Why did the car industry's leave the center of detroit?

Question

i want to know why the car industry's left the center in the first place?

Answer 1

Wait a minute, GM headquarters, since the 20's were on the Blvd., and recently have moved to the REN CEN. GM tech center has been in Warren for what 50+ years.

Chrysler Highland Park to Auburn Hills, that was Chrysler headquarters and tech center. The site in HP was poorly designed, old and in desperate need of replacement. It's to bad they didn't rebuild in HP (HP lost prob. 75% of their tax base), but at least they didn't move to BFE.

Ford Headquarters has always been in Dearborn.

The assy., plants have been moving to mexico like crazy, because of extremely lower wages.

Detroit or the Detroit area is where all the design and engineering of the big three happen. The second tier suppliers and their support shops ( all the machine shops like the tool and die,prototype etc., etc., that are having an extremely hard time, because of the FREE trade agreements.

I don't understand why the Governess and other leaders are abandoning the auto industry. there should be tax incentives for these company's! Because without the big 3 Michigan would sink.

I still say Detroit and or Michigan, what a perfect place to build a car.

Answer 2

It's called "corporate flight" and they take some of their jobs to countries with cheap labor and no union.  Employee loyalty means nothing in today's industry.  Factories are closing all over the country for all kinds of industry and moving to China, Mexico, Canada or India.  That's why the unemployment rate is so high and why the housing industry is in the toilet!  Thanks a lot to the money-grubbing-greedy-corporations!  

Answer 3

To answer your question the Car Industry has not left Detroit.

Answer 4

They haven't left Detroit.  Ford, GM, and Chrysler all still have their headquarters, tech centers, plants, and proving grounds in SE Michigan.  Toyota and Nissan have tech centers in SE Michigan.  Many US, European, and Japanese suppliers built their tech centers here too.

Answer 5

Probably the main reason is the industry goes where the populace lives.

The auto industry has been so downsized by the NAFTA agreement that all major industrialized cities are losing their industry and workers.

The industry will move where it can best afford to produce it's product!

Answer 6

Mostly because ever since NAFTA has been started, many major corporations are taking advantage of the freedom to place their facilities on foreign soil where the labor is very cheap along with the property cost.

The out sourcing these companies are creating is called a means of profitability. Profitability is a company's means of reducing as many operational cost as possible to create a larger profit, without having to sell more products and goods. Another example I can give you is WAL-MART, almost all products from WAL-MART are not American made. As a matter of fact, WAL-MART does the worst kind of out sourcing. NON direct, not only do they avoiding purchasing any American products, but they also buy a lot of their products from companies that enforce child labor. So think about that next time you decide to shop at WAL-MART.

Answer 7

Globalization is a key factor (not only for automotive, but all manufacturing).  When you factor the labor costs and the quality of work that can be purchased overseas, the UAW work force will never be competitive.

The state of Michigan is also not the most "business friendly" state from a tax perspective, so many of the manufacturers are choosing not to build new plants here.

Answer 8

Growth goes where the land is and they had the incentive to do so (like tax breaks etc).  Just like ubran sprawl of carbon copy neighborhoods goes so did the Auto Industry.  Factories take up a lot of land and the land that was available was in the outlying suburbs and other cities in the US.  Not all automotive is out of the city, Chrysler is going to invest in the Jefferson plant.  What people don't remember is that GM was founded in Flint and left Flint because Detroit offered so much more.  I also think that automotive plants expanded into other cities and states was to get the cars produced to the lots faster than being in one location.