C B A - Pure Lunacy

[delaigle]

This is a vague comparison, although one that you presumably can make since you are familiar with the two vehicles in question. For the rest of us, we would need to know:

How comparable are the vehicle types between your car and your wife's car? Sedan vs sedan? Coupe vs SUV? V8 vs V6? Hybrid vs conventional? Loaded with options vs stripped?

Further, does one vehicle have a perceived brand advantage over the other? Chevy vs Nissan, or Ford vs Kia?

In other words, for the $1000 difference in price, you may be gaining or losing huge amounts of value and quality, or it may be equal. We don't know.

"Where does the 'extra' profit go?" That depends on how aggressively the company in question reinvests in R&D, re-capitalization, modernization, advertising, and the like. Any "extra" profit could conceivably go into the shareholders' pockets or into any of the above. The tendency, and I am not saying that you are doing this in this case, is to assume that a company who wants to reduce labor costs does so solely so that the CEO can buy the land the orphanage is on to bulldoze it and build a motocross track, or similar. It is more complicated than that, usually.

both are 4 cylinder 2.0 liter gasoline engines 4 door sedans, Automatics 1 4speed 1 6speed

I believe that much of the "extra profit" goes in the pockets of some corp that holds the import license (and contributes nothing) for that brand and less goes into "research"

please don't get me wrong

I've been a union member (different unions) and I've been part of the management barginning team so I've seen both sides

There is good and bad on both sides of the table and the finger pointing does not help

my previous post was meant to show that there is no such thing as a car manufacturer -- just car assemblers

and that they are assembled by foreign workers in foreign countries, non union workers (Ala) or Union workers in Detroit and yet they all wind up costing the same thing so to us (the consumers) it really makes no difference it's the same amount of money out of our pockets

[Shnikies]

Bring it proving once again he is a ****** poster.

Why because he thinks unions are worthless? Unions aren't needed anymore. Back in the day yeah they were needed because workers were treated like filth. Now you have to look through a 22 page checklist just fire someone they have driven up the price of labor and ruined many businesses. The unions don't care about the workers anymore they only care about the power they wield in Washington.

[NOVAFalconFan]

both are 4 cylinder 2.0 liter gasoline engines 4 door sedans, Automatics 1 4speed 1 6speed

I believe that much of the "extra profit" goes in the pockets of some corp that holds the import license (and contributes nothing) for that brand and less goes into "research"

You could be right, although I suspect it is probably somewhat more complicated than that. In this example, if the American car is assembled overseas and the foreign car is assembled in Alabama, both companies have avoided paying UAW wages to some degree. Perhaps the difference in manufacturing costs aren't that great. Practically impossible to know.

[muskokas finest ©]

They cost about $1000 different

IF cheap labor makes the foreign cars less expensive where does the rest of that money go?

If high labor cost in America drives the cost up How is it that they actually compete $$$$$ wise.

Tariffs

[delaigle]

Tariffs

and profit to the corp that holds the import license

IRISH Whiskey anyone