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THE WAIL STREET JOURNAI,.
TRAVEL
EYESONTHEROAD
WhatReallyMakesanAmericanCar?
Couldthere be a more Amerauto industry."
ican vehiclethan a '?eep PaConsiderChryslerLLC.Durtriot?" Nothing on four wheels
ing the 1980sand 1990s,
saysAmericanmore proudly
Chryslerwas the most flag-wavthan Jeep,the ruggedbrand
ing, red-white-and-blueAmerithat helpedAmericawin World
can car companyamongDeWar II, and that has ferried miltroit's Big Three.Company
lions into our wild, Western
ChairmanLee Iacoccawas a
spacessince.
clear,loud voice accusingJaYes,in fact, there could be a
pan'sgovernmentand auto
more AmericanSUVthan a
makersofunfair trade pracJeepPatriot. A Toyota Sequoia
Jeep Patriot, above,is only 66%domestic-as defined by the U.S.
tices.Nevermind that Chrysler
would be one of them. The Se- The
governmenfsstandards-while the Toyota Sequoi4 seen below,is g0%.
quoia is 80%"domestic,"achad a longstanding link to Japan'sMitsubishi Motors Corp.,
cording to the
National Highand sold various Mitsubishi
way Traffic
cars.Then,Chryslersold itself
SafetyAdministo Germany'sDaimler-BenzAG
tration, while
to createDaimlerChrysler.Not
the JeepPatriot
long afterward,the new Geris only 66%.
man owners installed a German
By Joseph B,
"Buy Ameriexecutiveto run what used to
IMite
can" is backon
be Chrysler-and beganprothe agendain
moting Germanengineeringas
Washington.
a valuableattribute ofits cars.
(2)
driveimages/Newscom
Congressis debatingproposals
Confusedyet? It gets better.
to require that contractorson
200Q about25%ofthe parts
cars.Meanwhile,Germanauto
In20O7,
Chryslerwas reprojects financedby the ecousedin vehiclesassembled
in
makerVolkswagenis pushing
claimedfor America-80.1%of
nomic-recoverypackagebuy
the US. camefrom overseas.
aheadwith plans to set up a
it at least-by the U.S.hedge
"American"steel.
and another25o/o
weremanufac- U.S.assemblyplant again.The
fund CerberusCapitalManagetured here by foreign-owned
The Treasuryhas pumped
BMW X5 sport utility (assem- ment LP.
But Chrysler has
parts
makers.The Detroit com- bled in South Carolina)is more
billions into two of the three
taken a poundingas the econpanies wave the Stars and
Americancar makerswith
Americanthan a PontiacG8.
omy has gone soutll and now
headofficesin and around De- Stripeswtrenthey advertise
which is an Australianimport,
Cerberushas reacheda teiltatroit, hoping to avoid a collike Oscarhost Hugh Jackman.
tive
agreementto peddle35%
lapseof what industry and poFor nearly l5 years,the U.S. of Chrysler to Italian duto
litical leaderscall the U.S.auto
The BMW X5
government has required, unmaker Fiat SpA in return for
industry. There'slots of talk
der the AmericanAutomobile
sport'utility
uehicln
accessto Fiat's enginetechnolabout the governmentsupport. LabelingAct, that car makers
ogy,
small-cardesignsand
ing Americanefforts to deis moreAmerican than discloseto consumerswhat
other technology.Fiat might
velop electric cars and battershareofthe car's components
a Pontiac G8.
also use a Chryslerfactory to
ies, and somefederalprograms
are madein the U.S.or Canadabuild cars for the U.S.market
alreadyestablishedto do this.
anotherway of saying,"made
and sell its brandsthrough
When it comesto the car
by peoplepaid somethingcomChryslerdealers.But Fiat isn,t
business,however,consumers their waresor look for loans in parableto U.S.wages."A Z00l
Washington,but when they
proposing to put any cashinto
and Congressand the Obama
study conductedby NHTSA
talk
to
investors
or
the
busiChrysler.Shouldthis deal be
administradon are gorngto conof
nesspress,they stresstheir ag- found that more than 75o/o
consummated-and
that's by
front a tricky question:Just
646 peoplesurveyedweren,t
gressiveefforts to promote
no meanscertain-Chrysler
what is an "American" car, or
awareof the existenceof the
for that matter, an "American,, "global sourcing,"a codefor
domesticcontentinformation, would onceagain.benajority
"Buy More Parts from China
car company?
and only 5%ofthose surveyed ownedby corporationslocated
and Mexico."
outsidethe U.S.
The truth of the car busi
said the disclosures-usually
GM,the most global of the
So what should you buy if
nessis that it transcendsnaon a window sticker-affected
companieswith headquarters their decision
you
want to buy a truly Ameritional boundaries.A car or
"to any degree
in Detroit, has highlightedto
truck sold by a "Detroit" auto
whatsoever."The NHTSAstudy can-madecar?For the 2008
investorsthat it now sells
model year,the government
maker suchas GM, Ford or
also observedthat "the intromore cars (and has more emChryslercouldbe lessAmerisaysthe Ford CrovmVictoria
duction of AALA labelsin
can-as definedby the govern- ployees)outsidethe U.S.,and
has the highestpercentageof
model-year1995was not folment's standardsfor "domestic that its best opportunities for
U.S./Canada
content at 9O%.
lowedby a resurgence
of
growth-assuming the compa- U.S./Canadian
content"-than a car sold by
parts contentin
The only hitch: It's assemToyota,Hondaor Nissan,all of ny's restructuring is successfirl- the overall new vehiclefleet,
bled in Canada.
which have substantialassem- are in China,Latin America
but rather a modestdecline
bly and componentsoperations and other developingmarkets. from an averageofTOo/oin
Send commentsabout EJteson the
in the U.S.
Overthe next severalyears, modelyear 1995to 67.60/o
in
Road to j oseph.white@)w sj.com.
ThomasKlier, an economist the nationality of the cars sold modelyear1998."
with the FederalReserveBank in Americais likely to become
Meantime,spare somesymof Chicagowho has studiedthe evenharder to pin down. Ford pathy for the government offi(trltfilE lODAtli Tesryour
realignmentof the American
intendsto import to the U.S.
cials trying to sort out where
kncwledge
of Anrerican
canin an
auto industry wrote in an Octo- market the Europeandesigns
to invest the taxpayers,
quiaat fVSJconlfuS '
interadive
ber 2OO7paperthat, as of
for its smalland medium-size moneyto supportthe "U.S.