"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
07/06/2017 at 16:10 • Filed to: None
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"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
07/06/2017 at 16:10 • Filed to: None | 3
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The landing page on BMW USA’s site now has a video with the title, “DESIGNED IN GERMANY. BUILT IN AMERICA.” The “learn more” button links to a description about how the BMW factory in Spartansburg, SC is BMW’s largest factory... in the world.
President Trump’s foreign trade policies consist mainly of judging the goodness/badness of our trade with other countries in terms of whether we have a trade surplus or deficit with that country. So if America spends more on products imported from say, China, than China spends on products imported from America, that is a Very Bad Deal™ for America, according to this man.
Having a trade deficit with a country is not an inherently bad thing. Lest ye think I would cherry-pick some EVIL LIBRUL FAKE NEWS MAINSTREAM MEDIA source to back me up, take it from the libertarian-leaning !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! :
Trade deficits are not a sign of unfair trade practices or a lack of American “competitiveness.” Trade deficits are caused by factors in the macroeconomy that are not directly related to trade.
When talking about cars, Trump believes A) as many cars as possible should be built in America, and B) other countries should buy as many American cars as possible. He often speaks about this in terms of “suchanduch car-producing country is very bad because they sell so many cars here in America and don’t buy enough of our cars there.” For !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! :
“If you go down Fifth Avenue everyone has a Mercedes-Benz in front of his house, isn’t that the case? The fact is that … there is no reciprocity. How many Chevrolets do you see in Germany? Not very many, maybe none at all, it’s a one-way street. It must work both ways.”
Nevermind that until it was sold to Peugeot, Opel was GM’s primary brand in Germany, not Chevrolet, and they sold plenty of Opels there. But that’s not the point. Where are the American-as-apple-pie Chevys in Germany?
The reality is that huge numbers of foreign-brand cars sold America are built in factories located in America. They !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! :
BMW - South Carolina
Honda - Alabama, Indiana, Ohio
Hyundai - Alabama
Kia - Georgia
Mercedes-Benz - Alabama, South Carolina
Nissan - Mississippi, Tennessee
Subaru - Indiana
Toyota - Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Texas
Volkswagen - Tennessee
Together, these foreign companies employ hundreds of thousands of American workers and in addition to building cars sold in America, they also export billions of dollars worth of cars to other parts of the world.
Who’s the #1 foreign car company in exporting US-made cars? BMW. Their factory in Spartansburg is the largest BMW factory in the world and is the sole global producer of all of BMW’s hot-selling X-series crossover models (except the X1). Literally every single X3, X4, X5 and X6 sold worldwide is built in South Carolina. BMW exported !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .
You’d think that Trump would recognize that a foreign-based company employing thousands of American workers to export billions of dollars worth of US-made products would be a good thing, but no, he !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! on any cars they sell in the US that are built elsewhere.
So what does BMW do? Well they put that splash page on bmwusa.com which !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! a quick video and the following text, along with links to all of the vehicles built there:
After nearly a century, BMW’s largest factory is now right here in the USA. Powered by the strength of American manufacturing, the plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina is producing thousands of jobs and almost half a million vehicles a year, with further expansions already planned for the coming years. The Ultimate Driving Machine is now an American export.
Nice try, BMW PR folks, but you’re in for a rough go here. Best of luck to you!
Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire
> Textured Soy Protein
07/06/2017 at 16:18 |
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Seems to be more of a “now look here, dumbasses,” than anything
fintail
> Textured Soy Protein
07/06/2017 at 16:19 |
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It’s almost like when one inherits an empire from daddy and is really just a promoter, they might not grasp how things work.
DipodomysDeserti
> Textured Soy Protein
07/06/2017 at 16:22 |
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I bought a BMW because it was built by Germans. I don’t want Americans putting together something designed by Germans. I’ve seen what they manage to do with a Jeep.
Party-vi
> DipodomysDeserti
07/06/2017 at 16:30 |
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You mean Americans assembling something designed by the Italians? I don’t think ze Germans contributed anything to Cherokee or Grand Cherokee development, nor Wrangler development.
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Party-vi
> DipodomysDeserti
07/06/2017 at 16:30 |
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You mean Americans assembling something designed by the Italians? I don’t think ze Germans contributed anything to Cherokee or Grand Cherokee development, nor Wrangler development.
Wagonlife740
> Textured Soy Protein
07/06/2017 at 16:37 |
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The sad part? None of these facts matter.
The fascists are winning.
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Textured Soy Protein
> Wagonlife740
07/06/2017 at 16:38 |
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Yes I know, hence the cat herding gif.
JQJ213- Now With An Extra Cylinder!
> Textured Soy Protein
07/06/2017 at 16:39 |
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Soon enough Volvo will also be building cars in the US. Their plant in the Carolinas is well under way.
I just don’t think Trump took a basic economics course in high school. He doesn’t seem to get the concept of a global economy or the fact that companies work in their own self interest and are out to work in a way that nets them the most profits.
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Wagonlife740
> Textured Soy Protein
07/06/2017 at 16:41 |
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HAHAHAHAHAHA.... I casually scrolled by that thinking it was an add. Now I see it.
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Textured Soy Protein
> Wagonlife740
07/06/2017 at 16:43 |
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It’s from this commercial, so you weren’t exactly wrong.
Klaus Schmoll
> Textured Soy Protein
07/06/2017 at 16:45 |
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Mine was built in DinGolfing, which sounds pretty much like what the Orange-Utan does every other weekend. That counts as something, right?
But seriously, don’t expect his followers to be swayed by hard evidence which one might even call facts. They will not rest until I buy a rental spec Malibu. No use teaching them the details of the back and forth of international trade. That just flies over their heads.
#Make coal happen nao, PLOX!!!!1111!!!
Ash78, voting early and often
> Textured Soy Protein
07/06/2017 at 16:53 |
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What ’ s crazy to me (as an Alabamian — we show up on three lists there, among carmakers from 3 different countries) is that people can still buy into this “ tit for tat ” trade rhetoric while BEING EMPLOYED by one of these same automakers. I don ’ t specifically know a particular person who works at a factory and voted for Trump, but the law of averages say it happened — a lot. If anyone is drinking the “ free trade Kool - aid ” I would think it would be the gainfully employed, non - union autoworkers right here...the ones who AREN ’ T suffering from the negatives of trade, but are benefiting from it.
People are weird.
As an aside to Trump: You don’t see Chevies on European roads because (a) they’re called Opels and Vauxhalls there and (b) a substantial part of GM’s current car lineup came from European-shared platforms over the last decade. We simply didn’t design “world cars” while the Europeans have almost always done so.
Svend
> Textured Soy Protein
07/06/2017 at 16:54 |
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That and Chevy pulled out of Europe in 2013 before GM Europe GmbH defunct in 2016.
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Textured Soy Protein
> Klaus Schmoll
07/06/2017 at 17:08 |
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I’m in America and drive a BMW built in Regensburg, Germany . Trump probably hates me. For this and many other reasons, including that I voted for Hillary.
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Klaus Schmoll
> Textured Soy Protein
07/06/2017 at 17:17 |
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Am I a NERD for knowing that it’s a 3 series because it was built in Regensburg, before even seeing the picture?
And then memory kicked in, didn’t you do the Euro delivery program with your dad?
nermal
> Textured Soy Protein
07/06/2017 at 17:29 |
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If you think about it, he negotiates the same way that Ford / GM / FCA dealers sell pickup trucks.
Start with an artificially inflated figure (MSRP), get some pushback from the buyer, throw in a rebate, throw around some insulting trade offers, some other BS, and then give in a bit and sell the truck for $8k off MSRP. Let the buyer think they got a good deal, even though the dealer “won” and could have sold the truck for as much as $10k off MSRP.
It’s all a charade, and generally annoying for all parties, but at the end of the day it works. The “win” here is getting commitment from BMW to invest more in their US plant.
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nermal
> Party-vi
07/06/2017 at 17:33 |
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The Grand Cherokee is built on the same platform as the Mercedes ML-class SUV, so shares a lot of parts. At a minimum the NSG370 manual transmission in the Wrangler (and Liberty) is a Mercedes design, as is the G56 in Ram trucks (which are assembled in Mexico).
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Textured Soy Protein
> nermal
07/06/2017 at 17:38 |
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BMW was already investing in their US plant long before he was elected, but I’m sure he’ll find a way to take credit for a decision that was made independent of anything to do with him.
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Textured Soy Protein
> Klaus Schmoll
07/06/2017 at 17:44 |
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I only know it was built there because I did a VIN decoder, so maybe you are a nerd.
I’m my car’s third owner. I bought it sight unseen, with pictures and a pre-purchase inspection, from a guy in San Diego, CA and had it shipped 2,000 miles to Madison, WI.
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DipodomysDeserti
> Party-vi
07/06/2017 at 18:04 |
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To clarify, I mean I’ve seen how American can poorly assemble a simple American vehicle like my Wrangler, I don’t want them touching my BMW. To be fair, my Wrangler does have a German designed transmission. Italians make the sexiest jeeps.
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Party-vi
> nermal
07/06/2017 at 18:30 |
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I was referring to the ZJ and WJ. The WK/2 are the only Grand Cherokees that share a platform with a Mercedes product to my knowledge. To be fair, I did not know the WK/2 shared a platform with the M-Class.
Blunion05 drives a pink S2000 (USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST)
> Textured Soy Protein
07/06/2017 at 19:12 |
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Building the cars isn’t enough! Design them here too! He must know the best designers!
jkm7680
> DipodomysDeserti
07/06/2017 at 21:38 |
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^ That
If I buy a German car, I expect it to be made in Germany. Otherwise it isn’t genuine.
My German built 2000 A6 was the most solid car I’ve ever owned. Even after 100,000 miles and 17 years.
Oh, and no offense to Mexico. But they’re shit at putting cars together properly. My Jetta could have been better assembled by drunk me.
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Textured Soy Protein
> Party-vi
07/07/2017 at 17:47 |
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WK is still a Mopar platform but has a Mercedes transmission on the V6 and Hemi. The 4.7 V8 still used a Mopar transmission. It was a mostly clean-sheet design with not much to trace back to the AMC Eagle/XJ/ZJ/WJ lineage.
WK2 is a straight up platform share with the ML/GLE.
Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
> DipodomysDeserti
07/08/2017 at 19:53 |
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Having driven X5s, Camries, Accords, Legacies, etc, I’d say that Americans have no problem building solid cars. What Americans can’t seem to do is design and engineer a solid vehicle. Every time I hear a vehicle at work that sounds like the doors are about to fall off, like my old Windstar whose welded in door hinges were tearing away from the body, it is invariably something designed by the big three.
I’d love to support American manufacturing but I’m not willing to support American auto manufacturers until they can produce something engineered as well as the competition. The manufacturing labor is not the issue here. But then again, what do I know - my DD was designed and built in Hiroshima...