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Buying American is Not Limited to the Big Three

Do you want the quality of a foreign car but want to buy American to support the workers and the economy? A lot of consumers may not know that a lot of foreign cars are built in plants in the U.S. and provide jobs for tens of thousands of Americans.

"We make them here and they’re built by American citizens and increasingly we’re designing them here," said Kim Custer, spokesman for the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers, which represents Toyota, Mitsubishi, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai, Kia, Isuzu, and Subaru.
"In fact, 55 percent of the vehicles our companies sell here are built here," he said. "More than half of our sales are products made here, and we consider ourselves part of the American auto industry. We have about 95,000 employees around the country."
Honda has plants in Marysville and East Liberty, Ohio, in Lincoln, Ala. and Greensburg, Ind. Honda’s plants employ about 14,000 people in the U.S.
Toyota makes its Camry, Camry Hybrid, Solara, Avalon and Venza models at its plant in Georgetown, Ky., where it employs about 7,000 people. Another 5,500 Americans work at Toyota’s Freemont, Calif. plant and 4,500 work at its Princeton, Ind. plant. Toyota will have almost 21,000 employees in its U.S. plants when its Blue Springs, Miss. facility (currently under construction) opens in late 2010, FOX News reports.
BMW, Mitsubishi, Mercedes-Benz, Subaru, Nissan and Hyundai also have U.S. plants that employ American autoworkers. Volkswagen and Kia will soon.
"People should not discriminate against a product simply because it bears the logo of an international company," Mitsubishi spokesman Dan Irvin said. "Besides, Mitsubishi Galants, Eclipses, Spyders and Endeavors are built in the heartland of Illinois with a union workforce."