How about doing away with C.A.F.E. instead?

As it stands, the domestic producers have to sell several economy cars for every vehicle that actually has a decent margin. As such, they practically give them away and trim every cent of cost out of their production. The big cars subsidize the small ones on the balance sheet in exchange for the small one propping up the C.A.F.E. number.

The Japanese producers take a slightly different approach. Their high margin (i.e. gas hungry) vehicles are often upscale versions of the economy ones, and help sell the fuel efficient one, so less give aways are necessary.

The European imports take a different approach altogether. They just ignor the C.A.F.E. standards, pay the fines, and factor the extra cost into the selling price. (Maybe GM & Ford should grow a pair and take the same approach.)

Honda all the way.

I think most Toyotas are actually built in the states now, while more "Domestics" are built in Mexico and Canada.

"The European imports take a different approach altogether. They just ignor the C.A.F.E. standards, pay the fines, and factor the extra cost into the selling price. (Maybe GM & Ford should grow a pair and take the same approach.)" - buuba551

ROTFL.

"Honda all the way.

I think most Toyotas are actually built in the states now, while more "Domestics" are built in Mexico and Canada."

Many Hondas and Toyotas are built in Canada as well. Although I wouldn't put the vehicles built in Canada in the same category as built in Mexico. No comparing in quality control, working conditions or worker pay...

Well, Mr. Leno has hit it on the head but it didn't take a lot of deep thinking to come up with this conclusion.
That is why the Malibu has met with such great applause.

"Hey, Look, GM has built a car that might be able to compete with Honda and Toyota!!!"

When such a car isn't such a surprise or big deal, then I will know the American automakers are competing again.

It's ironic that the article should use the upcoming Ford Fiesta as an example of what American automakers can do. Well, the upcoming Ford Fiesta is a purely Ford EUROPE product. Designed and built by Europeans by a completely separate Ford company that produces vehicles we could only dream of having.

I love WHINING !

I'm actually more concerned about WHERE a car is built more than which company makes it. All things being equal, I'd rather buy a Honda built in Ohio than a Chevy built in Mexico City. One can mention that the profits are overseas, but I'd rather have the jobs. Corporate profits don't help local economies as much as local jobs do.

Tell Leno to write his own jokes!

No wonder he is now close to Jeremy Clarkson and Top Fake...two script-reading trained monkeys with no talent...

I agree with wymer100...I'd rather have the jobs than the profit, which only a handful of executives and investors will even see. As for the Fiesta, I don't think that will sell here either. The domestics have a bad reputation. When I hear the word "Fiesta" I laugh because of the past versions. I'd be hesitant no matter what it looked like to get one. A Civic or Corolla doesn't have that conotation, even though they are also small cars. I will definitely buy American if they can pick up the quality and performance (including fuel efficiency) of foreign companies. I think it will take a long time as our culture has turned to one of laziness and lack of education (and not school education...trade knowledge and ingenuity has also been lost). Come on domestics...listen to Leno and take the challenge to win back your customer base.

yes, this is one funny guy.....

"I believe that, all things being equal, Americans will buy American. It just has to be as good as the competition; it doesn’t have to be better."

And what exactly is an 'american car'? designed, build, or owned?
And what exactly are 'americans'? Same definition?

yeah,

we leave 'better' to the japs, the europeans, the indians and chinese.

waldorf and statler:
yeah,

we leave 'better' to the japs, the europeans, the indians and chinese.

I'd replace Chines with Korean. Hyundai has been building some good cars recently, and I've heard some horror stories about Chinese cars recently (Brilliance, anyone?)...

Ah, well. Tis life.

Wow, breaking news TTR. Jay Leno caught up with 2001....

@ Joan of Arc

yes, you are right, forgot the Koreans.

Mind you, they took 30 years to get from Pony to Genesis.
I bet, nee predict, the Chinese will do it in half that time. Counting started 3 years ago.

"In order to make the more expensive car more appealing, U.S. companies feel as though they have to dumb down the cheaper car."

wow, this guy is almost so intelligent he could be your next president.

He hit it on the head. Just one problem....

Just because the domestic car manufacturer's make a great car now, it will take several years (probably 4-5 or more), before people begin to trust them. They can't just make a great car and expect it to compete right away. There is inertia in the market.

Case in point - the new Fords. From everything I've heard in the last couple of months, the new Ford Fusion, 500, and probably the Fiesta may actually be a quality built car on par with the Accords and Camrys. However, there is NO WAY that I would buy one until I've seen their track record after 4-5 years. On the flip side you have the Toyota Camry which has pretty much always been a great car. However, I've heard from others that it had some problems in the 2003 era. However, Toyota's sales didn't really lag because they had enough positive opinion inertia to roll past that trouble spot.

Anybody else want to chime in on this? How do you, yourself, determine if these new run of Fords is actually any good?

Ford just said that they are cutting production of it's trucks and SUV by 20%. On the same day Honda announced 3 new Hybrid cars for early 2009.

Icester:
'How do you, yourself, determine if these new run of Fords is actually any good?'

Ask Jay, he seems to know a lot.

Leno is a talking head; a comedian. Don't give him too much credit for coming up with this stuff.

I have driven the new Malibu, and was surprised at first, but after a few minutes, I realized this was just a boring sedan. Many people must feel the same way, because I hardly ever see them on the road.

The big three have a long way to go to be as good as the imports; forget trying to be better.

This past week I traded my Infiniti FX and Toyota Sienna for a Mazda6 4 cyl (with huge rebates) and Subaru Tribeca. Gas prices were a major part of the decision since these cars get much better mileage than the cars we traded. We looked at the Malibu, Fusion, Edge, and Acadia. OK, they were nice. Went hone and did research on problems and recalls, and said no way. Bought Japanese.

Leno should stick to telling jokes. Opps, guess he still is.

damn you americans, with your defeatist attitude, no wonder the Asians are taking over the world

Amercian small cars= bland styling, boring, cheap hard shiny plastic interiors, agricultural buzzy engines, and sloppy handling.

Detroit just got snapped ringed.

Does Jay realize that my Toyota Tacoma was built in Fremont, California, and a Ford Fusion, for example, is manufactured in Canada?

If you think about it, it seems my Toyota is more of an American car than a Ford.

Touche!

I traded in all my American cars for Jap vehicles.....15 years ago. Best decision I ever made!!!

I normally hate entertainers who try to talk about the world outside of their niche. But Jay knows cars. He sees all of the cars the rest of us do and he also is exposed to a lot of cars the rest of us will never see, touch or smell.

Does anybody remember the episode of "Alice" he was on. Funny.

Peter:
Ford just said that they are cutting production of it's trucks and SUV by 20%. On the same day Honda announced 3 new Hybrid cars for early 2009.

WRONG!

Honda is only introducing ONE new hybrid in 2009. Others are to follow through 2015.

This argument does invoke the question, What makes a car's American? Where it's Made, or where it is Engineered? I would say the best litmus test of the quality of "domestic" vehicles would be when German buyers skip the BMW and go for the Caddy CTS, or when a young Japanese male buys a new Chevy Cobolt.

Yeah, that'll be the day.

@bob

"WRONG!"

dick move bob, you could just say "well, thats actually not correct, they stated...." manners bob.... manners

anyway, Leno is right, and it's only going to get worse with high gas prices driving small car sales. When I pull up next to a big truck or suv at a stop light in my mini, they get that creepy eye twitch and heavy salivation thing going. I feel for the workers who need big vehicles, but for the people that bought a truck and only put groceries in the bed, I'm lmao. enjoy.

Harley Davidson is not a company to emulate.

To save the company in the 70's they had to lobby the government and increase import tariffs because they could no longer compete. I hope that isn't what Jay was asking for.

That's a complete BS was to defeat competition. It raised prices for every consumer in the country to save 'american jobs'. What garbage.

Now Harleys carry around rich middle-aged suburbanites who will pay through the nose to look and feel tough again.

They changed the class they were in. Instead of competing on quality and price they're more of a luxury item than something even remotely practical. People pay for the name and that patented special-sounding 45 degree engine.

Harley doesn't make any cheap bikes so I don't really understand why US automakers should make cheap cars while emulating Harley. Bad exampy Jay.

"Ford just said that they are cutting production of it's trucks and SUV by 20%. On the same day Honda announced 3 new Hybrid cars for early 2009."

Which just proves how dumb the American public is. The additional premium to buy a hybrid will always be greater than the gas saved over the same model non-hybrid. Even when you factor in the tax break, its still doesn't even come close. Hybrids are hype, nothing more. Honda is not saving the planet, they are lining their pockets with the money from stupid Americans.

I know some of you are going to be mad at leno and i bet its the same people that will vote for mc cain and your free to do so but im also free tho call you all dumb.

Look at the parts content not just were it is assembled. My cars 90%+ USA parts.

Toyota love them recalls :)

Interesting. Leno makes a statement which is obviously true, and a lot of 'Buy American' type folk are stumbling all over themselves to lambast him for it.

I think Leno is right, except I blame GREED at the top and the unions, engineers, etc. All are to blame in various ways for degrading the American car as a disposable product. The average American suffers the greatest, He can not afford to lease or buy, so he picks up a three or four year old car just to pay 10's of thousands in 2-3K chucks to keep the stupid thing running and smogged. All the time paying for super high gas prices. I can hardly wait for the diesals that can get 50 MPG, and I know they will not be American Made, but they will last, thanks to the Japenese who listened to an American explaining to add Quality Built into the design concept processes, not to have Management bean count every piece to death.

For years, the US car companies relied on large sedan, truck and SUV sales to drive their respective companies. The less expensive, compact cars were a necessary evil to bring first time buyers into the dealerships. ( I remember that Ford lost money on every Escort they sold in the 80's early 90's, but it was compensated by sales of the F150 et al). In contract, Japanese car companies relied on improving their respective small cars because they of high fuel costs in Japan. They also followed the teaching of Dr. William Demming who instructed the companies to methodically check quality at every step of the process (Six Sigma process), whereas US car companies didn't seek this process until relatively recently. Essentially, Honda had a Civic and Accord platform and spun variants off of these, Toyota did the same with Corolla/Camry platforms. and Nissan, Subaru, and Mitsubishi followed suit.

I do agree with Jay Leno that US companies should focus of small car sales especially in this climate. However, I do feel the US companies have made great strides in quality gains. I feel that the new Fiesta and eventaully the Euro- Focus will help this.

Hybrids are a waste of money. First you pay more than $2000+ extra for it and then I bet when you trade it in in 3 years, the dealership will either want you to replace the battery for another $2000+, or give you less for the trade in plus some enviromental disposal fee for the old battery.

And WE'VE been telling them to make better cars for how long?

GM products built where???

I sell Pontiac-Buick and GMC vehicles and almost every product I sell is built in North America not Mexico. North America Pontiac G5 (Transmission made in Italy), G6, Solstice, Torrent (Engine made in China), Vibe (Joint venture with Toyota and built in CA). Buick Lacrosse, Lucerne, Enclave. GMC Envoy, Acadia, Most Sierra (Base work trucks built in Mexico), Most Yukon (small % come from Mexico). In fact over the past couple of years GM has stopped production of many vehicles in Mexico for US import. Most recent factory they shut down is the Buick Rendezvous factory. The Enclave replacement is built in the states. The only vehicle that I sell I know of that’s not at least partially built in the states is G8 (Australia) and base Sierra pickups. I can't speak for the other divisions but Pontiac-Buick and GMC make up a pretty big percent of GM products. The other factor that I find even more important than where the vehicle is built is North American parts content. Every manufacture is required to disclose that info on each vehicle produced. GM wins hands down with the highest % of North America parts in their cars with Ford a distant 2nd followed by everyone else. North America parts content for Jap and German vehicles tends to be very low. That’s where the real jobs come from...

One other thing, they are making better cars! The GM products of today are much better then only 4 years ago. This is coming from someone who always bought Jap cars but now owns his first American car because I can see the quality myself. Unfortunately either GM is doing a lousy job of advertising this or folks just aren’t paying attention. This is in contrast to Toyota quality going into the toilet. Consider this, in 2006 Toyota had more recalls in North America on their products then the big three combined! Folks outside the industry rarely hear about major problems like sludge build up in Toyota V6 engines causing premature failure or Transmission failures in V6 Honda Accords. Do a goggle for yourself and look into the class action lawsuits brought against various manufactures over the last few years. People are so brainwashed into thinking “well it’s a Toyota so it has to be good” they won’t even consider American products. I was a Consumer Reports brainwashed fanatic idiot myself once until I started to work in this industry. Not to say that all American products are better. I would never buy a G5 (piece of crap!) but then again they are cheap and people get a lot for the money. I also get tired of idiots going around saying that Nissan, Toyota and Honda care about their customers and GM does not! If Toyota, Honda and Nissan cares so much then why don’t they have a system like OnStar that has saved thousands of lives? Toyota does not even offer roadside assistance to their customers. Sorry for my vent here but GM is producing better cars. Do I love GM? NO they do lots of stuff that I don’t like. If I would pick my favorite main steam car manufacture I think I like Honda best. So don’t try to peg me as some kind of GM hippie. I just see it how it is…

@itnetpro:

I agree with your assessment of domestic cars. I research constantly on my next purchase. ( via printed magazines, Edmunds (owner's forums is extremely valuable tool), etc) I also work for a company that has a large fleet of vehicles and have seen firsthand the quality increases in GM and Ford products. I am not a GM or Ford fanboy, but the very fact that I am considering them for my next purchase (after a 20 year absence) is a testament to the quality changes. (For the record I have had 2 Fords, 1 Chevy, 3 Nissans, 1 Subaru, 1 Saab, and 1 Mitsubishi). Are all GM and Ford offerings the best in class? No, but they are marketably better than the schlock they were trying to peddle years ago. The uphill battle that GM and Ford face is changing public perception scorned by subpar products in the past. Whereas, Toyota has that built in "cache" with many buyers?

On a side note, Through Inc. magazine, because of the structured buyouts and wage reductions the cost difference between Toyota (US labor) and the UAW will be approximately $100 per vehicle to the UAW's favor by 2011.

It doesnt really matter if the car is "made" in the US because all the money a foreign automaker makes in the US is sent away to that foreign country, so its not helping anyone over here...