[central_va]

Reagan saved auto manufacturing by requiring importers to build a percentage of their cars here.

[riverdawg]

My memory may be slightly off on this, but I recall that Reagan negotiated “voluntary” import quotas on Japanese-built cars. The major Japanese auto manufacturers then responded by building new plants here and developing partnerships to build cars jointly with US auto companies at existing US plants (e.g., the NUMMI plant in CA, which now is owned by Tesla.. Those import restraints are long gone, but the Japanese-owned plants here crank out more cars than we now import from Japan.