He means that people have the freedom to choose what car they want to drive. He also never said that you have no right to say what you want to say. You, on the other hand, say that Americans should drive American cars. Well, let me enlighten you - Chevy and Ford make their cars in Mexico and Canada, and Chrysler's a German company.
Meanwhile (and check out these brand new statistics I've read today in a British magazine), Honda, Toyota, and Nissan run 17 plants in North America, with more to come. Toyota produces 1.4 million examples of nine different products here each year, and employs a staggering 32,000 Americans. Additionally, it spreads $19bn to its in-house supplier base, meaning $19bn for the economy. Now, Chevy, as an example, has switched Tahoe and Suburban production mainly to Mexico where the workers are paid $2 (or less) per hour.
I don't want to get into a debate over which is better - I love cars from all over the world (and have owned cars from four countries of the six or seven that supply to the United States) but the plain fact is that generalizing over which cars are better is stupid. Every country that builds vehicles has a share of nice vehicles and a share of not-so-nice vehicles. Saying that all American people should buy American cars does two things - it brings up a nationalism not seen since Nazi Germany, and it leaves American people wihout a basic freedom (freedom of expression).
Just because last week you finally sold off your Japanese car doesn't mean that this week it's time to turn around and bash it. Mature a bit, will you?
What was Honda thinking.
