Good morning,
Just got back from the New York Farm Show in Syracuse, N.Y. Cat's booth was right next to ours. I know quite a few of their folks; several of them used to work for me. Half way through the show a guy told to me to go over and look at the Cat race car on display and the pretty girl showing it off. It was a TOYOTA!!!!. Maybe I'm an antiquated redneck and not accepting this "Globalization" but to me this stinks. One of the last great American manufacturers is jumping on the import bandwagon. I couldn't sit still and took a walk over to the Cat booth. I gave them a 5 minute dissertation on the word "UNAMERICAN" and you know, nobody had much to say; they just looked at the floor. Maybe I should collect Olivers.
Packrat

Yes I noticed on TV in the Nascar races this year they do support a race car owners car that,s not American made but a good lot of Cat equip. is made in Japan today & other countries in the world. I remember while working that the D3 was one of the first made in Japan.In my Cat SNID book it lists the country where the machines are made by serial numbers & it,s amazing how much is assembled in these other countries of the world so there isn,t much left that,s completely made here in the USA whether it,s tractors or anything we buy today.No matter how good they are I won,t buy a foreign car but most everything else we buy is made elsewhere so don,t have much choice.

Hard to find anything with total American content unless the raw stock used is being identified. After all all the natural resources primarilary are headed to Japan or China these days. I'll agree it is a sad day. Been saying that for a decade now. Every day in Cincinnati I hear of another business being shuttered and the good folks being laid off to move the business either far south or far east.

Really scarey part is pensions are leaving as well.

When Cat came with the small line it was all suppose to be made here and then shipped to Japan for assembly with a savings of approximately $2,000 or so. That's what I was told when working in the Cat system.

Hey Packrat you might want to do a little research before you go off on a rant in front of others again. TOYOTA IS THE MOST AMERICAN MADE CAR OUT THERE. Yes, I disagree with businesses taking their business outside of the US but we did it to ourselves. If you cant accep that then think about what is causeing them to leave: expensive union contracts, taxes, enviromentalists, labor laws, etc. We are the ones who shot our selves in the foot not these other coutries. Perhaps we should think of ways to get these companies to come back instead of complaining.

Karl

Hey Karl, I couldn't agree with you more on the reasons we are where we are. But, that doesn't mean I'm gonna lay down and give up. I make products overseas and we're kicking their butts. We gotta stop giving away the farm.
Thanks for your input. P.S. You should see me when I really rant.
Packrat

I don't care for foreign-made items either. I think the American things are just as good, and prices are about the same because everybody charges what the market will bear. It's getting harder to find items made here. I don't get worked up over it, I just try to do my little part by buying American, as much as possible.

I have to agree with Karl. The commentators announced during the Daytona 500 that out of all the cars there Toyota was the most American made car. However, over Presidents Day weekend I took advantage of the 0% interest offered by most of the car dealers and bought my wife an SUV. I couldn't bring myself around to buying a foreign name brand car. I stuck with GMC. Frank

I took exception to it too but Cat is Global and looking at the big picture they pretty much had to go along with it.Nascar is a joke these days anyway,it is all marketing and you need to be wealthy enough to be able to afford cable tv if you want to follow all the races and in some cases they are on the premium channels so I will be finding something else to do on sunday afternoons I think.Ron G

Hm...

after all, it is a big deal huh? A American company put's it's decal 'Cat' on a race car, which happens to be a Toyota..

*Maybe it was just the best car around??*

But I guess these kind of things are very imported to think about these days..

I'd rather see the war-issues in Iraq getting solved....



Ah well, maybe it's just my 'stupid' European mind not to pay any attention to these 'problems', and am I maybe one of those persons who just thinks of the (imo) problems more relative to the rest of the world...


Actually, japanese cars are really good. you hardly ever see one down the road here in Europe. Okay, they are not the best looking cars, but that's not the issue right?

I wish you all the best with your 'war' against 'unamerican' related issues.