InFocus featuring Mike Quincy (American Made)

From the 22 news plus studio. This is 22 news in focus with Patrick Berry. Hello everyone. And welcome to this edition of in focus. I'm your host, Patrick Berry. Today, we're talking cars with our friend, Mike Quincy from consumer reports. There's always a question out there about. And the, the, the patriotism of I want to buy an American car, but what is an American car, which is why Mike Quincy from consumer reports is here. Good to see you again. Thanks for coming in. I appreciate your time. So Mike, do you get that question often? Like, I want to buy a, I want to buy an American car, but you know, how do you. How do you answer that? Often I will say, well, can you, you know, the person who said, I want to buy an American car, I usually say, well, how do you define an American car? Are you talking about a label or are you talking about where the vehicle is actually produced because there's a Buick's that are built in China. So is that an American car? A Toyota Tundra is built in an enormous factory in Texas. Is that an American car? So, so it's like when you say you want to buy American it's, it's a difficult thing to define. And, and I think, um, I mean, I, I, I admire the, you know, the patriotism here, but if you just want American products, you probably have to get rid of your laptop, get rid of your cell phone, get rid of like all your clothes. You're going to walk around and get rid of your shoes, get rid of a lot of food in your house. So, I mean, we're, we're a global economy and, and, and, and, and not all stuff can or will be ever built in the United States. I think it's a nostalgic question because granted a hundred plus years ago, Henry Ford created the assembly line and every, every Ford model T. Every element of that vehicle was manufactured in the United States. Domestically sourced. Sure. And, and, and there was a time when the United States dominated the television industry. The vast majority of TVs were built in the United States. I'm trying to remember some of those brands like Xenus, maybe RCA. And then, you know, they, they companies, fortune 500 companies were allowed to find cheaper methods of manufacturing. That's kind of like what you're allowed to do with capitalism and stuff like that. And so they started being manufactured overseas and other companies started building these electronics cheaper. And, you know, maybe in some cases even better, but so, so it's, it's, it's very complicated when someone says they just want to, you know, buy domestic. So are there any domestic brands? I guess, what are the traditional three domestic United States domestic companies? I'm sure that the big three, and they still are sort of the big three. Okay. Although there are other like Toyota, I believe is larger than Chrysler. And when you talk about Chrysler it's Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, um, also known as Stellantis, but is the corporate name, um, uh, Ford, which, which controls, uh, also Lincoln and General Motors, which is, uh, uh, Chevrolet, GMC, Cadillac, Buick. Um, they're still headquartered in Michigan. Really? Not all of their manufacturing, however, are in the, the continental world, the United States of America. Um, again, cause they're allowed to find economies of scale by finding, uh, lesser expensive labor in, um, other, other countries. So kind of, and I don't know if you know this, the answer to this question, if we go back in time, I stated earlier, you know, the Model T Henry Ford, everything was built in the United States. Do you know when that changed? Like when did auto manufacturers start to outsource, I don't even know if outsourcing is good. So, I mean, when you, when you look at a modern car, the components don't all come from the manufacturer today. But then they did, but, but, but, but, but, but, but over, over time, I'm sure there were, um, there were suppliers that maybe did it a little bit better. Like a Ford, I remember had Philco radios, like an AM radio back. I'm that old for an AM radio. Now, I don't think Ford, I'd have to fact check this, but I don't think Ford owned Philco, but Philco made good radios. And so they, they put, they put them, you know, in, in, in their products. Um, uh, the manufacturers are either looking like for the best components or the, the cheapest components, if I can, you know, be so bold. And sometimes they don't always, you know, connect. So, um, I mean, even, even today you get, you can get an audio system with branded speakers, like Bose speakers. Well, General Motors doesn't own Bose, but Bose makes better speakers than General Motors does. Right. So, so, and Bose, if I remember, you're based in Massachusetts, used to be a Boston area company. Right. Great. And great speakers, fantastic speakers, um, to make car manufacturers outsourced to bring in that. And then that's what has happened over the years. And actually I want to correct myself because if I think about it, even at the dawn of vehicle manufacturing, there were ancillary plants around Detroit, Michigan, you know, maybe they weren't General Motors or Ford owned, but they were the car manufacturers bought the items from them, the Phillips radio, the boat, you know, in the industry terms, they call them suppliers, suppliers. So, so that's why when, uh, so they were all American suppliers right through an American branded vehicle. Right. But, but even the, the, the raw materials of these suppliers might come from overseas. Right. So, um, um, the, when, when a manufacturer just, uh, announces that they're going to be discontinuing a, a model. Um, that doesn't just affect the, the dealer selling that model that affects again, all the suppliers that make components for that model and thousands of, and, uh, the, the, uh, the, the Chevrolet cruise used to be built in Lordstown, Ohio and General Motors announced that they were going to be discontinuing the cruise now. So in Lordstown has been a manufacturer for, for, for decades, probably a couple generations of people worked at the plant and they, you know, unfortunately had to close the plant, but not only are the, the, the, the plant workers losing their jobs, but, but Lordstown also has, you know, restaurants and dry cleaners and all the other businesses that are supported by that. So it's, it's a, it's a real devastating thing. When, when, uh, when, uh, when a model is discontinued, a plant closes or something like that. It's, um, you know, the, the car company is, is fascinating. I love studying it, but it isn't, you know, without it's, it's, it's kind of sad stories as well. Absolutely. We are up on our first commercial break. Stay with us. We've got plenty more to come. This is 22 news in focus with Patrick Berry. Welcome back everyone to this edition of in focus. I'm your host, Patrick Berry sitting across the desk for me today from consumer reports is Mike Quincy. Mike, thanks for joining me. We're, we're having a fascinating conversation about being patriotic, supporting American manufacturers and specifically in the auto industry and buying an American made vehicle. But that is almost from the dawn of, of, of vehicle manufacturing, a vague term, because as, as, as technology has progressed, you know, when you made a passing comment earlier about like it was as a Chevy truck or something, um, not made in the United States, but a Toyota, Toyota truck made in the United States. But what is really made in the United States? And you have to look at the hundred thousand components that make up a car to determine what's really made in the United States, correct? And the window sticker of new cars, uh, will, will say where most of the content came from. I might say there are vehicles that are, um, the, the transmission comes from, from Germany. Um, the engine comes from, uh, uh, from China, uh, and it's assembled in South Carolina or something. Right. I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm making that up, but the components coming from, from all over the world. And, and the United States has a, a very robust manufacturing sector of the auto industry. Because manufacturers like BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen, Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, Kia, on and on and on Subaru, um, have manufacturing facilities in the United States that employ thousands and thousands of Americans and, and they, you know, they're, they're good stewards of local economies and, and to invest. Uh, you know, billions of dollars building these facilities is a big commitment. Are there any car manufacturers without United States facilities? Like I, I'm trying to think, like, does, does Mercedes have a United States? Yes. Okay. Um, uh, that's a good question. Volkswagen does. I, I would, I would have to, I would have to, I would have to look, well, how far away it was a pretty small manufacturer. I believe all the Alfa Romeos are still built in Italy, but I'd have to, I'd have to, I have to fact check that. But, but there, there, um, the, the majority of vehicles and I'm, and I'm going to kind of kind of wing this one. Um, the majority of manufacturers have a likely have a, a, a manufacturing presence in the United States. And, and, and, and that's, you know, that's a combination of, of probably some political pressure, but also incentives, um, or, or whether or not you want to go to a state that isn't necessarily heavily unionized. That's going to, that's going to be a, be part of the decision for you to, to break ground on a new plant. But that comes back to your earlier point from the dawn of, of, of vehicle manufacturing, how can I make this as cheap as possible? And I'm not talking cheap as in, um, cheap materials, although in some cases it is, but it's, is, is low cost as possible because the, the, the, the, the profit margin on a, on a new car can, can be pretty, pretty thin. Really? And yeah, because especially it's one of the reasons why you're seeing such a proliferation of SUVs and pickup trucks in the United States, because they build, uh, you know, pretty sturdy platforms and they can apply it. They apply a, a, a, a platform branding and manufacturing to a lot of different like labels. So, um, the, the, the luxury platform that you might see in a Lexus is also the same platform that's in a Toyota. Okay. So, so they, so they spread the cost, which makes sense. I mean, it, it, it, from a, from a, from a marketing standpoint, if you've, you've owned a couple of Toyotas, but you, you've got a promotion doing a little bit better. He's like, well, I like Toyota, but I want something a little nicer. You know, smart people in, in, in manufacturing. Okay. Well, we need them to have some, something to aspire to. And most, most of those common brands, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai. They all have a, what we would call a luxury brand. Correct. Okay. Correct. Yeah. And this was, this was really a brainchild for, I think it was Alfred P Sloan of General Motors. One of the real, you know, Mount Rushmore's of automotive history. Who's that? You know, we want people to aspire to stay within General Motors. So maybe you, you know, you start out buying a Chevrolet and you make a little bit more money. Maybe you get an Oldsmobile and you make a little bit more money. You get a, you get a Buick. And then once you get that corner office, you reward yourself with Cadillac. And that is, first of all, it's brilliant. Second of all, it worked. Third, um, all the other manufacturers, you know, copied that, that strategy. And, um, and, and, and it's like you, you, you, you, you want to stay within the brand that you like, uh, you talk about your, your Nissan, uh, Pathfinder. If you had good luck with Nissan's, but yeah, you, you, you do it well in life. Like, oh, I like Nissan's, but I think I want something nice. I'm going to get an infinity. And you know, so, so because I love Nissan's I've always had, I've had Nissan's for decades. And, and again, I wanted a nicer vehicle. So I bought the infinity. Um, and, and when I bought my latest new car in 2025, I wanted a hybrid and Nissan wasn't there yet. And so I switched brands. I went with a Mazda, but you know, I'm still working on it. I mean, we're, we're lucky in the United States that consumers. Have so many choices. Oh, absolutely. This is a great other countries not have as many choices. I'm not sure there are as many different brands in other countries. Uh, I would have to look that up, but, but at least in the United States and we've seen a reduction of, of brands over the last 20 minutes, we don't, we don't have, we don't have Oldsmobile or Plymouth or Pontiac anymore. We don't have AMC. We talked, we don't have, we don't, we don't have, you know, Scion, we don't have Saturn. We don't have sob, which breaks my heart. Cause I love sobs. Um, and so there are fewer brands that are for sale now, but still there's a great variety of cars and the new car market is, is, is so awesome that the cars today are so much better than they ever were when everyone says, Oh, they don't build them like they used to. You say, thank goodness they don't build them like today's cars. They are safer. They're more fuel efficient. They run cleaner. They have way more features. Um, and, and I do like old cars. I'm not gonna tell you I don't, but day to day. Um, uh, new cars, uh, like they've, they've just, they've never been better. We are up on our second commercial break. We're talking about patriotism and buying American cars. We'll be back in just a moment. This is 22 news in focus with Patrick Berry. Welcome back everyone to this edition of in focus. I'm your host, Patrick Berry today in the 22 news plus studio across the desk from me. I have Mike Quincy from consumer reports. We're talking about buying American specifically American cars because Mike is the, uh, the car writer and researcher for consumer reports. What one of, well, I work with a lot of smart, but, um, and I think back to, I want to say it was 1982 or so, maybe a year before I got my permit. Um, my mom was at a car accident, but up until that, that car accident, my parents were American car owners, right? My mom got into a car accident in the old woody station wagon, Chevy woody station wagon. She got, it got totaled. And my, they went with from the woody station wagon down to like this mini compact four-door Subaru, which was shocking, um, early adopters. Exactly. I have to imagine. It's at some point in time, you know, we're about the same age. Your, your family probably has a very similar story where you made that shift. Yeah. I think that when you, when you're, my parents are of the, you know, the world war two generation and, um, it was, there was no question. You, you had American cars. And my, my earliest memories of my, my, my father's and mother's buying decisions were, you know, Ford stations, wagons for Torino's, uh, we had a Fort Granada. We had, then my dad was radically went and bought a Chevrolet Caprice. Um, but the first, oh, oh, I can't forget, uh, the Chevrolet Vega. Oh, the Vega, which is one of the real low points of American, uh, auto. I have a friend of mine who owns a Vega. Listen, my, my older brother, my older sister, and I all learned to drive on the Vega. It was a four speed manual. And believe it or not, even when it got to me, that was still in the original clutch. I don't know how, but it survived the Subaru. My parents got, that's how I learned. It was kind of a junky car, but, but it, it, it got us through the, but it was, so it was, it was kind of a big deal. The, the, for the first Japanese car that my dad bought, you know, it just hit me. What, what year was that? The Vega, the first Japanese car. It was a 1978 Toyota Celica. Okay. So now that I'm thinking, and this just dawned on me, my parents bought that Subaru, like I said, probably 82 or 83 coming out of the seventies oil crisis. Right. It is so, so, so back excellent point. So the Japanese were making more fuel efficient cars than Detroit. They were smaller, they were lighter, they were better on gas and it turns out they were a heck of a lot more reliable. Okay. And, and so the, the, the us industry was just thinking, ah, Japan, what are they gonna, they're not going to do anything. Yeah. They're, you know, they can't touch us. It doesn't matter. Right. You know, fast forward to 2026 and, you know, Japan has a massive chunk of the U S auto industry, but, but, but, but it was, it was a real generational shift. And if you grow up, if you grew up in like the seventies, when I did the domestic products were lousy. They were unreliable. They didn't, they just didn't last that long. They rusted that you didn't know if they're going to start in the morning. And, and so it's, but, but so it took a while and I'm sure there's still some families that refuse to even consider them, but when, when my, my dad was reading motor trend magazine and the Celica was the car of the year, he was intrigued, he was a, it was an MIT engineer, he was a real smart guy, but he loved technology, but he went and test drove this car and he's like, Holy cop, this is awesome. It was rear wheel drive. It's a five speed manual, which was a big deal, right? All of our other manual transmission cars were four speeds. And that car went, I think 110,000 miles and you're changing the oil, nothing broke on it. And we had never, as a family, we'd never experienced a car that was so steady. And, and that, that, that changed, that changed everything. It was, it became a proven commodity in, in, in the idea of a Japanese car. Right. And to your point, I think that, you know, the Japanese at that point in time, Toyota, Subaru, they all took the American idea and improved on it. Sure. Uh, they, they, they, they pounced on increased prices, uh, prices of gas. You know, in early eighties, gas just shot through the roof. That's really, really expensive. Relatively speaking to today, that was very expensive. And they, and they, and they really got reliability down. And, um, and not only that, the manufacturer, the actual cost of producing the car was cheaper. Because it was foreign labor. Right. And at the time, at the time, Japanese labor was cheaper than American labor. Right. And they didn't have American plants. So everything, every vehicle came over on a ship. Right. And eventually the Japanese manufacturers built manufacturing facilities in the United States. Honda has been in, has been in Ohio since probably 1980, 81. Oh yeah. They built the accord there and, and consumer reports has, has, has studied, you know, where cars are made and looked at any kind of reliability differences, and we're really finding no difference between a Honda built in, in Japan or a Honda built in the United States. And that's, that's, that's great. Again, that's, that's really good for consumers. Um, the Toyota Camry has, has been built domestically for like 20 years, I think. And, and it's a super reliable car. And again, American workers, I don't think we're ever the problem. I think American workers can produce great stuff, but you know, the components have to be designed properly. And I have to imagine you, you kind of go back to the corporate management of Honda and Toyota back in those, those days, it was cheaper for them to build a plant here in the United States, employ the people, then ship every single vehicle. But there was also political pressure that if you were going to sell vehicles here, you should build them here. And, and not only did Japan follow through on that, but over time, so did the German manufacturers, uh, Volkswagen built a plant in Pennsylvania. We have a BMW, Mercedes-Benz in the South. Uh, Kia and Hyundai are also in Southern states building cars as we speak. Um, so, uh, you know, Toyota is invested heavily in a massive manufacturing facility in Texas. And again, you're, you're employing local Americans to do this work. And then, and, and a lot of these products are just fantastic. Right. And employing those, those people builds those communities, the ancillary things, the dry cleaners, the restaurants and everything else. So folks, if you're thinking about buying American, it's hard to do. Rethink, rethink exactly. It's almost impossible to how you can define that. Fantastic. Mike Quincy from Consumer Reports. Thank you again, as always wonderful chatting with you. Thanks for having me on. This is 22 news in focus with Patrick Berry.