The Money Goes to Japan with Every Sale of a Toyota

[JackDodge]

At least, that's the argument that I hear a lot locally. All that money goes to Japan. Let's not even get started on money going to China.

OK, so where does all that money that you spend on a tankful of gasoline go? And, who sends the most money out of the United States, the guy who drives an American gas guzzler made in the U.S. or the guy who drives a Prius or a HiHy made in Japan?

[rfruth]

How about a Crown Vic made in Canada or a Dodge from Mexico ?

[Zythryn]

First, only the profit goes to Japan.
Second, much of that is reinvested in America.
And as you mentioned, less money is sent to countries that don't like us

Of course, if domestic auto builders were to make a car (and not crush it before I could buy it) that ran on... oh... let's say... ELECTRICITY they would very likely regain my business

[pewd]

lets see, we send what, $450 Billion or so to the mid east for oil every year?
and they do what with it, set up masadras , teaching kids to kill americans?

japan is friendly , i don't mind sending the profit on the car there. they're not trying to kill us or bribe our government officials.

i want a prius that runs on 100% ethanol and electricity - then i won't be sending $ to saudi to spend buying off the us government and funding terrorist training schools.

[Godiva]

That's a complicated question. How many Americans does Toyota employ and pay in America?

How many Americans do the Saudis and other Oil Producing countries employ?

[Wa1hog]

Let me see. 120 miles a day travel.
$25 a day for gas or $10 a day.
Thats $15 a day I can give to Japan and play with a new car.
When Detroit can make a car that gets 45 to 50 MPG and last 180k Ill buy one.

[samiam]

Originally Posted by JackDodge

All that money goes to Japan.

Well bless their frightened little hearts.
I must say I get a little tired of the narrow national self-interest in so many posts from the states.

The oil companies are greedy multinational behemoths that don't give a tinkers damn about anything but lining their own pockets (national or religious principles don't enter into it).

The auto makers are cut from the same cloth, since when did they care about national interest, world-wide sustainability, or even humanity? For that matter, when did the UAW ever do anything for the good of the US population, nevermind workers across the globe?

They're all hell-bent on self-profit and can't see past the next quarter's returns, or the terms of their golden parachute, whichever comes next.

And I'm not too crazy about banks or the phone company either!

[malorn]

Originally Posted by JackDodge

At least, that's the argument that I hear a lot locally. All that money goes to Japan. Let's not even get started on money going to China.

OK, so where does all that money that you spend on a tankful of gasoline go? And, who sends the most money out of the United States, the guy who drives an American gas guzzler made in the U.S. or the guy who drives a Prius or a HiHy made in Japan?

Jack, for arguments sake lets say that 50% of the gas is imported in the US. How much of the cost of each gallon of gas is actually the raw cost(excl transport, refining, transport, margin,etc)? THe DOE says between 53% and 58%(I'll use 55%). So if I buy a gallon of gas for $4.00 and half of it is imported and 55% of that half is for the raw crude, than $1.11 is going to the middle east et al. If the imported cost of my Toyota is say $24,000, I will have to burn 21,621 gallons of gas to send as much money overseas as I did with the purchase of an imported toyota. At even 25 miles per gallon I will have to 540,540 miles to burn that much gasoline.

So buying a $28,000 Toyota($24,000 imported cost) sends as much cahs overseas as buying 21,621 gallons of gas @ $4.00 gallon.

[malorn]

Originally Posted by Godiva

That's a complicated question. How many Americans does Toyota employ and pay in America?

How many Americans do the Saudis and other Oil Producing countries employ?

The real question is how many US workers have roughly 35,000 US employees of Toyota displaced? The answer to that is hundreds of thousands.
GM , Ford and Chrysler are laying off or buying out that many every quarter.

[bac]

If the US auto makers would produce an auto as good as some of the stuff coming out of Japan, most ALL would buy from them. It's really as simple as that.

Why would we reward bad companies (foreign or domestic) that produce crappy products?

... Brad