Toyota announced this weekend that once the 2012 Toyota Camry has been launched, the Japanese automaker will shift all production of Camrys sold in the US to the Georgetown, Kentucky production facility with Subaru’s Indiana plant offering a hand if demand exceeds the capacity of the Kentucky plant. This allows Toyota to further their claims of the Camry being the “most American” car sold in the US but when it comes down to it this is all nothing more than tricky marketing – but what will the Detroit automakers do to combat this?
As the nation continues to work to climb out of the recession of 2008 and 2009, the auto industry is one segment that draws a great deal of attention and among many American consumers, “buying American” becomes more of a concern when things get tough. While some consumers simply run to Walmart and buy the cheapest Chinese-built offering of the product in question, many automotive consumers put more thought into their vehicles and where they are built as opposed to segments like the toy or gaming industry. This interest in supporting the country would offer some advantage to the Detroit Big 3 but with marketing campaigns like Toyotas, where they use technicalities to lull consumers into buying what they are told are American cars. Anti-American Toyota owners who still buy into the nonsense peddled by the likes of Consumer Reports in the 1990s will point out that many American vehicles are built in Mexico or Canada but recently, General Motors has began making an effort to shift production of popular models like the Chevrolet Impala from Canada to Detroit.
There is no question that General Motors, Ford and Chrysler have all stepped up their game a great deal in the past few years, especially in the areas of overall quality (especially among low-cost compacts) and fuel economy. Toyota once had the bragging rights of being of the highest quality and offering superior fuel economy but now that the truth has come out about their lack of quality (through hiding recall issues) and their fuel economy ratings just make them “one of the crowd”, the Japanese automaker has turned to technicalities to claim that the Camry is the most American car sold in this country.
In reality, the 2012 Toyota Camry is still very much a Japanese cars – designed and engineered in Japan with components from Japan – with the final assembly of these components taking place in the US so that Toyota can claim to be American. While “unbiased” sources have recently conducted a study to decide which car was the most American, the survey was weighted towards vehicles with higher sales volumes which gives the Camry a massive advantage so while their numbers add up to indicate that the Camry is an American vehicle, the real truth is that it is nothing more than a production facility in the US shrouded in a veil of marketing nonsense.
Real American cars are vehicles like the Ford Mustang and F150 which are built in the USA with components provided largely by American suppliers and even vehicles like the Chevy Camaro and Dodge Challenger (both built in Canada) are more American than the Camry could ever dream of being – but those aren’t the vehicles that Toyota is targeting with their recent marketing. Vehicles like the Ford Fusion and Chevy Malibu are the head-to-head competition for the Camry and while Toyota may have the diluted claim of being the most American, the smart American consumer can look beyond that and see the improved level of quality from the Detroit Big 3 – along with the fact that buying a real American car goes well beyond just the build location of the vehicle.
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