ES350 Production Coming To U.S.?
#32
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#33
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Ontario has more auto manufacturing than Michigan nowadays, for a variety of reasons. The public healthcare makes employee benefits cheaper as an overall cost, and whatever additional taxes manufacturers have to pay being in Canada are offset by the (traditionally) lower $. In the past 2-4 years the Canadian $ has been at par with the USD, but as the recession finally begins to life expect the CAD to drop back to between $0.75-0.90 USD equivalent.
The Kentucky plant for Lexus will be interesting. Benefits for employees will cost more, and wages are in USD. There's better corporate tax breaks though, so it might wash out for Lexus. And if demand is growing as they've forecast, then they'll need more than just Japan.
There's been rumors for years that the ES could potentially be marketed to other regions outside of North America...but to do that, they'd need more inventory.
The Kentucky plant for Lexus will be interesting. Benefits for employees will cost more, and wages are in USD. There's better corporate tax breaks though, so it might wash out for Lexus. And if demand is growing as they've forecast, then they'll need more than just Japan.
There's been rumors for years that the ES could potentially be marketed to other regions outside of North America...but to do that, they'd need more inventory.
#34
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Having seen the Japanese work ethic vs the American work ethic in automotive first hand....I'd avoid a US made ES until they are proven.
#36
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But understand that quality of the ML and BMW X have improved tremendously...
#37
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Hondas have been made in the U.S, for years, and Acura's have only been made here, their reliability is unquestioned. I'd like to think that Toyota has too much at stake to screw up ES quality with the move to U.S. production.
#38
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The Kentucky plant for Lexus will be interesting. Benefits for employees will cost more, and wages are in USD. There's better corporate tax breaks though, so it might wash out for Lexus. And if demand is growing as they've forecast, then they'll need more than just Japan.
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As to quality, this is not a brand new plant. They have been building Toyotas at this plant for over 20 yrs so they should know the Toyota way. Current builds at the plant include Camry and Avalon, including hybrids of both.
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#45
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They didn't in Canada and that was an all new plant...