[clarebear]

My retired father-in-law who lives in a suburb of Detroit got a car that was not manufactured by the by the Big Three a couple years ago. He felt so much social pressure that he quickly returned it and got one that was. He told me that some "foreign" cars would be egged in his neighborhood. I put foreign in quotes, as big three cars are not always manufactured in the US and sometimes other cars are manufactured here. But if you are from Detroit, where the headquarters is and the profits go back to matters most, and tangibly matters.

[untothebreach]

and friend of mine's father drives around Flint, MI in a Honda Civic with the license plate "GMLEFT." Needless to say, he has frequently had to deal with vandalism. The truth hurts.

[phurley]

I live in a Detroit suburb, a large number of the residents here are engineers, many for GM, Ford and Chrysler, but quite a few for Toyota, Hyundai and other foreign suppliers (like Bosch and Yazaki). I see many domestic, but almost as many imports here.

I think a lot of the stigma is gone, certainly there is considerable pressure for people to drive their employers vehicle to work, but at least in my (relatively upscale) neighborhood, I would feel no social pressure against, and I bet I would have a bunch of engineers come visit, if I dug up a 100k and put a Tesla in my driveway.

[zenocon]

Agree. I worked for one of these three companies for a span. While I was there, they did have a rule that if you're not driving their car, you can't park it in the covered parking lot. That was the extent of the backlash, and I've lived in this area most of my life. I think a lot of these stories and anecdotes about tires getting slashed, and people being harassed for driving foreign are not accurate today.

[67726e]

I think part of that might be the crowds you hang with. I would expect petty vandalism more from blue collar types than I would engineers and other professional types.

[imroot]

I've been a contractor for one of the Big 3 at one point in the early 2000's. I was given a Kia at Enterprise to drive, and when I came out on my first day, it was encased with no less than 300 pallets and shrinkwrap.

Apparently, they forgot to tell me that you shouldn't drive a non-UAW vehicle onto the parking lot.

Enterprise's Roadside Assistance guy was not happy with me when he had to help me pull the pallets away so I could get my vehicle out.

[busyant]

I agree that there's not a stigma for driving a foreign car around Detroit anymore.

Interestingly, my father worked for Chrysler outside of Detroit from the late 1950s into the 1970s.

And oddly enough, he drove a VW Beetle in the 1960s. As you can imagine, when things were good, he was just viewed as the eccentric guy who drove a puny foreign car (why would anybody in their right mind do that?).

In the 1970s (and 1980s) doing something similar was probably a moderately dangerous move.

I've been back many times during my life and in the 1990s and onward, I see plenty of foreign cars.

[hueving]

There is a big difference between the big 3 and dealers. In fact, wiping the requirements for this middlescum would help the big 3 as well.

[mikeash]

But does the Average Michigan Joe understand that?

[carsonreinke]

That is a bunch of BS, this is not Detroit of the 70s, that stuff doesn't happen. People drive foreign cars around just like any other area.

[NoPiece]

In Michigan, 79% of new cars purchased are Ford, GM, or Chrysler. In California, 22%.

http://wot.motortrend.com/patriotic-car-shopping-which-state...

[carsonreinke]

Yes, of course there is going to be more, people usually work for those companies and get discounts. Vandalism, aggression, nope.