FollowThe ranking presented by Cars.com places Ford F-150 pickup truck on the first place. The qualifying criteria was the minimum percentage of 75 percent American made parts. Only ten cars made it in the top ten dominated by Toyota with four models and Honda with three. The top ends with Chrysler’s Dodge SRT Viper. The other American brand car in the ranking on the 7th position is Chevrolet Corvette. With only ten cars available for this year, this is smallest number in the study’s nine-year history, says Patrick Olsen, Cars.com Editor-in-Chief. The massive advances in car making turn the car production into a more global process than ever. “Modern vehicles are so electronic nowadays. There are computers and electronic components that control every aspect of the vehicle. North America is not where that stuff is built.” declared Ed Kim, vice president of industry analysis at AutoPacific
Few thoughts on the ranking topped by Ford F-150 pickup truck
The process of globalization took off a long time ago. After all, the U.S. is one of its products. Such a powerful economy is hard to achieve without having permanent and highly intense trading activities with other parts of the globe. Nevertheless, the last couple of decades saw a massive change in the economic structure. The American industry started to suffer greatly as producers moved the processing plants in other parts of the world. Look at Detroit and you will know exactly what I am talking about. The proud American working hands building a car from scratch have changed into Chinese and Indian ones. And sometimes vice versa is true. The companies have a natural tendency to run after profits, even if it takes them across the oceans. National space is mostly nothing more to them than just a market with specific characteristics.
Having a ‘most American car top’ in terms of production geography is an indicator nostalgia. People are nostalgic about the times when car production was at the heart of the American people. The symbolic geography is strikingly powerful. The essence of the story behind such a ranking is all about labor relations and workers’ pride. So why would there be so much nostalgia and pride in having Ford F-150 pickup truck, an American car brand, on top?
The U.S. have long turned into to the world financial center. Financial transactions are some of the most abstract work products. It takes a long time to understand why the financial crisis occurred. The fact that almost nobody fore saw it only underscores the messiness. It turns the labor compensation into a difficult task: how much should a financial worker receive as a salary for doing elaborate computations? In comparison, building a car is a much more accountable process. A paint job is easily quantified in terms of resources and labor time. But as the production moves overseas, the workers become disenfranchised, because they do not enjoy a fair share of the benefits stemming from a global economy. Maybe it is not the last year when an American car, such as the Ford F-150 pickup truck, will be on top.
