Foreign Car Owners Hurt Fort Lauderdale Economy (sales, 2013)

[HotandHumid]

The good national news is that imports are down, gas prices are down due to less oil being burned up by cargo ships bringing imports to the U.S. and the economy has improved because Americans are buying goods made in the U.S.A.
Most of the tourists who come to South Florida, including Fort Lauderdale, come from other places in the U.S. where manufacturing and jobs related to it are the main sources of income for people in those communities dependent on manufacturing for jobs.
This simple fact about economics in the U.S. seems to be lost on people who live in Fort Lauderdale who buy or lease a new motor vehicle that was made outside of the U.S. since there are so many foreign built autos on the streets in Fort Lauderdale.
During the past Recession, Fort Lauderdale also went into the Recession because American manufacturing workers who had their work hours cut or who lost their jobs due to Congress allowing imports to be sold in the U.S. with no protective taxes on them like they have in the European Union and that used to exist in the U.S. before Congress passed Free Trade laws, had to give up taking their vacation in Fort Lauderdale and less tourist money flowing into tourism based Fort Lauderdale hurts every business in Fort Lauderdale except maybe that of law firms that represent those who engage in criminal activities to survive after they've lost their jobs due to tourists not being able to afford coming here who lost their jobs due to Americans buying foreign made goods.
So, if people who say they love living in Fort Lauderdale put their money where their mouths are and buy or lease American made motor vehicles and try to buy American made goods, instead of imported goods, more working Americans will be afford to be able to come vacation in Fort Lauderdale and we will most likely see less homeless on the streets as more jobs are created, less vacant commercial buildings and store fronts in Fort Lauderdale as businesses open to serve the increase in business due to more tourists coming here and the residents making more money from the tourists and we're likely to see an improvement in our local economy so more working people can afford the rising rents here and not end up in the ranks of the homeless because they can't afford to pay those rising rents on what they currently earn in Fort Lauderdale.

[Mr. Lee]

Problem is that many American cars are made in foreign countries and many foreign cars are made in the US. It becomes a case of do not judge a book by its cover. I have bought foreign cars since the 80's when every American car I bought turned out to be junk but last year I had decided I would buy American, so I looked at some new Ford Fusions only to find out that they were made in Mexico and looked at some other new American badge cars only to find out that they too were made elsewhere, so once again I bought a foreign name car.

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So often buying foreign made cars mean made in America while often buying American cars mean made elsewhere.

[Kalbo]

My Honda Pilot was made in the U.S.A. Many foreign car companies have factories here to include BMW and Mercedes.

[loribell38]

d

[Papillons2]

Although I always try to "buy American" and it's a good thing to strive for, the second and third posts on this thread do a great job of explaining the realities of the auto industry these days. For instance, my wife recently purchased a Honda CR-V. It was built in East Liberty, Ohio (creating U.S. jobs). I've owned a Chevy Cruze for more than two years (and haven't had to fix anything aside from replacing the battery). It was built in Lordstown, Ohio -- but many of the parts were made in Mexico and Japan. When shopping for my wife's new car, we preferred models that were at least assembled in the U.S., but I'm not sure there's such a thing anymore as a 100 percent American-made car.

[HotandHumid]

Unfortunately, a few years ago when the big automakers were in trouble and were bailed out by the government with loans to help save jobs in America, U.S. auto makers decided they could only compete against the lower prices of imported autos by having some of the parts made in places like Mexico so free trade bills were put through by Congress to allow those parts to enter the U.S. without import taxes on them to help keep the prices of American assembled autos competitive with autos sold in the U.S. but assembled with labor outside of the U.S.
I guess the upside of this is that Mexico is much closer to the U.S. than countries like South Korea so not as much oil is used to import the parts from Mexico as to import already assembled autos made in South Korea, helping to keep prices down at the pumps and large numbers of Mexicans do come to the U.S. and spend their wages that they get from making U.S. auto parts at border towns in the U.S., along with taking vacations in the U.S. but I have to say I've never met any large number of South Korean auto manufacturing workers taking vacations in the U.S. and spending their money here.
Leave it up to the U.S. government though to give loans to U.S. automakers to get them out of debt and then turn around and sign a free trade agreement with South Korea that allows autos made in South Korea to come into the U.S. free of import taxes which allows South Korea to generally sell autos made in South Korea at lower prices in the U.S. than American made autos, plus free trade agreements stop a revenue source to help keep the Federal government out of debt which used to collect import taxes on everything that came into the U.S. that was made in other countries before the days of those free trade agreements.
In the long run, we end up paying the price for those free trade agreements in Fort Lauderdale because importing uses oil to fuel the cargo ships that bring imports to the U.S. and keeps the demand high for oil and thus gas still costs around $3 a gallon at the pumps here even though Americans are driving less and having stores filled with imported goods puts less money in the hands of U.S. workers because Americans buying imports instead of domestically made goods means less money for U.S. manufacturing workers to spend here supporting our local tourism based economy since Americans struggling to put food on the table and a roof over their heads don't have the luxury of taking vacations in Fort Lauderdale.
And yes, some foreign car companies make their autos in the U.S. now but you have to look on the sticker inside the door to determine if it's been assembled here or in another country.

[Jim_Miller]

My Porsche mechanic charges $135/hr. I would guess he disagrees with you.

[SDatl404]

American vehicles are pure garbage. I've been an american fans for YEARS, but I couldn't take the apathy from the service aspect. They just plain and simple don't care about the quality of their vehicles after purchase. All they want to do is "con" you into buying some hyped up piece of trash. Good luck if you have a problem with it. Better have some good lawyers on stand by.

Not just the quality of service, but the vehicles are sloppy/numb and all about image.


Ah hell who am I kidding. It's got a hemi in it. Ya buddy. Get er done.

[LifeIsGood01]

where are all the car manufacturers in south Florida? I seem to never know where they are.

[Jamiesgotagun]

Originally Posted by HotandHumid

The good national news is that imports are down, gas prices are down due to less oil being burned up by cargo ships bringing imports to the U.S. and the economy has improved because Americans are buying goods made in the U.S.A.
Most of the tourists who come to South Florida, including Fort Lauderdale, come from other places in the U.S. where manufacturing and jobs related to it are the main sources of income for people in those communities dependent on manufacturing for jobs.
This simple fact about economics in the U.S. seems to be lost on people who live in Fort Lauderdale who buy or lease a new motor vehicle that was made outside of the U.S. since there are so many foreign built autos on the streets in Fort Lauderdale.
During the past Recession, Fort Lauderdale also went into the Recession because American manufacturing workers who had their work hours cut or who lost their jobs due to Congress allowing imports to be sold in the U.S. with no protective taxes on them like they have in the European Union and that used to exist in the U.S. before Congress passed Free Trade laws, had to give up taking their vacation in Fort Lauderdale and less tourist money flowing into tourism based Fort Lauderdale hurts every business in Fort Lauderdale except maybe that of law firms that represent those who engage in criminal activities to survive after they've lost their jobs due to tourists not being able to afford coming here who lost their jobs due to Americans buying foreign made goods.
So, if people who say they love living in Fort Lauderdale put their money where their mouths are and buy or lease American made motor vehicles and try to buy American made goods, instead of imported goods, more working Americans will be afford to be able to come vacation in Fort Lauderdale and we will most likely see less homeless on the streets as more jobs are created, less vacant commercial buildings and store fronts in Fort Lauderdale as businesses open to serve the increase in business due to more tourists coming here and the residents making more money from the tourists and we're likely to see an improvement in our local economy so more working people can afford the rising rents here and not end up in the ranks of the homeless because they can't afford to pay those rising rents on what they currently earn in Fort Lauderdale.

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