JeepaRoo

even made in the usa doesnt always mean its made here....

I dare to say that a lot of the materials in our JK's are actually made somewhere else... as well as aftermarket parts.. esp electronics, lights, etc...

obviously some of the smaller outfits make their stuff here.. skidplates, bumper, etc..

I tend to shop based on best value and who makes what I want..

if im buying online its hard to tell where its made before it actually arrives at the door....

one of the important thing to remember is that even made-in-china materials have USA hands on them, often to cart them, final assembly, trucking, warehousing, and shipping to you....

also if you do some reading you will find that cheap chinese products very well may not be around forever... workers in china are starting to learn the plights of the american worker past.. china is going through some of the pains the USA did in the beginning of our industrial boom.... even though communist, their workers are beginning to slack-off, go on strike, demand better conditions, etc..... which will eventually signal a price increase in goods from china....

-Christopher

tgrt

I don't know what's worse: made in China or made in Mexico. I buy made in USA whenever possible, but I won't sacrifice quality either.

2climbbig

for the most part, i buy products made in the good old USA. But there are times when it just doesn't make sense. If I can get an acceptable level of quality for significantly cheaper price, I will take price over location.

keneds

Well thanks for your opinion..........I am one of those AMERICAN UNION PUKES you refer to and you obviously don't have a clue on what unions are meant to stand for. Yes, My family has full coverage health care and I work every hour to maintain that. (don't need your free healthcare) Yes, Everyone deserves a "cost of living" pay raise because the everyday prices keep going up while they keep taking away from what we earn to maintain a strong family and livelihood. I do go out of my way to purchase as many American Made products as possible although it is getting harder everyday to find them.

And your piss poor attitude toward the Union Worker is a disgrace. Get educated before you spew your anti-union rhetoric. Just sayin,

p.s. I hope you enjoyed your labor day weekend

jmat1980

I always prefer buying "Made in the USA", however, unless it is hand tools or something where the USA made version is FAR superior, im not going to spend 3x as much for it...

I only buy USA hand tools, the chinese crap rusts and falls apart quite easily...

Rednroll

I think the problem is what they are "meant" to stand for and what we have actually seen from the unions.

You can't seriously expect everyone to respect the unions do you? We all know what unions stand for and why they were needed. The problem is that unions got "greedy" and a lot of people have lost their faith in unions. Everyone on this board can probably share a bad Union story that they've run into.

One of Mine? I used to work part-time during the summers for GM on the assembly line. One day, some smart azz decides to throw a "beer" can into the assembly line which set off some sensors and shut down the line. I was going to go over to pluck the can off the line. Supervisor comes over and says, "Hold up.....that's not your job.....we need to call in a line steward." They can't get a hold of the line steward.....he's out having a liquid lunch. They finally get him in 3 hours later to "access the situation". He looks at it and says, "I'll be right back.....I need to grab some tools". He comes back an hour later with a pair of pliers in his hand and plucks the beer can off the line with the pliers, then presses the line start button. So the line is shut down for a total of 4 hours for what should have taken 2 minutes....or should have not even happened. Why? Because "Union Policy had to be followed and workers did not feel threatened of losing their jobs for wrong doing because of Union policy".

Now think of all the problems in that situation. 1. Worker drinking alcohol on the assembly line. 2. Steward out to lunch and drinking alcohol for a long duration of time. 3. What could have taken 2 minutes to fix now takes 4 hours. 4. How much money was wasted having an entire assembly plant shut down for 4 hours with no one working? Now why do these people still have jobs and can get away with these things? The "Union". So I have trouble supporting the union because I know the differences between right and wrong....and nothing about that situation is right.

Don't get me wrong....unions are a good thing. They're there to protect us as workers from getting taken advantage of......the problem now is that the union is now taking advantage of the companies that supply us jobs. Neither is the right scenario.

Toyota is a NON union automotive manufacturer. Toyota has been building manufacturing plants within the good ole U.S. of A and providing American jobs while at the same time the big 3 have been shutting down American plants and moving them to Mexico and China. There are Toyota manufacturing plants in Indiana, Kentucky, Texas, Alabama, West Virginia, a new one slated for Mississippi and a couple in Canada as well as a design head quarters in Michigan. Toyota American workers get paid a fare wage, as well as all the benefits and they don't have all these inefficiencies that the U.A.W. has created for the "Big 3" manufacturers. The union is now hurting American Automotive workers more than it is helping them. THAT'S A PROBLEM.

More products being assembled in China??? Guess who was one of the 1st companies to move over to China and establish their presence? The U.A.W.

I think we can all stand to get educated.

keneds

I understand what your saying, I have many of my own stories. The one thing that I'm defending is the fact that unions are to protect the employee from the greedy employers. Let's face it.....I know I can't afford to live on minimum wage and with the help of being a part of a union I have some wage security..........Anyway, Back to topic, We are only benefiting each other by trying to buy wisely. In the end it could keep one of us employed.

BluMtn2010

If I can find an American made version of any product I'm buying, I buy it.

Its funny to me that less than 20% of the workforce in America is unionized, yet we take all the blame for just about all the ills in this economy.

Rednroll

Cool. I totally agree with you. I think part of the problem is that we all need to realize we're now in a "global" competitive market. Sure products are being made in China, and also India due to low wages......in time, those countries will go through the same changes that happened in the U.S. where people will feel like they're being taken advantage of and the playing field will start to level. It's already starting to happen.

If the truth be told, our government really has the power to take away the incentive to manufacture products in China. My wife is from Brazil and I have seen it there. Products that we buy here in the U.S. cost at least twice as much or more in Brazil. As an example....my wife purchased an iPhone here in the U.S. for her cousin who lives in Brazil. She put on the shipping that the product was valued at $400....she got charged an additional $400 for "tariff taxes" at the Brazilian customs. If you actually buy an iPhone in Brazil, it's going to cost you around $1200. That's because the Brazilian government puts high tariffs on ALL imported goods. So if our government really wanted to take away the competitive pricing of products from China, alls they would have to do is raise the tariffs of products coming in from other countries.

The last time my wife's family came here to visit, they wanted to see how many large screen TVs they could fit in their suit cases because they couldn't believe how "cheap" the prices where here in the U.S. on these items.

JKCliff

Do you have to send it back to China for the warranty? Is the local vendor going to handle that?