Commentary

Will the Real American Car Please Step Forward

11/01/96

WILL THE REAL AMERICAN CAR STEP FORWARD - IS THERE ONE?
BY GERALD LEVINSON CMA

Since we sent our assembly line technology to Japan along with Dr. Demming and Quality Control over 15 years ago the Car Industry hasn't been the same. Only in the last year or so has the U.S. been able to regain 1st place in automotive production. And for good reason. Japan and other countries have run out of space and experienced labor skills.

Facing this dilemma our Asian and European competitors have decided if you cant "beat'em, join'em". As a result we have a strange new alignment of production facilities that makes International trade very real.

Maybe this is why (I have read somewhere) that 60% of all auto parts in American cars are made over seas, and 40% of all cars are made in the U.S. Does that mean logically only 24% of all cars are Yankee born? Interesting question.

For you Trivia buffs, which of the following cars is built outside the United States? The Eagle Vision? The Ford Taurus? The Honda Accord? The Mazda 626? The Nissan Altima? The Toyota Camry? If you guessed one or more of the Japanese brands, you're wrong.

Only the Vision, from Chrysler Corp.'s Eagle division, is made in another land -- in Bramelea, Ontario, Canada. The Honda comes from Marysville, Ohio; the Mazda, from Flat Rock, Mich.; the Altima, from Smyrna, Tenn.; and the Camry, from Georgetown, Ky.

To make matters more confusing, sub-assemblies are made overseas and then shipped to the United States for installation in the cars. These international hybrids aren't peculiar to our part of the world either.

Vauxhall, an old and respected British automaker, builds a car called the Corsa for its home market. Peugeot, the French automaker that until recently sold cars in the United States, makes a model called the 306 for the French market. The Corsa's engine comes from Austria, its transmission from Germany and its trim, bodywork and final assembly are courtesy of Spain. In fact, only 15 percent of a Corsa is made in Great Britain.

It seems the French Peugeot is actually more British than the British Vauxhall. The 306's engine, transmission and some of its bodywork do come from France. But its seats, trim, remaining bodywork and final assembly are the work of the British.

And there seems to a changing of the guard in the U.K. In the scramble to find the lowest production costs, nothing is sacred. Besides a Rolls-Royce, what epitomizes that great tradition of British automobile manufacturing more than a walnut- and-leather-filled Jaguar sedan? Well, in the future, aficionados of the marque may be driving Jags that come not from the land of Yorkshire pudding, but from land of the taco.

Jaguar's management acknowledged that the famed automaker has looked at the possibility of building a new, small Jag sedan outside of England, in North America. Considering that the chairman came to Jaguar from Ford Mexico in early 1992, it's a not much of a leap in logic to surmise that the future Jag might be built south of the border.

And here's more heresy for fans of European luxury cars. Following the leads of such Japanese automkers as Honda, Nissan and Toyota, Germany's very own BMW and Mercedes-Benz have opened plants in the United States to build cars.

The Japanese car-building ventures have put to rest the notion that American workers are too expensive, too inflexible and too sloppy to build high-quality products.

In fact, BMW has so much confidence in the American worker that robots and other high-tech assembly machines won't be found at the company's new plant in Spartanburg, S.C. "Rather, workers, real live workers, will perform all of the jobs in the plant," o. "Only the paint shop will be automated".

The type of worker BMW is seeking is far from the stereotypical factory grunt. Prospective employees will be tested for college- level reading and mathematical skills, And while these American workers will be well paid -- $15 to $17 an hour to start -- they're still a relative bargain for BMW.

Federal statistics show manufacturing wages here are less than half of those in Germany. With people instead of inflexible machines performing most of the work, BMW can build different models on the same assembly line --possibly even models that will be exported BACK to Europe. It is indeed a small world.

SOURCES: DEPT OF COMMERCE, GOLDRATT INSTITUTE, ROAD & TRACK.

Gerald Levinson -- The Auto Channel