Just because its made here doesnt mean its helping us any, BUY AMERICAN!

TOYOTA SPINS IT THEIR WAY

November 10, 2003

If Toyota was counting on NASCAR competitors rolling over and playing dead while they sashay their imported ideals onto the scene, they don’t know Jack, Roush that is.
In a recent USA Today interview Jack Roush spoke his mind about Toyota coming to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2004. Roush had the courage to speak the truth and fans should heed his opinion. Toyota fired back with a response.

Jack Roush said, “Americans shouldn’t buy Japanese cars. When we’re faced with the prospect of having somebody come into our world and strip our economy of its essence, and go convey that for interests that are abroad, then we’re not doing the right things for our country. If we’re forced, based on the fact that we can’t be competitive or that their consumers won’t buy as many things from our manufactures and our workers as we buy from theirs, well, then there’s a train wreck coming.”

USA Today managed to round up, and dust off Toyota's available spin doctor in an effort to insult Jack Roush, whose NASCAR Cup team has won the NASCAR Winston Cup championship this season.

From the basement of Toyota headquarters, came a response in regard to a man that helped shape the NASCAR Cup series we know today. The highly spun words from the foreign transplant company outlined a commitment to “creating new jobs and economic benefit” in North America. You will be hard pressed to find a statement from Toyota that isn’t highly spun. The word “diversity” is used a lot, not so much in this response but you can catch it in their mission statements.

Jack Aust, Toyota Vice President said, “Jack Roush is a respected and formidable NASCAR competitor, but it appears he has been misinformed about Toyotas positive business impact in the U.S. and our approach to the Craftsman Truck Series. Approximately two out of three Toyota and Lexus vehicles sold in North America are built here.”

So, we have Roush suggesting actual documented concerns as stated in case study after case study including one from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University but, Roush is misinformed according to Toyota. The spin comes in the form of a grouping of words suggesting, “positive business impact and economic benefit.”

OK, first off Aust, in believing that you are a Vice President at Toyota, I wonder why you insist on using the word “approximately.” See? That’s been part of the problem with your little car company. You can’t seem to put it into actual terms because, if you do, the nasty truth rises to the top like the fish wrapper USA Today located in an I-85 rest stop trash barrel.

The next problem I have with your so-called approach is the term “built here.” See Aust? That’s another term, like “assembly” your foreign car company tosses around in order to create a smoke screen for Americans in need of a job to feed their family. The UAW has known it for years and maybe its time we remind NASCAR race fans about the truth.

Lets have a look at what “two out of three” and “positive business impact” really equates to Aust. I bet two-out-of-three, I can pin Toyota to the mat.

It’s the Americanization of Toyota and if it were not for President Ronald Reagan realizing such, America would be in more trouble than we are now. Reagan understood the game Toyota was, and still is playing when he imposed auto (voluntary) trade restrictions. In January of 1981 American auto manufactures were losing billions of dollars due to the fact that imported autos from Japan were flooding the market. This was among the first legislation signed by Reagan in an effort to protect America from companies like Toyota. What Jack Aust won’t expand upon is the fact that America has import restrictions on Toyota. Anybody can drape themselves in the American Flag..Aust, that doesn’t make them American.

Bill Clinton was forced to limit the number of Lexus cars entering American ports and that’s the ONLY reason Toyota assembles them here. Also in place is a 25% duty on imported trucks. Decades ago, Toyota loop-holed the duty tax by calling their trucks “truck parts” thus by-passing the law. The U.S. felt they needed Japan in what was described as the anti-communist bloc so, the Treasury Department looked the other way.

The restriction duty on imported trucks is the ONLY reason Toyota assembles its trucks in America. It isn’t because Toyota wants to promote a positive business impact, those are empty words spun like imported cotton candy by Vice Presidents at Toyota in an effort to have you think there looking out for your family.

But they are made right here in America, how can that be bad?

Very well planned media propaganda cast upon Americans throughout the years suggested Japanese autos assembled in the United States contain so many American made parts the transplant (Toyota) company is American. Toyota went as far as to add the words “North American” to their name. This company has dressed up in the American flag to the point of being perceived as an American company.

More propaganda tossed around throughout the years was the premise that American cars were in some way inferior to Toyota, thus there is a legitimate need to have the foreign auto maker in this country.