Abstract

American consumers take many factors into consideration when choosing a product. One of them being the origin of where a product is made. This case study will observe the statistical number of foreign car imports into the U.S.A during the years of 1969 to 2009. Careful examination will be made of the correlation between the year and the amount of foreign car imports. It will be determined if a precise projection will be possible with the present data.

Key terms: Scatter Plot, Least Square Lines, Linear Relationship, Imports

Is It Made in the U.S.A?

It is uncertain who first coined the phrase “Made in the USA,” but the American Automotive Industry fully adopted the phrase and turned it into movement. Commercials from car manufacturers promote the idea of buying American made vehicles, and lead people to believe that made in the USA vehicles are superior to imported vehicles. However, that has not always been the case. There was once a time where foreign car imports dominated the US automobile industry due to their reliability and their cost effectiveness. In this study we will analyze data and determine if there was a distinguishable pattern in the number of foreign car imports in relationship to the year sold. (Mend pg. 482)

Scatter Plot

To begin, data will be analyzed using a scatterplot for years 1969-1988. This data shows there is no discernible linear correlation among the year and the amount of foreign cars imported. This scatterplot gives us a unique visualization of the relationship between date and number of imports. There is a clear upward linear line that shows a gradual increase in the amount of cars per year with the occasional dip. (Mend pg. 485)