>>>Bear in mind that one of the reasons for assembling vehicles in the US is that politically it would be a problem if all those vehicles where imported.
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>>True. Now the old stigma against foreign built cars is all but gone. In fact many states, particularly southern ones, enthusiastically lobby foreign carmakers to open plants.
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>>One interesting aspect of all this is that some of the same senators (McConnell of Kentucky, Shelby of Alabama among others) who have opposed the bailout of Detroit were all for subsidies and tax breaks to foreign companies to build in their states.
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>My brother worked in the UK car industry a few years ago and he felt that one thing that happened was that a lot of the design work ended up being done overseas and the UK really was only assembly.

OTOH, the Korean Daiwoo, before they went (where?) had a plant in Worthing, where young apprentices trained and much of the design work for their veh's was done.

I have a bike, made in far east but with a proud Union jack on it and the legend "designed in the UK". Big DEAL!