Toyota only American-made car in Daytona 500
Georgetown is, after all, where the Camry is built and has been since May 1988. Last September, the plant, TMMK — or Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky — passed the 5 million mark in Camry production. The plant is one of the largest in the country, with 7.5 million square feet under one roof, and annually its 7,000 employees crank out more than a half-million Camry sedans, Camry Solara coupes and Toyota Avalons, which are based on Camry platforms. They build the engines here, too.
Workers earn about $30 an hour, $35 an hour for skilled employees. Since the plant was incorporated in 1986, the company has donated more than $26 million to local charities. Yearly payroll tops $500 million. When Toyota made the announcement in December 1985 that it would build this plant, Georgetown won the lottery. Toyota said then it would invest $800 million in the plant. That investment has risen to about $5.5 billion.
To find someone to defend Toyota's entry into the NASCAR Nextel Cup series, look no further than Steve St. Angelo, president of TMMK. "I think it's high time for an American-made car to compete in Nextel Cup," he says.
Ouch! St. Angelo, a 30-year General Motors employee before moving to Toyota in April 2005, is referring to one of Toyota's most popular talking points. It seems the civilian versions of the three cars that compete in the NASCAR Nextel Cup series — the Ford Fusion, Chevrolet Monte Carlo and Dodge Charger — are built in Canada (the Charger, the Monte Carlo) or Mexico (the Fusion).
Of course, pretty much all of the cars and engines that compete in the NASCAR Nextel Cup series are built in North Carolina, some of them by the same companies — you need a frame for your Camry, Fusion, Monte Carlo or Charger, you go buy a frame. It doesn't become a Camry, Fusion, Monte Carlo or Charger until you bolt on that fake body. And even then, they all look pretty much alike until you stick on the headlight and taillight decals. More at Orlando Sentinel