There's a certain amount of angst in Minnesota's manufacturing sector as Ford announced their St. Paul plant is to be shut down in the coming years. There have been the typical rants in the letters to the editor about people with "support the troops" stickers on their foreign cars, and how we should all be driving domestic. Sorry folks, but I just don't buy it, so to speak.

Not that I have anything against Fords, mind you. In fact, I have a Mercury in my driveway. But what do American consumers actually need? The vehicles manufactured in St. Paul, the Ford Ranger pickup trucks, have been selling less and less every year, and frankly it's not hard to see why. Small pickups are fine, as far as they go, but if you get the larger engine and four wheel drive - and if you're using a pickup as your main vehicle in Minnesota you need four wheel drive for winter - you're really not getting any better gas mileage than in a full size. And with gas approaching $3 a gallon, something that's getting 15 mpg around town just doesn't cut it.

What is a "domestic" car anyway? Ford's Crown Vics are manufactured in Canada, and the Fusion is manufactured in Mexico. Meanwhile Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mercedes, Mazda, Hyundai, etc. all manufacture in the US. Even Kia is building a plant in Georgia. The major brands are so interrelated anyway, I'm not sure "domestic" versus "import" is going to be a meaningful term very far into the future. I'm sorry to see the Ford plant go - it's closing in 2008.

I like Fords, and if I were in the market for a pickup it would probably be a Ford. But for me, a pickup is a want, not a need. And for the few times I genuinely need one I have friends who are happy to lend me theirs. And you can hardly fault the imports for having a better product mix going into times of high fuel prices.

I purchased a car over the weekend - a Volkswagen Jetta TDI. It's tight and nimble as a German sedan should be, and with its turbocharged diesel engine I've got nearly 300 miles on the odometer and haven't used even a half tank of fuel yet.

I've driven diesels before, and they perform just fine. Their power curve is different than a gasoline engine, but it's not worse, just different. With a light foot around town it seldom breaks 2000 RPM and on the highway it pulls the hills just fine in sixth gear. Torque galore. And still enough power, with a heavy foot, to make the tires squeal for mercy.

So I'm sorry for the letter writers, but I just don't get it. I have a sports sedan that rides and handles magnificently while pulling down 40 mpg in town and a solid 50 on the freeway, and I'm supposed to be feeling guilty that I didn't purchase a locally produced tank that won't comfortably fit my whole family, and would cost more than twice as much to run?

How the hell is foolishness "patriotic"?

Crossposted