There's a short article in last week's Economist about this, calling it a new phenomenon, but it isn't, really. This has been going on for years.
This is part of the general shift toward outsourcing which was discussed when you all were talking about the GM strike and about temp workers. The car companies hire contract manufacturers to sell them the parts. These manufacturers, in turn, hire a company to do the research and development to create the stuff. This company then hires my company, since there aren't enough engineers at the manufacturers. Once the design is done, the manufacturer has the stuff created either in the US, Europe, or Asia, from parts made anywhere else. It would be almost impossible to keep the origins of parts straight.
We have also worked, through our American contacts, on designs for Swedish, German, and English cars, and the system has always been the same.
And the different layers of the process *must* get put in there somewhere, though I've never been clear on whether the automotive companies save or lose money in the end. At least it gives us a job!
Julie Shearer julie at siliconengines-ltd.com
William S. Lear wrote:
> My assumption was that the
> high-dollar cars were more likely to be "pure" Toyotas. Do the
> Germans do the same thing?
>
> Bill