I love my American-made car!

[MichFin]

Not only is my Tesla 85D the most amazing car I've owned. I'm making America safer with it because we won't have to go to war to put gas in my car!!!!!

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American/Foreign tag for cars doesn't mean much because Ford's are built in Mexico and Honda's in Ohio.

 

[Sigma4Life]

I was totally disgusted with the idea of owning an American made car until Tesla came around. +1,000,000,000,000,000 to the OP

 

[SUPRKAR]

Same here. I never thought I would buy another American car after an extremely poor experience with a Cadillac back in 85.

You too, 85 was my last Cadi. I then became the anti GM. I am as proud as can be when I tell people where this amazing car is made....My father a proud citizen of the USA used every opportunity to brag about our country. I smile and think of how proud he would be knowing Tesla is made in the USA!!!

 

[mwulff]

Growing up in Scandinavia I would never have considered any american car, compared to the asian and german cars they were all just terrible. Horrible quality, horrible design, insanely bad fuel economy, expensive to maintain (in Europa at least) and the list goes on.

But I love to surprise people and tell them that the Tesla was made in California. It should come with a small sticker 'Made by Tesla in California'.

The build quality is not quite up to BMW levels everywhere, but the drivetrain, battery and software is so far ahead of the game that it is truly revolutionary.

And we love our Tesla, and everybody who tries one wants one. Impressive indeed.

 

[Ride Long]

Not only is my Tesla 85D the most amazing car I've owned. I'm making America safer with it because we won't have to go to war to put gas in my car!!!!!

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American/Foreign tag for cars doesn't mean much because Ford's are built in Mexico and Honda's in Ohio.

The automotive industry in 2015 is a truly global enterprise. The companies we think of as 'American' (Ford, GM) build many vehicles outside the US while 'foreign' (Toyota, Nissan, BMW, Mercedes etc) build many vehicles in the US. A big chunk of the Tesla (the battery) is foreign, at least until the Gigafactory comes online. I don't begin to know how to characterize an enterprise like Fiat-Chrysler.

The more interesting thing is that I think it most likely that for the first time in almost a century a completely new auto manufacturer will survive, and it's in the USA. It shows that the US can still be a leader in technology, design and manufacturing. It shows that value is not created through some race-to-the-bottom approach involving virtual slave labor. If only the US were to follow the lead of some European countries and at least attempt to price in the true cost of fossil fuel use the differences would be even more dramatic.

It's yet another reason to be optimistic about the future of mankind.

 

[BoerumHill]

77.5%, tied for 13th

Stars, Stripes, and Steel: The 15 'Most American' Autos of 2014

I chuckled at the poster who tells people its made by a South African. By birth, yes. Naturalized since 2002, as most know. But interestingly, has American roots on his maternal side - ancestors who fought on both sides of the ACW.

 

[deonb]

I wonder if the battery can put it above the 87.5% of the F150.

Unfortunately it's heavily dependent on electronics, which is never going to be American-made.

 

[Dborn]

Some of the parts come from really strange places. In particular, all dash plastics, trim pieces are moulded in Turkey!! They couldn't be moulded in the USA or better still, in house? I mean Tesla does make plastic parts in house.

 

[jcaspar]

I wouldn't have bought it if it wasn't American. I hate sending all our money overseas and weakening our economy. My recent American cars have all been very reliable. (1993 K2500, 1997 Dodge Viper, 2012 Ford Explorer). The only European car I have ever owned was a Volvo XC90 which had so many problems, particularly safety related suspension issues, I couldn't believe it. Totally soured me on european cars such that I will probably never go back, with the exception of a Ferrari F360 or F430 once the MS is payed off.:smile:

I think where a car is assembled is far less important than where the home company is located. The Japanese have always conned us with this. Send the parts over to the US and have a few people assemble them while all the designers, engineers, parts manufactures are back in Japan, and all the profits go back to Japan. And people think they are helping our economy by buying such a car. I would be willing to wager that a car from a US manufacturer assembled in Mexico helps our economy overall FAR more than a Japanese car assembled in the US.
One of the best days of my life was when we dumped that Volvo for the Ford. Increased my free time on weekends tremendously no having to continually work on that piece of junk !

 

[smilepak]

I was totally disgusted with the idea of owning an American made car until Tesla came around. +1,000,000,000,000,000 to the OP

This I agree. Haven't been too crazy with previously American cars like GM or Ford line, but this one sure home rub

 

[beeeerock]

77.5%, tied for 13th

Stars, Stripes, and Steel: The 15 'Most American' Autos of 2014

I chuckled at the poster who tells people its made by a South African. By birth, yes. Naturalized since 2002, as most know. But interestingly, has American roots on his maternal side - ancestors who fought on both sides of the ACW.

Actually, Canadian on the maternal side - mother is Canadian-born.

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The only European car I have ever owned was a Volvo XC90 which had so many problems, particularly safety related suspension issues, I couldn't believe it. Totally soured me on european cars such that I will probably never go back, with the exception of a Ferrari F360 or F430 once the MS is payed off.:smile:

One of the best days of my life was when we dumped that Volvo for the Ford.

Would it be unfair of me to point out that the Volvo might have been built while Ford owned the company? Pre-Ford Volvo's were amazing and I owned a few. Extremely solid and extremely reliable. Ford's involvement was the beginning of the end... now that a Chinese company owns them, I suspect they're pretty much toast. Too bad though.