Actually, from what I've heard most of the Ford Mexico production is small, cheap cars (Fiesta, anyone?) headed for the Central and South American markets. These cars have the lowest profit margins and it's also smart to build them closer to where you're going to sell them.
The high-value, high-markup pickups and SUVs are staying here.
“Actually, from what I’ve heard most of the Ford Mexico production is small, cheap cars (Fiesta, anyone?) headed for the Central and South American markets. These cars have the lowest profit margins and it’s also smart to build them closer to where you’re going to sell them.”
Well, if that’s the case, Ford ought to be letting everyone know that’s what they are doing. We have a 2013 Chevrolet Avalanche, which, along with the other GM SUV’s was assembled in Monterrey, Mexico. These cars are not low-margin vehicles. I just imagine thought that the high-value components were built in the US just like the Japanese, Korean and German companies are doing here now.
It’s a tough situation all around, but if we don’t have a population that earns decent money, our markets for cars and alr conditioners, goes South.
True. But what is being missed is that Ford's new plants in Mexico are being built, not if Trump has a say, to boost their production of lower priced cars in Mexico in order to concentrate on manufacturing high margin SUVs and pickups in the US. Higher margins are a way of coping with higher labor costs, in the real world. Sounds sensible to me. And to the extent that the Mexican production is not destined to the US, the tariff has no impact. To the extent it is destined here, smaller cars will rise in price significantly, which is a good thing for American consumers I guess. This problem was largely settled in the early Clinton years. At this point you work around the edges, or withdraw from NAFTA which requires Congress. And a policy for Canada.