Living by the motor city I feel too many people are misinformed about that. Just because they assemble it here with some American parts doesn't make it American. Each of the big three have major engineering/technical centers where thousands of people work full time. I am not just talking 2000, I am talking 10 - 15 thousand in one facility. Thats a lot of jobs. Not to mention all of the plants around the entire country that build most of the components that go into these vehicles. There are thousands of plants, each employing hundreds or thousands more people. I used to work in one of those too in IL where we built cam and crank sensors for a lot of GM and Chrysler vehicles until I moved to MI.
They may assemble the Toyota here, but the majority of the parts are foreign, and all the profit goes right back to the foreign country where all the engineers design the stuff, and then they spend your money there.
Every time someone buys a foreign car, I think, that's why I got laid off 3 years ago (got a new job pretty quick luckily). However, when I see a foreign car, I still think, that's a big reason why my house value dropped $100k in the last view years, probably only worth $150k now. All the automotive employees who got laid off and couldn't find another job moved out of MI. Now there are foreclosed houses everywhere that are selling for cheap causing everyone elses houses to be worth crap. Might be stuck with it now. I don'teven work in automotive now, but I know a LOT of people that do/did.
Do the whole country a favor and buy an american car please. The quality is pretty excellent on most all of the cars these days, so don't try that line . American cars don't have any problem stopping either.
And to the OP, to answer your original question. The upside to owning a Toyota is you can always look forward to upgrading to a Chevy later!