Let's see. I live in Indiana and can choose to buy a Tundra assembled in Toyota's state of the art plant in Princeton, IN. By doing so, my price of purchase will go towards the salaries of employees living in Indiana, and paying income taxes in Indiana. The company, Toyota, will pay property taxes and payroll taxes to the State of Indiana. The company, Toyota, originally promised approximately 2,000 jobs, and now has expanded the plant to an level of over 5,000 employees who assemble three different vehicles, the Tundra, the Sequoia, and the Sienna. The company, Toyota, just struck a deal to use the unused capacity at the Subaru-Isuzu plant in Lafayette, IN, to assemble 100,000 Camry's a year, employing another 1,000 people. These employees will also pay Indiana income tax, and the company will pay property and payroll taxes. On top of that, the company will be taxed on the profit it makes. So it makes pretty good sense to me to own a Sequoia and my wife a Sienna.
Now Honda announces a new plant in Greensburg, IN, employing 2,000. This will grow to between 4,000 and 5,000 employees in the next 5 years. Same thing for income, property, payroll, and profit taxes.
In which state is GM, Ford, or Dodge hiring over 3,000 NEW employees in the next two years? Why is it that for the first time in their history, Toyota management actually had the production team from Indiana go down to Texas to train the new employees at the new Tundra plant down there, rather than fly them in from overseas? Because our people did it better than their employees overseas!
What truck manufacturer hasn't had recalls????? On my Sequoia, it was handled very easily when I went in for my oil change - actually the dealer gave me a free oil change due to the fact it took an extra 30 minutes to handle the lower ball joint. Seems to me a recall is better than just fixing it under warranty and keeping the customer in the dark - "oh, we fixed a few things that fell under your warranty, don't worry about all that stuff".
And finally, what's one of the more recent recalls in Ford's history? Oh yeah, faulty OEM tires that didn't get recalled in time....
