I know the Range is put together at the Ford Plant in St. Paul MN. But, I been wondering what the % of the parts in the Ranger is American made? I have a new '09 Ranger XL.

If I recall in the 90's the window sticker showed % of where th parts came from.

 

Who know's. Might not actually be that much these days.

For the most part it's cheaper for companies to send raw materials out, get parts manufactured elsewhere, and reshipped back then what it would cost if they did it all here.

I know there's a metal recycle company here in Ontario that ships scrap metal to BC via train cars, then has it put into container ships and sent to China for smelting. The recycled raw material is shipped back to BC, then put on a train to come back to Ontario. This entire process is cheaper to be done then to have it done here in Canada or the US. China also has very little envirinmental laws about pollution, hence getting them to use the smelters.

 

Who knows honestly.

 

Not enough that is for sure.

 

i could have swore that i have seen that number somewhere

 

I think its around 30% it should say somewhere on the truck or in the owners manual.

 

I know my trany was made in Japan.

But, does it really matter? As long as I'm getting a quality product I could care less who's hands made it. Yes, I'd like to keep my money in the states but I'd also like to keep my money out of the hands of the unions that made the cost of production in the states get so high. It's a lose-lose situation.

 

WOW! I could NOT have said that any better!!! I want quality at a good price, if that means going overseas, so be it. Am I I "un-american" for doing this? some people think so, but I'm just getting the best bang for my buck. Unions have killed this country and are not what they used to be.

 

So CEO's making Hundreds of millions a year, plus perks, plus the cost of healthcare skyrocketing in the passed 20years has NOTHING to do with the fact that the big 3 are bankrupt?

It must be the unions fault!

Non unionized companies are already making concessions for their work force, while giving bonuses to the top brass.. Delphi for example.

While I admit unions today arnt what they used to be, but its better than nothing.

 

Oh please, stop bashing the CEOs salary. Ford brought in about $173,000 Million dollars in 2008 (revenue). Their CEO made about $15 million. CEOs get paid a lot because they control a lot. Sure, you can argue they get paid too much, but don't act like a company that brings in hundreds of BILLIONs of dollars is failing financially because an employee earns a few million.

 

To be honest we need less parts made in America. When I worked at the Ford dealer you could always count on the American made parts breaking before the foreign ones. Union workers were never afraid about losing their jobs, so what incentive do they have to make a quality product? Plus the more the part breaks, the more it's replaced. So I'm sure a lot of those factory workers keep that mentality thinking that it means job security.

 

i agree ian, as far as line workers and skilled trades are concerned. the line worker spends most of the time thinking "how can i get as much downtime as possible. if the line is down this long, they send me home with pay". whereas the skilled trade worker thinks, "hmm, my company pays me to keep the line working, i'm gonna do everything in my power to make sure it stays that way". this translates to quality. "if i make a shotty part they need to replace it. i'll make 75% shotty. that way, i'll have to make more parts and get more job security".

unfortunatly it's true, i'm not blaming the unions for the economic turmoil of the big three, but why do they have to pay a person $20+/hour to put in a couple of bolts into a part?

 

Because the guy that puts those couple of bolts into a part has living expenses he has to pay.

Should he be living in a cardboard box ??

 

Oh man. So true.

 

i dont make $20 an hour and i dont live in a box. they are overpaid, plain and simple! unions arent needed anymore

 

no, but why did the company let the wages get that high?

when i worked at ford, i did ERT. i was making $15 for the summer. same a regular ERT fulltimer. we'd walk past employees in the foundry and engine plants that were making twice as much as us for checking a cranks that were comming off the line while sitting on a stool.

everyone has living expenses. you, me, that guy. whether you make $8 an hour or $25 an hour, i've worked for both and everything in between and i've always made sure my bills got paid.

 

The company I work for has a union for the warehouse workers. Some of them are so lazy its not even funny. One day this guy had an empty pallet on the forks of the lift and he was just idling around. I said, "Wow! Working hard are we?" He said, "Oh I'm good. I'm with the union." Too many guys work here and make $26+ an hour to do nothing and they are still lazy. Another guy I know goes and sleeps in the bathroom for 30 minutes after his 30 minute lunch.

 

i beg to differ and i agree. if the employees and management have a good understanding of and respect for each other, then no they are not needed.
however, that's not always the case.

i do agree with the comment that they are over paid tho.

 

mine was on the window sticker, b/c I remember it said the transmission was from France...

 

Here's the deal, if that factory worker doesn't make enough to buy a decent house, which you can't at $ 8.00 per hour, then multiply that by 1000's of workers and guess what, the housing market goes to hell as there's nobody left that can afford them. We're already seeing this in today's housing market. So when you buy a cheaply made import car, you'll be importing the third world living standards along with it.

The really sad part is we're on a downward spiral, and it looks like things are going to continue to go down.

 

Very true... But at the same time, the trickle down theory wont work. Fixing the economy is beyond my knowledge.

 

There are tons of Toyota plants in the US that employ a ton of workers. So those import cars help put food on those workers tables too

 

You've hit on the problem. There's so many vehicles being produced, the market is flooded and most people who need a vehicle already have one. The auto lots are loaded with cars and trucks that nobody's buying. So what has to happen ?? Vehicle production needs to slow down. This oversupply bubble will take years to work out.

 

who said they had to make $8 an hour? to pay someone $20 + an hour to mop the floor is excesive. i make less than $20 an hour and my wife works part time and we live comfortably in a nice house. but i think the point is more that they are more lazy and dont really care as much as a non union employee. my buddy works for a union machine shop that builds tank components for the military and they are told to make so many parts in an 8 hour period but they purposly slack off so they can get overtime, or if they get the parts done say, in 5 hours, they just sit around for the last 3 hours.

 

thats true, but where does the money from a new toyota purchase go? not the USA. toyota has a superior manufacturing advantage because they dont employ union workers.