Why would you care where they are made?
No idea about the radiator cap, but good for you Mary for attempting to buy USA manufactured products. Your car was almost certainly manufactured in the USA. But it probably contains parts that were manufactured in other countries. One of the main reason’s I purchased my now 27-year-old Corolla was b/c it was manufactured about 16 miles from where I live. When I happened to mention this as a reason, that I was giving jobs to my neighbors when I selected that car, one of my co-workers said something surprising to me. He said I was “un-American”. In his opinion true Americans buy the best product they can afford, irrespective of where it was made. His reasoning was that this purchasing reasoning – over time – is what makes the best products available. I had to admit there was some truth to that. Ironically, a few years later he lost his job, replaced by a “guest worker” the company imported into the USA under some sort of visa allowance they were given by the gov’t.
As far as the radiator cap, you could phone up some of those companies mentioned above and ask them. Most will have a toll-free number I expect. Writing a letter to the CEO’s of those companies is very effective also in making your point, but it might not bring you the answer you want. But at least you are pushing in the right direction.
You don’t know where your Nissan was built . . . ?!
My Toyota Camry was built in Kentucky, yet my brother’s Toyota Highlander and Mazda 3 were both built in Japan
There’s a sticker on your door jamb which should tell you what country your Nissan was built in
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Google tell me that 85% of Stant radiator caps are made in the US. Why does it matter, because good jobs here means the money stays here and gets spent here. It really frosts me when companies want the good US brand, but not the workers that made their brand for them.
I used to be a Union Steward and a Conservative, because I wanted good. profitable companies to bargain with. Even Henry Ford, as racist and anti-union as he was understood what a great economic engine a well paid work force is and his car sales really took off when his workers could afford his cars.
Today’s corporation have broken their compact with their workers and care nothing for the future, just chasing the maximum quarterly profit, which in their opinion can never be too high and caring nothing for the future.
Once all the real jobs are moved overseas (or at least over the Rio Grand) and all of us with pensions die off, who are they going to sell their overpriced US branded, foreign made goods.
Several years ago, one of the mechanics in our shop was the local union steward
He totally abused it, though
He was constantly on the phone and hardly turned any wrenches
Every time he was on the phone, he claimed it was union business. Every time he was talking to somebody, he claimed it was union business
Total lies . . . he just wanted to get out of turning wrenches
And when he did turn wrenches, he was totally incompetent. he couldn’t diagnose a flat tire
If you look at the Stant one from RockAuto you can read MEXICO on it
Mary, international trade is based on COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE. That means that if one country can make a quality product for less and not violate human rights standards, it will make enough to sell to other countries. The result will be that everyone wins with a higher living standards.
The Canada/USA/ Mexico auto pact has created jobs in all three countries and no one in the US (republican or democrat)wants to undo that.
Sanctimonious union leaders will call buying imports “immoral”; they just want to protect local jobs. These same guys drink French wine , Irish whiskey and eat imported chocolates.
The US has the world’s most efficient agriculture and is the largest exporter of agricultural products. It’s also the world’s leading aerospace manufacturer. A coal-fired power station in Wales (once the world’s largest coal exporter) is now fired with imported Virginia coal.
There are reasons sometimes to protect local industries. It cost 5 times as much to grow rice in Japan than in Louisiana. So the Japanese government limits the importation of rice to support local farmers who have small plots of very steep terrain.
With respect to cars and parts, the US is very competitive as are a number of other countries. You can buy parts from any US parts store with a clear conscience.
Also please look a the labels when buying your next batch of cosmetics. French perfume is normally made in FRANCE, but on a flea market in Bankok, Thailand, you can buy the fake stuff. US cosmetics are world famous and off high quality.
My late father-in-law wanted only local made gifts. We had trouble finding shirts and sweater that fit that category, so we ended up with Sears gift certificates instead and let him make his own decisions…
When Commodore Perry “opened up” China to US trade in the 1800s it was to both buy and sell things into that country.
I have a Canadian friend, an agriculture professor, who developed a peanut variety that would grow in cold Canada. It tasted OK but it would always be cheaper to buy peanuts from Jimmy Carter’s family in Georgia. That’s “comparative advantage” in action.
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If you want to know what country a vehicle was manufactured in, just look at the first digit of the VIN.
Tester
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The smaller the item and thus less profit, the more likely it won’t be made in the US.
Unfortunately that’s only the final assembly. There are many companies (US and foreign) vehicles made here in the US with parts from all over the world. Foreign parts content can be extremely high.
Thanks! I’ll take a look. I bought used.
That’s so sad. I’m sorry to hear anyone takes advantage of their situation. Shame on them.
Have you ever looked into the rules for Country Of Origin (COO) marking? It’s not exactly straightforward. First, there’s a difference between origin and manufacture. Secondly, the amount of content matters for this marking. Many companies exploit these rules in order to be able to mark their stuff Made In USA. Based on my own experience in this area, I wouldn’t put too much weight on the labeling…
I’m sorry. I should have phrased it where even you would have understood.
The first digit of the VIN reflects the country the assembly plant was located in when the vehicle rolled off the assembly line.
Tester
The good news is that the guy retired recently
So he’s no longer taking advantage of our employer
Very true. Even for my Calif manufactured Corolla, the engine and transmission were manufactured in Japan and shipped to the Calif plant as a unit.
I was a Teamster Union Steward, If we were representing 12 or more members our only pay was for free dues, With less than 12, we got nothing. I had a friend who was the road steward at another company who got mad at me when I said it was really hard to pick a union steward. He asked me why and I replied " How do you find a guy smart enough to do the job and dumb enough to take it?"
I had to take a day off work to make a 300 mile round trip to Syracuse because it was an issue that existed only at our company, and I didn’t get paid for that either. Our terminal manager had to go to represent the company and I went to represent the drivers. He and I both had better than 30 years in the industry and liked and respected each other. We rode in his car so at least the company paid for the gas and tolls. I won the grievance which we both knew I would because the company was using the wrong formula for determining our pay.
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Hope that wasn’t during the winter…That stretch of I-90 can be real fun during the winter. Lake effect snow can spring up at any moment.
Now we are far off the OP subject, again!
When working in a closed shop, our Teamster shop steward was a highly valued, productive worker.
One of my last jobs, in an open shop, “right to work” state, managements position was if you did not want to work overtime without pay you were not a team player.
Nowhere near as bad as turning North on 81! Besides, I never even thought about the weather at the time because I was going from Buffalo to Utica and back with a set of long double trailers at least 5 days a week then
Close but no cigar. There are vast differences between Country of Origin rules for marking imported goods and the Federal Trade Commission’s rules for labeling goods “Made in USA”. In order for goods to be labeled “Made in USA” they must contain “all or substantially all US content”. As an expert witness in court cases, I can tell you that companies that violate this FTC rule get the pants sued off of them.
Goods that are imported are subject to marking rules in the Customs Regulations. They must be marked with the country of origin in where they were last “substantially transformed”. There are some commodity specific rules and certain processes are excluded from “substantial transformation”, such as cleaning, painting, lubricating, and mere dilution by water.
Folks, there are plenty of strong rules out there regarding marking and origin. This is your government at its best trying to make sure that the consumer knows the actual origin of the goods. Keep in mind that we live in a global world, whether you like it or not, and supply chains for most companies are global. This means few products with complex bills of material are truly “made in USA”. In a global world we should be more focused on companies that bring good manufacturing jobs to the US. Car makers around the world have built plants here in the US (BMW, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, and more) and support many excellent jobs for Americans.
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