You sound like you work for Boston where they buy new subway cars before they finish paying off the ones they bought 30 years ago.

It is no secret that foreign automakers set up factories in the south to avoid unions and lower costs. Add to that legacy costs and the old inefficient factories the big 3 have but can’t move, even cars built in the US have a big difference in manufacturing costs.

To be clear, you are saying they can’t count legacy costs towards the cost of a new car? That is how you pay for legacy costs. If you owe money, even from decades ago, you still have to factor that into the cost of the new product. 

You say it is a lot to fix, but most of these issues would not have made the list in your other vehicles. Look at the postal Jeep. It didn’t need no fancy front drive shaft or trim or paint to get the job done.

Sorry for the confusion. I just gave you the numbers for current pay/benefits, because that seemed to be enough to counter your argument there was no difference or less costs for domestic. To get to $2,000 you have to include ‘legacy costs’ i.e. pensions. Those came out to about $1,600/vehicle back in 2006. I can’t…

DON’T do this with a truck/SUV/van at home depot. If you pull through, someone will come and park 6 inches from your back bumper, making it impossible to open the tailgate/back door to load stuff. It happens every time. 

It mainly comes down to better benefits and having 50 years worth of retirees to pay pensions to.

You are comparing money vs stock options (Barra) to money alone. Besides the one at Toyota that gets most of the money is the president, and he already owns much of the stock.

Yeah, I never understood why this didn’t get more press. Could you imagine running a factory where the workers know they can’t be fired for being drunk on the job? It has to be a nightmare. 

The ones that are built in the US are the ones with the lower labor rates.

The salary is not that different, but the benefits are vastly more expensive. Especially with all of the retirees at Ford and GM. 

Counting benefits and everything, For and GM pay a lot more. But your right, Chrysler bribing the UAW lowered their costs to be similar to Honda and Toyota.

This is from 2015. Other than Mercedes, the rest seem relatively low. The workers at GM or Ford don’t actually take home more money, the difference is all in the benefits, and a lot of the benefit difference comes down to pension plans and the fact foreign automakers don’t have as many retirees to pay.

Because the shoe fits? I have always wondered why people defend multi-billion dollar unions that made billions off of the people they are supposed to be representing. Unions have so much money they can give away $400,000,000 to a single candidate in a single election without batting an eye. Where did they get the…

Is this advisable? No. Have I seen a friend do it with a knife before? Yes. It is actually the retrieval that is the tricky part. Hard not to look suspicious scrounging around in the landscaping.

There’s enough surplus Infinitis in my local mall’s parking lot to make up the difference. They should just have a fire sale to clear the inventory. The last time I drove through, people had already started stealing stuff off of them and no one seems to care.

When have Japanese factories in the US been unionized? 

Here is a story about it. Chrysler fired employees who were caught on camera drinking and doing drugs. The UAW sued and had them reinstated with back pay.

Chrysler fired employees who were caught on camera drinking and doing drugs. The UAW sued and had them reinstated with back pay.

IDK where those numbers come from, but most studies put them well behind Toyota.