A national survey by the Level Field Institute reveals that three out of four Americans are less interested in buying a foreign vehicle once they discover that few domestic parts are used in its production. According to the survey, Americans also expressed concern about where the cars they buy are assembled, where auto parts are made and how many jobs each automaker supports. A national survey of 715 likely car buyers (with a margin of error +/- 3.6) found that 79 percent of Americans are more likely to purchase a car if the manufacturer is based in the United States, while 74 percent say they are more likely to buy a car if the company producing it employs significantly more U.S. workers than its competitors. Seventy-eight percent of those polled said they pay at least "some" attention to where the parts of an automobile are made. "While price, safety and quality will always top the typical car buyer's checklist, 'made in America' still matters," says Jim Doyle, president of Level Field. "That's why nearly every automaker doing business here spends a lot of time and money promoting its U.S. jobs and investments." As car buyers who care about these issues learn more about the differences between automakers, their attitudes about those automakers change — and so does their purchase intent. For example, when respondents were informed that Ford, GM and Chrysler use nearly 2.5 times more "domestic" parts, on average, than foreign automakers, the percentage of car buyers likely to consider buying a domestic car or truck jumped 5 percent (from 79 percent to 83 percent). Meanwhile, the percentage of car buyers likely to consider buying a Japanese automaker's car or truck dropped 17 percent (from 52 percent to 43 percent). Consumers' purchase intent related to European cars and trucks changed only slightly with this new information; with those saying they are unlikely to purchase a European car increasing from 59 percent to 62 percent. Level Field believes the difference between attitudes about Japanese and European automakers is driven by the fact that Japanese automakers have promoted their investments here more effectively than European automakers in recent years. In other words, those favoring Japanese automobiles do so, in part, because they understand that many of their automobiles are assembled here. When those consumers are informed of the difference between domestic automakers and Japanese automakers, their favorability drops. Based on parts data automakers provide the federal government each year, Level Field estimates that domestic automaker fleets use 79 percent domestic content, on average, while foreign automakers' fleets contain 35 percent domestic content, on average. If domestic automakers had reduced their use of domestic content from 79 percent to match foreign automakers, approximately $95 billion in U.S. parts sales would have moved overseas — and between 200,000 and 320,000 auto parts jobs could move with them. Economists estimate that each parts job supports nearly five others. Losing $95 billion in parts sales could therefore cost the U.S. about 1.8 million jobs. |
