http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130514/OEM04/130519952/honda-to-convert-ohio-seat-plant-for-acura-nsx-output#axzz2TN4aZwjl
The Marysville Ohio plant for Honda will invest $70 million to transform it into the new NSX. Mr. Scott Whitlock, who was the plant manager when it first opened, informed us that the plant would be transformed into the new NSX plant. This is very exciting because I find this car to be very interesting. The old NSX was very unique looking and was an incredible car. The new NSX in terms of looks takes it to a whole new level. I thought Acura’s commercial with Leno and Seinfeld was brilliant and discussed it with Mr. Whitlock.
Mr. Whitlock’s story was very interesting; he started as Columbus real estate lawyer who succeeded the first manager that died unexpectedly within the first few months of production. Though Mr. Whitlock had little experience in the auto industry he felt at home in the Honda plant because they held the same values as his law firm; built on trust and respect and valuing what people said as stated in the 2009 article “Honda’s U.S. hiring pitch: No experience needed.”
It will be interesting to see how the NSX holds up against other cars in its same entry level price and the performance and quality it brings. Also, I am almost positive that Leno and Seinfeld will be some of the first people spotted around cities driving them.
The question that I have after reading this post is to what extent making the NSX in the US is for marketing reasons. How much do people care about where a car is made? Will Honda sell many more NSX vehicles because they are built here? Personally, I care much more about how well a car is built than where it is built. If cars built in Germany, for example, tend to be better made than cars in the United States, I’d sooner buy a car built in Germany.
I agree to an extent with Blake, that where a car is made says a lot about its quality. At the same time though, many Americans believe that products made or assembled in America should be bought over products from other countries, especially those in Asia. Since Lexus is a Japanese automobile company I think this is a good strategy for them to move this plant to the U.S. and to an extent is a marketing strategy. Mercedes-Benz has a plant in Tuscaloosa that produces the M-Class, GL-Class, R-Class crossover and will soon produce the C-Class sedan. This creates a lot of jobs in Tuscaloosa and still carries the name of German engineering, to my knowledge when the plant opened up sales of these models did not drop because of them being made in the U.S.
After further research, a correction is needed to my prior comment. M, GL, and R Classes were first manufactured in the U.S. and are still made only in the U.S., although 2012 was the last real year for the R Class. ML and GL do use some components from Germany but most of the content is from the U.S. They are shipped all over the world and demand for the current models exceeds supply.
Plants of Japanese firms in the US often exceed those in Japan in quality; the issue is in part workers – those in the US are generally motivated and many have experience with machinery, relative to new hires in Japan – but lies with suppliers and managers. Maintaining quality is something you can learn how to do.
But more important is what this tells us about the likely impact of the yen: that Japanese firms are risk averse and want to locate production where they sell vehicles. See my extended comment to the following post: The World’s Largest Automaker: Toyota where I suggest a set of empirical tests for whether the weak yen will hurt the US / help employment in Japan. Japanese firms continuing to add capacity in NAFTA rather than in Japan is one such test.
Another factor to consider is where will Honda be selling this car. If 75% of all NSX’s to be produce are slated to be sold in the US market then it makes more sense to produce here. More interesting then where the car will be built, to me, is the business case for it in general. As a car enthusiast I cannot wait for another NSX, the original will always be on my “must have list.” That being said, as a consumer I dont see Acura as a “sporting” brand like the were in 1990-2005 (Originally NSX run) and so I see little marketing advantage of this sports car over a halo luxury car.
Well this cool NSX, Is this right NSX marketed throughout the world, look very convincing exterior of this sedan type vehicle