Cars.com returned this year with their American-Made Index, which measures how American a car is based on where it and its parts are manufactured. This year, the Ford F-150 took the top spot, followed by multiple models from Toyota and Honda. The 2014 Corvette Stingray, despite its Bowling Green, Kentucky roots and all-American image, came in seventh and was the only General Motors product in the top ten.
The Corvette sits behind the Toyota Camry and Honda Odyssey followed by the Toyota Sienna, Tundra and Avalon on the list. Not the best showing from GM, but this year there were fewer cars to pick from than in any years prior, not just from the Big Three.
“Only 10 cars were eligible for the American-Made Index this year. That’s the fewest in the study’s nine-year history. In 2013, 14 cars met the threshold, 20 in 2012 and 30 cars the year before that.,” said Patrick Olsen, Editor-In-Chief of Cars.com. “This consistent decline points to global nature of cars these days. Production in the U.S. is up, but parts are coming from all over the world, making the notion of classifying cars as ‘American’ more difficult than ever.”
For the study, Cars.com takes into account the percentage of parts considered domestic under federal regulations, whether the car is assembled in the U.S. or not and its U.S. sales. Models with a domestic parts content rating below 75 percent, models built exclusively outside the U.S. or models soon to be discontinued without a U.S.-built successor are also disqualified. What’s interesting is they do not take into account where the car was designed or engineered.
Head over to Cars.com to see the entire top ten list.
Comment
American parts don’t mean that the car is American. The ownership of the brand is the true origin. Toyotas and Hondas assembled in America are still japanese unless GM bought both and we didn’t know about it!