Honda Cars : ABC News: Find out the % that your car was built in the USA | 2013 New Honda Car Reviews 0

Interesting....

ABC World News with Diane Sawyer recently launched “Made in America Summer,” a continuation of the broadcast’s popular series focused on American manufacturing, the economy, and what things American citizens can do every day to help power/increase jobs in the United States.

ABC’s David Muir and Sharyn Alfonsi than decided to examine which car and automaker creates the most American jobs. What did the find? Well, first of all they found, that there are 698,700 people employed by the U.S. motor vehicle manufacturing industry and each automotive job supports nine others in this country.

Find out what percentage of your car was Made in America.

Honda Cars : For Baffled Buyers, a Guide to Cars Made in North America | 2013 New Honda Car Reviews 0

ABOUT 8.5 million cars and light trucks were assembled in the United States last year, but only about five million of those were made by the automakers traditionally known as the Big Three. More than three million of the vehicles assembled in American plants were built by autoworkers employed by foreign brands like BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz and Toyota.

Add to those the familiar Detroit nameplates coming from plants in Canada and Mexico and it’s easy to see how confusing it can be for consumers leaning toward the purchase of an “American” car. Which is the more American product, a Honda Accord built by Ohioans for a company with its headquarters in Japan, or a Ford Fusion built in Mexico for a corporation that is based in Michigan?

Among the so-called transplants — foreign automakers who produce vehicles in the United States — Toyota leads in production. Last year it built more vehicles in the United States than Chrysler, although the margin was small — only about 11,000 vehicles. Honda was the first Japanese automaker to start building vehicles in the United States when its Accords began rolling off the assembly line in Marysville, Ohio, in 1982. In the ’80s and ’90s the Big Three began building more vehicles in Canada and Mexico.

Of course the window sticker of a new vehicle lists its domestic content, including the origin of its engine and transmission, but the intricacies of the North American Free Trade Act and the American Automobile Labeling Act can muddle details on parts from Canada and Mexico.

But “domestic content” is not domestic at all. For the purposes of the window sticker, the government has decided that domestic content will include parts made in Canada. Under the North American Free Trade Act, domestic is even less clear because it also includes Mexico.
Meanwhile, the labor of autoworkers assembling the vehicles is excluded from the calculation. Therefore, foreign carmakers with assembly plants in the United States are penalized because they cannot factor in the value of their American workers’ labor.

Reporting the origin of the engine and transmission is also tricky. Take Honda’s engine plant in Anna, Ohio. Although the engine of the Acura RDX is made there, Japan is listed as the country of origin. That is because one expensive part, the turbocharger, is imported from Japan (and installed by Ohio workers).

Readers can find a listing of all the vehicles built in North America, with the origins of their engines and transmissions and whether the factory is unionized, in an interactive graphic posted online. It includes production data supplied by the automakers. The information is current as of the publication date, but is likely to change in coming months.

Source;

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/06/19/automobiles/20090619-auto-plants-4.html

Honda Cars : If buying American (and Canadian!) is your preference, check the first digit of the VIN | 2013 New Honda Car Reviews 0

Cool info article from the LA Times (via carscoop) explaining where your car comes from as per VIN numbers.... BTW, most of Honda's product sold in Canada and the US comes from both Canada and US.
As we witness automotive history being made via corporate bankruptcies and government bailouts, the nation is polarized over whether to be supportive or critical of American car brands. We at Up to Speed see it in your comments, and results from a recent study by Gallup show a substantial jump in consumer interest for American car brands.

This is all well and good while the crisis continues, but the truth is that there are fewer American car brands in existence than ever before. History has recorded nearly 2,000 American brands since the industry's inception, but the recent loss of Pontiac, Saturn and Hummer leave only 10 truly American brands in the mix: Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC trucks.

So, if we purchase American cars, are we helping our own countrymen? What about foreign cars built in the U.S.? How do we know the difference? Kelley Blue Book's Classic Car Guide Editor Phil Skinner helped us ponder these questions and said that the answer lies right on your car's dashboard in the 17-digit number called the Vehicle Identification Number (or VIN). Actually, the truth lies in the very first number (or letter) of the VIN.

Phil explains, "A #1 represents the USA, but the #4 and #5 usually mean the car was made in another country. A #2 represents Canada, while #3 is from Mexico. Letters are also used to identify where the car is from, such as "J" for Japan, "K" for Korea, "W" for Germany, "S" for England and "Y" for Sweden."

"Many cars that you think were built in the USA might have come from our great northern neighbor, Canada, or down south in Mexico. While it might wear a badge that says Ford or Chevrolet, there is a chance the car came out of a USA-based assembly plant owned by a foreign company," Skinner says. "While the Ford Crown Victoria has been discontinued, its brother, the Mercury Grand Marquis, is still being produced, but not from a factory in Detroit -- it's made in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada."

Other current models with American brand names have actually been assembled in other countries:

Buick Lacrosse, Canada
Chevrolet HHR, Mexico
Chevrolet Aveo, Korea
Chevrolet Impala, Canada
Chrysler PT Cruiser, Mexico
Chrysler 300, Canada
Dodge Charger and Challenger,
Canada Ford Fusion, Mexico
Ford Flex, Canada
Lincoln MKX and Town Car, Canada
Mercury Grand Marquis, Canada
Mercury Milan, Mexico

As for cars with “foreign” brand names, Phil says many are actually built in the United States, including the Toyota Camry and Avalon, built in Georgetown, Ky.; BMW's Z4, built in Spartanburg, S.C.; and the Honda Element and Accord, built in East Liberty, Ill. (Odyssey is built in an assembly plant in Troy, Ohio).

"President Obama recently challenged the American public that if they were thinking 'about buying a new car, I hope it will be an American car,' ” Skinner says. "But sometimes we might think we are supporting our homeland when in fact we are contributing to the coffers of companies abroad."

Here's what the first digit in the VIN represents;

VIN Code Country of Origin
1: UNITED STATES
2: CANADA
3: MEXICO
4: UNITED STATES
5: UNITED STATES
6: AUSTRALIA
9: BRAZIL
J: JAPAN
K: KOREA
L: CHINA , TAIWAN
M: THAILAND
S: UNITED KINGDOM
T: HUNGARY
V: FRANCE
W: GERMANY
X: RUSSIAN FEDERATION
Y: FINLAND, SWEDEN
Z: ITALY

Here's where Honda's Vehicles that are sold here in Canada and the US come from;
Honda Accord - US
Honda Civic - Canada and US
Honda CRV - US
Honda Odyssey - US now (Canada prev)
Honda Pilot - US now (Canada prev)
Honda S2000 - Japan
Honda Civic Hybrid - Japan
Honda Insight - Japan
Honda Ridgeline - US (Canada prev)

Source;
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/uptospeed/2009/04/if-buying-american-is-your-choice-check-the-first-digit-first.html