FCA Proposes a Merger with Renault

ShinerBock wrote:

wilber1 wrote:

ShinerBock wrote:

wilber1 wrote:


You don’ think they could have sold a lot more of those small trucks here if they had been 25% cheaper? How many trucks do you think Toyota and Nissan would sell here if they were 25% more expensive? It didn’t protect the UAW because none of the plants are unionized and most are in right to work states where they pay substantially less. Basically, those states are doing the same thing as Mexico.

You are stuck on this 25% as if they were exactly 25% more expensive which is false. If you look at original MSRP of Toyota pickups in the early 90's, the MSRP of these pickups actually increased when they start building the pickup in Fremont, California. The prices never decreased from that point on either so where you are getting this notion that the trucks built overseas were 25% more? Please show me links that these trucks cost 25% more because I am not seeing it.

1990 Toyota Pickup

1991 Toyota Pickup


The UAW was the one that negotiated the 25% chicken tax with President LBJ to protect UAW jobs, and it is them who continue to lobby to keep it in place. Not the US truck manufacturers because it did nothing to help protect them. The UAW wants you to believe that it is the greedy US manufacturers that were the ones that want to keep it in place, but that is not true based on lobby records.

I'm not saying they are 25% more expensive but it does restrict competition which allows them to charge more than if they had that competition.

The Chicken tax also protects Toyota and Nissan from foreign built trucks. It allows them and US manufacturers to charge more for their trucks because they don't have to fear foreign built vehicles.

Toyota, Nissan and other foreign car builders are not UAW. Right to work states allow them to build their vehicles in the US at much lower labour rates. Just like Mexico.

You just said "You don’ think they could have sold a lot more of those small trucks here if they had been 25% cheaper?" So where are you getting this notion that they cost 25% more when being built in the US?

Also, just because Toyota and Nissan is currently not UAW does not mean that the UAW is not the one who orchestrated the chicken tax or is not the one who keep lobbying to keep it going because they are. It benefited them when Ford had to build/revamp factory for the new Ranger and it benefited them when GM had to build/revamp a factory for the Colorado/Canyon. It also benefited the UAW when Toyota built the pickup in Fremont, California NUMMI plant until they decided to move to a right to work state like Texas in 2003. For over a decade the UAW benefited from Toyota pickup production.

The tax meant they had to charge 25% more for their product in order to make the same profit.

You aren't listening. Not having to pay that 25% because they build their trucks in the US means they cay pocket the 25% they used to give government and charge the same for their trucks. It also means US manufacturers can keep their prices up. The UAW can't stop foreign manufacturers from locating in the US but they can protect US manufacturers from vehicles built outside the US and that is what they are doing by lobbying for the chicken tax. For a foreign manufacturer to sell light trucks in the US, it has to commit to building a plant here, otherwise it won't make financial sense.