAW has, however, certainly has had excesses revealed...both publicly and privately. In a public way, look at the Chrysler workers interrupted while smoking and drinking in a park by a local reporter...TWICE. One would have thought that they would have learned after this happened the first time. Privately, the best friend of a girlfriend of mine in the 90s started dating a guy who worked at the NUMMI plant. This guy was as dumb as a rock. My girlfriend had never known any union workers before this and, although very intelligent, wasn't very well versed in the world of unions. The girlfriend's boyfriend had the job of taking the car off the end of the line driving it to where it would be kept (temporarily) on the property. My girlfriend thought this guy might be making minimum wage (or a bit more) because his job was so simple. Her friend (the girlfriend of the UAW worker) said her boyfriend was making 40.00 per hour. My girlfriend was outraged.

At least with some unions in private industry, the consumer has a chance to vote with their dollars. With public sector unions, they don't. Even FDR (32nd POTUS) thought public sector unions were wrong, that in essence, the fox would be guarding the hen house'. In the 1950s Mayor Wagner in New York City first allowed public employee unions, and afterward got reelected. President Kennedy (even though he had already said 'Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country') saw what Wagner..........POSTING NOW (I'M AT A CAFE THAT IS CLOSING) WILL EDIT/FINISH IN A FEW MINUTES.

This is post #28 on the thread. I created a post #29 to finish this post and then lost it just as I was finishing it (was typing on another laptop I have and it shut down (warning I missed?) for an automatic windows update just as I was about to finish that post. I relayed this in post #29. I did log on the next day to finish (as I mentioned I would in post #29). Before coming back to this thread on that day (11-20-12) I read the most recent posts/threads in the Off Topic/other Cars/Everything Else discussions. Jumpman Yaris started the "Where does our tax money go?" thread with the Judge Judy clip. After two of my replies, one of the mods warned that the thread might best be in the Open Political Discussions area. Much of what I had written (and lost) and was going to resurrect is at least as political as what I wrote on the 'Judge Judy' thread, so I waited to 'finish' this post (as I would not be including that 'too political content.....I didn't want this thread to be closed or moved).

The one part of what I was thinking while composing post #28 relates to a question that occurred to me while I was reading Black Yaris's post #19. I thought -- 'I wonder when the last UAW affiliated vehicle manufacturing plant opened in the U.S. ?'. I haven't found a definitive answer on this (even with different types of searches) but I have gained some knowledge I didn't have before. The UAW topped out at 1.5 million members and have 390,000+ active members and 600,00+ retirees. Some of their members are Academic Student Employees at various universities (all of which I noticed are in union (collective bargaining) states). I'd love to give my opinion about that, but it would just be too sarcastic. I read, in several different articles, about the UAW's 'do or die southern strategy' to unionize foreign auto plants in the U.S South. The last vote, from what I read, was at the Nissan Plant in Smyrna, TN in 2001, which Nissan won by a 2-1 margin. From what I gather the next target (of an actual auto manufacturing plant--not just a supplier) is the Nissan plant in Canton, MS.

The last UAW affiliated auto manufacturing plant that opened in the U.S. (from what I can find) is the now GM plant in Spring Hill, TN, which opened in 1990. If any Yarisworld members know of a newer plant, please contribute. I'd just like to know, mainly from a historical perspective.