American Steel, or Rice Mobile??

[Mikki]

Originally posted by: yakko
I prefer German.

Yeah, where's the German option?

 

[PlatinumGold]

Buy American!

A friend of mine's father works the line at the Ford plant here in NJ.

I will buy American cars to support people like that..

I thought ford said they were gonna close that plant?

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: flavio

Originally posted by: monckywrench
The "Buy American" ideology only works if the specific vehicle model passes a "origin check", by parts count and assembly location. Vehicle companies are so internationalised that a "German" or "Japanese" car may be more "American" than a USian brand. Shareholding between major car companies makes it even more confusing, and the practice of US companies of sourcing manufacturing across the border to kill unions and close US plants (gotta love NAFTA!) makes the whole deal even more murky. OTOH German and Japanese makers are building plants here and hiring US workers because the tariff and worker productivity balance works in their favor.
There IS an easy solution if ya want a US-built vehicle from mostly US parts. It's called a Harley. Of course when they retooled they bought Japanese machine tools instead of good old Cincinnati Milacron, so I guess nobody is pure.

True.

I love the Assembled in USA crowd. Those assembly jobs, which are a very small part of the automotive manufacturing process, pay sh1t in southern states, who have typically PAID the companies more for the jobs than they'll ever recieve in tax benefits for having the companies there. Not only that these foriegn auto makers escape the normal 12.5% tarriff by assembling them over here so they import all the foriegn made parts and let the US low paid workers put them together. The cars for all practical purposes are still made, researched, outsourced in thier country of orgin (meaning lots of higher paid jobs over there) and the profit taxed and spent by shareholders in thier own country.

Americans pay me indirectly so I'll pay them back with my purchases when possible. Plus service jobs suck and I never want one.

If the car doesnt have PPG glass, dupont paint, dana axles, and allison transmission I don't want it.

 

[Shockwave]

Better question is
How much work do you want to do.
You can buy an old musclecar and stock it'll run strong, and with a few simple upgrades will pull on most cars.
Imports generally tend to take a bit more work to get to pull hard.

The 8 grand your friend has in his engine will buy a whole complete muscle car (Not in the greatest condition) that would pull on it.

It comes down to money and work. If you have the money and knowledge (Or more money and a good mechanic) ANY car can be made stupid fast. My theory is the imports tend to be more "hi-tech" to get there though. Rather then tons of cubes and headers, they use smaller more efficient engines with turbo's, boost controllers and high performance chips.

So, seeing as how ANY car can be made fast with the right work, I would go with an RX-7 3rd Gen, pull the 13B engine and drop a 20B rotary in it. Have to import the engine though, its not available here. But, well worth it.

Banzai Edition

Go to the link above, then look for the Banzai Edition RX-7. THAT is what I want
Forgot my reason why....The RX-7 was my first car (Ok, not THE first, but my first decent one) So, it goes back to wanting to own the first car I ever had all over again.

 

[flavio]

Originally posted by: Carbonyl

Originally posted by: flavio

Originally posted by: monckywrench
The "Buy American" ideology only works if the specific vehicle model passes a "origin check", by parts count and assembly location. Vehicle companies are so internationalised that a "German" or "Japanese" car may be more "American" than a USian brand. Shareholding between major car companies makes it even more confusing, and the practice of US companies of sourcing manufacturing across the border to kill unions and close US plants (gotta love NAFTA!) makes the whole deal even more murky. OTOH German and Japanese makers are building plants here and hiring US workers because the tariff and worker productivity balance works in their favor.
There IS an easy solution if ya want a US-built vehicle from mostly US parts. It's called a Harley. Of course when they retooled they bought Japanese machine tools instead of good old Cincinnati Milacron, so I guess nobody is pure.

True.

I love the Assembled in USA crowd. Those assembly jobs, which are a very small part of the automotive manufacturing process, pay sh1t in southern states, who have typically PAID the companies more for the jobs than they'll ever recieve in tax benefits for having the companies there. Not only that these foriegn auto makers escape the normal 12.5% tarriff by assembling them over here so they import all the foriegn made parts and let the US low paid workers put them together. The cars for all practical purposes are still made, researched, outsourced in thier country of orgin (meaning lots of higher paid jobs over there) and the profit taxed and spent by shareholders in thier own country.

Americans pay me indirectly so I'll pay them back with my purchases when possible. Plus service jobs suck and I never want one.

If the car doesnt have PPG glass, dupont paint, dana axles, and allison transmission I don't want it.

Bah...at one point I knew a couple Honda plant workers in Marysville, OH that were making great money and liked their job. What's the big payoff to buying a Ford made in Mexico?

 

[DigitalXtreme]

here is some links for notfred
Hope this fulfills what U are looking for

http://www.importdrag.com/racers_saverioleone.shtml
Thats a 9.6 sec Honda Civic

and

http://www.importdrag.com/racers_erickaguilar.shtml
Thats a 10.59 sec Honda Civic

And both of those are Official Times

As for the topic ... I would get a Japanese car for everyday driving and get a Corvette or Viper to beat the sh*t out of the rice burners on the weekends

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: flavio

Originally posted by: Carbonyl

Originally posted by: flavio

Originally posted by: monckywrench
The "Buy American" ideology only works if the specific vehicle model passes a "origin check", by parts count and assembly location. Vehicle companies are so internationalised that a "German" or "Japanese" car may be more "American" than a USian brand. Shareholding between major car companies makes it even more confusing, and the practice of US companies of sourcing manufacturing across the border to kill unions and close US plants (gotta love NAFTA!) makes the whole deal even more murky. OTOH German and Japanese makers are building plants here and hiring US workers because the tariff and worker productivity balance works in their favor.
There IS an easy solution if ya want a US-built vehicle from mostly US parts. It's called a Harley. Of course when they retooled they bought Japanese machine tools instead of good old Cincinnati Milacron, so I guess nobody is pure.

True.

I love the Assembled in USA crowd. Those assembly jobs, which are a very small part of the automotive manufacturing process, pay sh1t in southern states, who have typically PAID the companies more for the jobs than they'll ever recieve in tax benefits for having the companies there. Not only that these foriegn auto makers escape the normal 12.5% tarriff by assembling them over here so they import all the foriegn made parts and let the US low paid workers put them together. The cars for all practical purposes are still made, researched, outsourced in thier country of orgin (meaning lots of higher paid jobs over there) and the profit taxed and spent by shareholders in thier own country.

Americans pay me indirectly so I'll pay them back with my purchases when possible. Plus service jobs suck and I never want one.

If the car doesnt have PPG glass, dupont paint, dana axles, and allison transmission I don't want it.

Bah...at one point I knew a couple Honda plant workers in Marysville, OH that were making great money and liked their job. What's the big payoff to buying a Ford made in Mexico?

What ford is made in mexico? I have a ford it's 100% US union made as far as I can tell. Dana axles, allison tranny, dupont paint, etc. And Kentucky was the final assembly plant. Where do the designers live and about all the parts they used to assemble these Hondas? Again assembly chup change compared to design, parts and materials. But I'm happy your friends still have a manufacturing job instead of a service one which sucks ass IMO.

Edit: and who ever said NAFTA was a good thing other than for stock holders of companies who move thier production to third world mexico? I donno about you but I like clean water, air, strong military and all the good things a large US tax base can give us.

 

[Shockwave]

Originally posted by: DigitalXtreme
here is some links for notfred
Hope this fulfills what U are looking for

http://www.importdrag.com/racers_saverioleone.shtml
Thats a 9.6 sec Honda Civic

and

http://www.importdrag.com/racers_erickaguilar.shtml
Thats a 10.59 sec Honda Civic

And both of those are Official Times

As for the topic ... I would get a Japanese car for everyday driving and get a Corvette or Viper to beat the sh*t out of the rice burners on the weekends

9.6 second Honda

10.59 second Honda

Because some people have yet to figure out the wonders of linking

 

[LAUST]

Originally posted by: Paulson
Truck all the way

 

[SlowSS]

"There is no replacement for displacement", as old saying goes......

Gotta love the LS1 V-8, love the power, torque and sound of V-8 rumbling.

Oh, I don't have anything against foreign cars. I like all types of sports cars.

 

[rootaxs]

There is a replacement for displacement in some cases. It's called good engineering and tuning.

Not exactly a good comparison, but look at the Nissan VQ Series 3.5L engines and compare the power & torque output to the Toyota 4.0L V6 engines. (They push about the same #'s depending on which vehicle the VQ is put on).

 

[Tom]

"There is a replacement for displacement in some cases. It's called good engineering and tuning."


I'll take American engineering and displacement for the strip..

Zero to 270 miles per hour in 3.0 seconds

 

[440sixpack]

Originally posted by: amnesiac 2.0

Originally posted by: LordJezo
Buy American!

A friend of mine's father works the line at the Ford plant here in NJ.

I will buy American cars to support people like that..

If you want to buy an American truck, buy a Toyota Tundra. Only Full-Size truck assembled in the US (Indianapolis, IIRC).
Ford, GM, and Dodge outsource labor to Mexico and Canada. :|

Dodge Rams are built in Warren, MI and St. Louis, MO as well as Saltillo, Mexico (which I believe is now mostly the 2500/3500's and also there's an engine plant there).

 

[Kilgor]

Too me it's all a matter of what you like. I prefer American Muscle cars but I can appreciate the hard work and effort some of the import guys put into their cars. Fart pipes, wings and big stereos don?t count its what?s under the hood.

 

[Balthazar]

Originally posted by: Desturel
You forgot Germans and Italians.

The germans and italians think like we do, MOST are 6-cyl. and up, the germans sit on the side of the fence where they are just so fricken good they pull Italian v10 power out of a 6 cyl.! The italians are a bunch of high-rev loving freaks (and d@mned if we don't love them for it) as where we over here are content with just beating the hell out of everyone with as big and loud and raw an engine as we can get

Japan makes some good engines don't get me wrong (like the Nissan Skyline's powerplant, or the Supra's powerplant) however one BIG problem I have with japanese cars is the sound, German cars have that rouble yet efficient drone, Italian cars have that perky, uppity high-rev, and our cars, oh my, we have the oh so sexy Barry White inspired rumblings that seperate the men from the boys in a BIG hurry!

Can't wait to get my Z28 (only a few more months to go)

 

[KGB1]

I like American Styling. (circa 1975-1998)
Japanese Engineering (2000 and above ) Because they started using CHAIN belts now
I have a GM... sucks hard, makes noises when I don't know how.
I've driven a 4Runner... thing makes no noise is AWSOME and was MANUAL

I'm getting a Tacoma or '99 4 Runner as my next car. Toyota owns everybody on quality and built.

I was thinking of a Lexus 96 SC300 Manual, but its too expensive now for a used car.

Plus Trucks = LOW INSURANCE!!

 

[Salvador]

I will buy American cars to support people like that..

Why should consumers have to deal with unreliable cars and horrid resale values just to support some factory worker. Build a better car and I'll buy it. Come on.. Can't we get our act together? Why do American car companies continue to put out such junk?

Sal

 

[Vadatajs]

I want a car I can steer, japanese all the way.

 

[StageLeft]

Japanese muscle.

 

[Kilgor]

I want a car I can steer, japanese all the way.

????

 

[Damage]

You can't go faster in a 1/4 for less money than on a bike.. It's cheaper to buy, maintain, and race.. Gadson is blowing people away on the ZX-12's.. Hyabusa's are always good for unadulterated speed also...

Plus.. you can actually go around corners with them..(The "street" part) Getting some jacked out GTO, or some Civic with double wides up front to do that is next to impossible.

 

[Vampirrella]

i dont think jap cars are the only thing you can steer.. or else you need more driving lessons hehe

American all the way!

 

[Kilgor]

You can't go faster in a 1/4 for less money than on a bike.. It's cheaper to buy, maintain, and race.. Gadson is blowing people away on the ZX-12's.. Hyabusa's are always good for unadulterated speed also...

Also a good way to turn yourself into roadpie.

 

[Ornery]

Get a good truck, building hot rods is too expensive.

America's Bestsellers

• Besides the F-Series, two of the other top ten were full-size pickup trucks. The Chevrolet Silverado was in second place overall and the Dodge Ram was in seventh place.

Nothing says you can't build up a truck, anyway! 0-60 mph in 5.8 seconds, Quarter mile 13.9 seconds @ 100 mph

Let's see, on the plus side you get:

• V8 torque
• Body on frame
• Rugged RWD
• Truck grade tranny & rear end
• Decent initial purchase price
• Good resale value
• Easy to work on
• Cheap, easy to get replacement parts
• Comfortable & roomy
• Much safer than econobox

On the negative side is... gas mileage?

 

[Damage]

Originally posted by: Kilgor

You can't go faster in a 1/4 for less money than on a bike.. It's cheaper to buy, maintain, and race.. Gadson is blowing people away on the ZX-12's.. Hyabusa's are always good for unadulterated speed also...

Also a good way to turn yourself into roadpie.

Gadson also has an affordable drag racing school to help keep you from doing anything stupid. Motorcycle saftey foundation if you haven't riden yet, but other than that it's just being aware of people driving in cages (ie, cars & tricks) who are out there trying to kill you.