U.S. STUDENTS UNCLEAR ABOUT AUTO ORIGINS

[scherry2]

U.S. STUDENTS UNCLEAR ABOUT AUTO ORIGINS .... According to the Detroit Free Press, many American college students think Lexus is an American car company and most of them think Hyundai is a Japanese company.So says a survey of brand identification of tech products and auto companies of 1,000 students conducted by Anderson Analytics. While 37 percent correctly answered that Lexus, the upscale brand of Toyota, was Japanese, 33 percent thought it was an American brand. More than half – 55 percent – thought Hyundai was a Japanese company. Only a quarter correctly identified it as a Korean automaker.College students had the same ignorance about three Europe-based automakers. Most thought Britain-based Land Rover was American, though that could be excused because it has an American parent in Ford. Sweden-based Saab and Volvo also have American parents, but that doesn't explain why most students thought they were based in Germany.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------Interesting. maybe that explains why nobody knows what a Vibe is.

[redlava]

Most people don't care what kind of car they drive, where it comes from, or how it works. Just as long as it gets them from point A to point B.

[Whelan]

Well technically the college students are right. Lexus is only sold in the U.S. Take the Toyota Altezza i.e. Lexus IS300. And yes Hyundai is not Japanese. But I would have to give them the Lexus one, it is like Acura. Acura is a North American brand name, but the vehicles are from Honda which is a Japanese company. Although the Acura TSX is the Honda Accord in Europe. Let's not also forget that the Acura TL is the same as the American Accord and those and the MDX, RDX are built between U.S. and Canada like a 60/40 ratio or something. Look at the window stickers next time, you will see where the car was made.Oh yeah, and the fact that Hyundai, Toyota, Subaru, Honda all have ginormous plants in the U.S. where they make these cars, means that companies like Toyota and Honda are becoming more American despite being Japanese born.

[Isosceles]

I believe the only full size pick-up trucks built in the US are the Toyota Tundra and the Nissan Titan. Ford and Chevys' truck are built either in Mexico or Canada.

[joatmon]

I haven't been able to find any website that lists AALA (American Automobile Labeling Act) numbers, as far as I can tell the only way to compare them between vehicles is to go look at the stickers on the cars.NHTSA has an article giving a bunch of stats on the effectiveness of the AALA stickers. http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/....html

[scherry2]

Quote, originally posted by Isosceles »I believe the only full size pick-up trucks built in the US are the Toyota Tundra and the Nissan Titan. Ford and Chevys' truck are built either in Mexico or Canada. WRONG.chevy 1/2 ton trucks are built in indiana, michigan, and canada. the old 800 version of the pickup is built in mexicohere is a list of american union built vehicleshttp://www.uaw.com/uawmade/auto/2007/index.cfmI didn't look for transplants

[Isosceles]

I may be wrong, but I thought I read that in Consumer Reports. Here is a link from GM's website that lists the Silverado as an export of Mexico. http://www.gm.com/company/corp....html

[scherry2]

Quote, originally posted by Isosceles » Here is a link from GM's website that lists the Silverado as an export of Mexico. the 800 silverado. not the new 900 series.

[Whelan]

Anything to do with GM's GMT9000 platform is MIA. That's pretty much all I know about that.

[scherry2]

GMT 9000? MIA? I don't understand?you mean GMT 900? thats what we're building now. 3 weeks till changeover for the 2008's