Check out FORD's new plant in Brazil!!!

[Carl242]

I suspect a large part of this facility will be used to making cars from the Brazilian and South American market. Just as the many fords that are made for the Euro market are made in, well, Europe.

[randyzimmer]

re: rain forest

I listened 3x and I quote,

"...amid the remnants of the Atlantic rain forest..."

Being on the shore, I'd have to guess this was the first area to be cleared and it probably happened long before 2001.

My read of the above is it'd be like stating that it was built on an abandoned strip mine.

[CruisingAZ]

Originally Posted by Smart Enuf

If Ford made the smart, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

That's Chevrolet

[Dave Van]

Ford's doing job one....stay in business! The main reason that plant is not here is the UAW....which is bent on self destruct. Go back to the old days?!?! NO!! But at times we cripple US companies with 'GREEN' laws, many of which miss there intended purpose, and unions not willing to move into the global economy we now work in. This thread will also self destruct very soon
as I have never seen a topic like this not do so in all my internet years.

[Carl242]

Good point Randy. I was just in the Northeast of Brazil and there isn't a whole lot of Atlantic RainForest left. Unlike the Amazon most of this was decimated when the country was first colonized. Its all sugar cane plantation as far as the eye can see, and most of the biodiversity in the Atlantic RainForest is already gone.

[saskdiesel]

The UAW and CAW have killed the North American auto industry. Thanks Buzz Hargrove!
No way can they afford to pay 80-90 an hour with benefits.
A CAW employee makes $34-$45 an hour + $40 in benefits?
No wonder the Big Three are moving elsewhere.

[bottlerocket]

Originally Posted by saskdiesel

The UAW and CAw have killed the North American auto industry. Thanks Buzz Hargrove!
No way can they afford to pay 80-90 an hour with benefits.
A CAW employee makes $34-$45 an hour + $40 in benefits?
No wonder the Big Three are moving elsewhere.

I have to agree.

I believe in unionizing workers but I hate hearing how this power has been abused to the point that auto assembly workers get paid so much money.

This goes for longshoremen too...

[curtis]

I was wondering if anyone was going to point out what Randy did about them building on a plot that "was" a rain forest, Ford didn't get rid of the forest. Also, If people don't want to go back to the good old days then the unions better not want pay like the good old days. Either way I don't care, I could give one S#!t about Detroit, I will never buy a car built in that town or any other US city for that matter. I live in the midwest and the last thing I wanna do is plop down $20,000 on a car built buy a guy who spent the weekend drunk and is building my car on a monday morning and with the UAW and the Car companies at war all the time you think the workers really have that much pride in what they are making? I don't.

[MPrice2984]

What happens when we Americans can no longer afford the products our own companies sell? I am not pro union by any stretch. Most young Americans cannot afford a new car much less a home of any kind. I am buying the smart because it is what I cannot get any where else. US manufacturers have no interest in designing, manufacturing cars that the general public can buy.
The average new manufacturing wage in America is under $20 an hour now. The plant that Ford is going to build Fiestas in in Mexico will be paying $2.25 an hour to it's assembly workers who will never be able to buy one. Alan Mullally, the president of Ford made $30 million last year.
Who's the bad guy folks? At least smarts workers make a livable wage.

[curtis]

people always said that about China too but now they have an exploding economy and people are buying autos left and right, they even went as far as to ban motorcycles in one city because so many people are driving cars and their accidents are through the roof between cycles and cars. I guess those little kids working in sweat shops are buying cars!