Asking this because it’s known that the reason everything’s been offshored is for profit, so I’m curious as to how much people here are willing to pay extra for a product if it gets made in the US again. 10% extra? 20%? 30%? How much of a markup for American labor is too much?
You're viewing a single comment thread. View all comments, or full comment thread.
Comments (55)
sorted by:
To be honest, some international cooperation is for a better product
It's like the British and Italians designing their cars but getting the Germans to build them so they are reliable and great to drive.
Germany makes reliable cars? That has not been my experience. Powerful and fun to drive, absolutely. Reliable, not so much.
Compared to when the Italians FULLY make a car, they do.
Look at Alpha Romeos, beautiful cars...... even stationary after their brakedowns...
You don't buy an Alfa, Ferrari, or Lancia because it's a a smart, rational, logical choice.
You buy it because it's fucking beautiful, even as it lights itself on fire by the roadside.
Here in Europe, German brands are considered as no thrill, straight cut, solid car manufacturers that offer many wallet friendly models and specs. Models off the top of my head to fit that category are: Any Polo or Golf, A-class Mercs or BMW 1-er.
However when elsewhere in the world they are regarded as luxurious brands with the high expectations for said brands. A dinky 1-Series BMW is suddenly more appealing in China because its a BMW. Because of their perceived status, and price, people treat them as "rugged" cars that should withstand the abuse. Generally they will do just fine. Only a small catch, they must be serviced properly at the right intervals for said abuse!
Sadly this last part is lost in translation somehow and your beloved BMW 335i doesn't get thoroughly inspected and serviced, and before you know it a hefty bill is revealed once you take the car to a main dealer for a "weird duck like sound" coming from the front passenger side suspension area.
I may not know all factors which contribute to their reliability of a vehicle, but a major reason could be the lack of strict annual road worthy tests which are the norm in EU. You might have heard of UK users refer these as MOT in the UK, or TÜV inspection in good ol' Germany.
I may be oversimplifying it, but this is what I have seen on a personal account based on family member who lives in Snowy California.. err I mean Canada. She has a Toyota or Honda crossover but she always complains that every garage in town charges too much for each repair. What's the punchline? Well, she doesn't get her car serviced only once stuff starts to break :/
My Audi has been mostly reliable. I've only had 2 things actually fail on it where it stopped working in the 11 years I've owned it.
Then again I don't have the 2.0T engine that drinks oil.
and getting completely in America is very tough. There are components of product that are going to just be much easier to make in other countries, if only because that is where the mines for the raw materials are.
The US has domestic sources for a lot of rare earth metals that we aren't really mining or refining due to environmentalists and anti-civilization communists.