Jeep Made in China

First off, no, Jeep is not made in China. As far as I can gather, Jeeps that will be sold in America will be manufactured in America, and that is the way it will stay. Hooray! I'll get to more on that in a minute.

In the conclusion of my last little article, I mentioned Mitt Romney. I'm not claiming in position in politics. And I don't mean to make any sort of statement in that regard. The reason I brought that up in the Tesla article, is because Romney had referred to Tesla as a failed government energy project. Obviously wrong there.

The Romney camp was wrong again when it came to its claims about Jeep. During last year's election, in a late effort to rally some votes in the always hotly contested state of Ohio, Romney's campaign ran a television advertisement implying that Jeep, which has always been an American-made icon, will be moving its production to China. According to them, this was simply an effort to portray a loss of jobs to China, a nation that competes with us in the marketplace. They say that they weren't insinuating real facts, but rather that this "will be" happening, like in a future-tense, hypothetical, metaphysical sense. Or something like that. 

As you can figure, the goal was to scare voters into thinking that they were going to lose their jobs to China, and somehow the Obama administration had caused this.

They continued to run the ads, and their inaccurate information scared and confused a lot of people.

(This ad campaign later won the Huffington Post "Lie of the Year" Award 2012, simply because it is nothing but untruth.)

Sergio Marchionne, Chrysler's CEO (above), promptly responded. In an e-mail to Chrysler employees, many of which were actually becoming concerned with their own job security because of Romney's false statements, Marchionne wrote, " I feel obliged to unambiguously restate our position: Jeep production will not be moved from the United States to China. It is inaccurate to suggest anything else."

He went on a bit more in the memo:
"North American production is critical to achieving our goal of selling 800,00 Jeep vehicles by 2014... We also are investing to improve and expand our entire U.S. operations, including our Jeep facilities."

Right to the point- you have to like this Marchionne guy.

Mr. Marchionne later said that the efforts made by Jeep as a part of the Fiat-Chrysler family would only strengthen Chrysler in the U.S., not weaken it.

“Jeep is one of our truly global brands with uniquely American roots. This will never change,” he said.

AMERICA

Car Brand Slogans: A Review

Below is a listing of some slogans that were recently used by automotive companies, along with a little nugget of truth about each. Being in marketing, I study these kind of things, and I thought it'd be entertaining for you all to have a glimpse into the mind of a genius.

BMW: “BMW. The Ultimate Driving Machine.”
Audi: “Keeping ahead through technology.”
You have to enjoy the fact that your grammar check will grab you for both of these ads and tell you "nein, your sentence is nicht gut." These slogans are about the same: very assertive, very German, not bad, but not very memorable.

Mercedes-Benz: “Unlike any other.”
Mercedes-Benz is deeply involved in so many different things related to automotive manufacturing; one could really say that they are “unlike any other.” This one is alright.

Alfa Romeo: “Alfa Romeo. Beauty is not enough.”
This slogan is good because it is accurate, not ridiculous boasting or just making up nonsense like most slogans. Alfa really does make truly beautiful cars, so this works. I also love Alfa Romeo so I'm totally biased here.

Ford: “Built Ford Tough”
Effective. You have to admit, it works. My only problem with this is that Ford writes its ads as if their target is car-buying Neanderthals.

Dodge: “Dodge. Grab life by the horns.”
Not great. This ad slogan was written exclusively for high school football coaches.

Chevrolet: “Chevy: an American revolution.”
You can’t really point out a problem with this slogan, but then, you couldn’t repeat it to me two minutes from now either, could you?

Volkswagen: “Relieves gas pains.”
This is a great plan from VW’s marketers – have your customers associate your brand with flatulence.

Toyota: “The car in front is a Toyota.”
            “Toyota. Moving forward.”
When you read the old ad campaign, “The car in front is a Toyota”, you just think - if there is a Toyota in front of me, the accelerator is stuck. Then you read the new, slightly better slogan: “Toyota. Moving forward.” – you still think - of course its moving forward, it can’t stop either.

Saturn: “Saturn. Like always. Like never before.”
A part of this slogan is accurate; like always, your Saturn will be absolute rubbish. Like never before… no it will be embarrassing, like it always was.

(I have enlarged their logo image here so that you can marvel at this absolutely wonderful masterpiece artwork that is the Saturn logo.)

If you have a favorite slogan not seen here, or if I have offended your most beloved car maker in some way, post below in the comment box. I might enjoy reading your submissions.