Hey Scotty,
Why are so many car makers moving production Mexico nowadays when its not the most ideal place for quality? The Toyota Tacoma is made in Mexico, the current BMW 3 series and upcoming 2 series are made in Mexico, the Infiniti Qx50 and Qx55 are made in Mexico, the Audi Q5 is made in Mexico, a lot of Volkswagens are made in Mexico, the Honda HRV is made in Mexico. Why is this happening??
A lot of Mazda 3s are now made in Mexico.
Profit and greed.
Cheaper labor = more money to line their pockets.
But I speak the truth on these things and nobody wants to hear that. So I'm sure someone will say it's to save the walrus or polar bear, help this, help that. I'm just a realist.
cheap labour = cheap cars
And that's what most of the world wants or needs. Especially now.
That's still better then most cars build in Spain.
no clue why every car built there (except for SEAT) is absolute totally hysterical trash.
@mountainmanjoe "Cheap labor = Cheap cars"? Uh....NO sir.
Look at the GM's being made in Silao,Mexico, and then tell me how an $80k Yukon Denali or a $100k Escalade is a cheap vehicle. And that's just a couple of examples. The Buick Envision is made in China. MSRP: STARTING at $33k. Thry are saving money alright, and it is going where it has always gone: straight into the pockets of the executive management.
Why is this happening??
cheap labour
low import duties
lower shipping cost
Greed.
labour is a commodity like oranges or tomatoes. If I buy my screws to make your deck at Lowe's instead of Home Depot, because they are cheaper there, then am I being greedy? Is it greedy that I'm then able to employ more guys because I've budgeted my money better?
I'm all for car makers finding cheaper ways to build cars and boost their revenue and maximize their profit margins, for both their own business and the consumer - as long as the consumer is getting all the information needed to perform the correct choice.
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A good example would be, Hyundai Motors made in China. The 1.4L G4FA engine made their is much more reliable then the rest of Hyundai's small engine lineup - as a matter of fact they can last over 200,000 miles and their cost is about a third of the other small gasoline engines on the market, But I digress.
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What any consumer should be against is when the manufacturer decides to lower quality while not giving any indications to the costumer. Basically, you're not getting the value of the product that you're lead to expect it would be.
If you'd show the costumer previous works, made from the best screws, and then when he gives you a commission you cut back on your screw quality and do not deliver the anywhere near the quality that you have lead the costumer to believe you have, causing him to need additional investments later down the line - that could be considered to be a "scam" caused by "greed" (using very basic terminology here)
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In my country as part of consumer protection laws, the consumer is provided with more information. the origin country of a vehicle is listed in it's registration, yearly smog test, and the car is referred to in all official documents as " ". for example "Volvo Belgium", "Renault Turkey", or the wildest one I've ever herd of is, and I'm not kidding, "Peugeot Nigeria".
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Giving the consumer all of the correct information needed to make the correct choice (like how in the European union all new phones have a reparability rating on the box, allowing you to choose what phone will probably last the longest) is the only correct way to balance out the public's interests and economical considerations based on preservation of domestic corporations.
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It's how the right to repair is getting eroded for no good reason expect for unreasonable attempts to maximize profits in ways that hurts the consumer, goes against the interests of the public, and possibly may hurt the planet (once we switch to e-vehicles with hundreds of kilograms of lithium in each of them)
When I say greed I mean away for the company to make more money by not having to pay workers as much.
@jpparisio
workers are paid at the going rate. If they want to make more money elsewhere, it is entirely their choice
@dan
sure, I think rating agencies are a good idea. But I think it's the responsibility of consumers and consumer advocacy groups, not manufacturers. Yes, manufacturers should prevented from building death traps, but as for reliability, durability etc. that is up to the buyer, or else where do you stop? Reliability ratings on IKEA furniture and dinnerware? I am against bloated government bureaucracy and over-regulation.
The point is to not cause hard to the companies but to provide the consumers with more information as to where it was made.
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I am also against overregulation, but the manufacturer having to print an extra page stating where the car was made shouldn’t be that hard.
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Cars are generally your second biggest purchase in your life, so having some wise consumer protections put in place is not a bad thing. (Wise, not something a government can typically do, and in some political systems neither car the law makers)
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On an unrelated note, About 10 years ago almost all cars had a ratting of how long they should last, basically stating what they define as “life-time”
For small Citroën and small Hyundai cars it was often defined as “180,000km”, Ford defined it on the focus as “240,000km” and Volvo used to say “200,000 miles”
And these were somewhat accurate, that’s genuinely how long most of them lasted.
Interesting. Who gave those ratings, and were there any guarantees behind them?
Cheap labour
These automakers are under pressure to save money where they can (for many reasons including keeping their shareholders happy). Also thanks to global market (and in part NAFTA) it’s a logical outcome some of these vehicles will be made in Mexico. The labor is cheaper and the money saved goes back to the corporation (last I checked the prices of new Tacoma’s did not decrease moving all production to Mexico); unfortunately, the consumer does not get the savings passed onto them. It’s not easy running a corporation as you have to make a lot of tough decisions impacting people.
I agree. It's a complex issue. "Greed" is an oversimplification and doesn't lead to a better understanding. Everyone seems to have an opinion, but only a very small fraction of people have what it takes to run and understand a large corporation. And when you have a such a small niche of highly specialized people who are on the fringes of the human distribution, yeah you're going to encounter some extreme personality types. Just like law enforcement will attract a certain subset of people with specific personality types and skill sets, so will CEO positions, and politicians etc. Business has become so specialized and optimized, that these people have become moulded by the positions they occupy.
And our opinions on the matter don't make a big difference, because the structure of society and economy is decide by the human mean (averaged behaviour), which doesn't change much or very quickly. Only strong leadership has ability to influence human behaviour, but few are willing to step up to that plate. But we all sure do like to criticize those who try.
Seems like the manufacturers are making decisions for the benefit of their shareholders, not their customers. Which is why I would never buy a motor vehicle made after 2006. Planned obsolescence took over after that with DBW, AFM, Start/Stop, GDI and other crap nobody needs.
thank goodness for the competition
As everyone said cheap labour + greed = more money
