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CHICAGO, Jan. 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- What makes a car American-made? With recent pressure from President-Elect Donald Trump to manufacture more goods in the United States, including automobiles, Cars.com's annual American-Made Index, which ranks the "most American" vehicles, analyzes just how American today's automakers are based on parts, assembly location and total sales.
Cars.com's most recent index, which was first revealed in June 2016, resulted in just eight American cars. This is down from nearly 30 cars as recently as 2011, a sign that American auto manufacturing has dramatically decreased over the past decade. Even more surprising is that for the second consecutive year and sixth time overall, the Toyota Camry topped the list.
"After reaching an all-time low of just seven cars on the 2015 American-Made Index, this year's list is up one car, but still remains much smaller than earlier indexes, when the list included nearly 30 eligible cars," said Patrick Olsen, Cars.com editor-in-chief.
"The reason for the shrinking list continues to be the globalization of today's automakers. While building the same car for all markets is better for an automaker's bottom line, tracking just how American a car is has become more difficult because so few meet the criteria for our index."
The American-Made Index takes into account three key factors to determine how American cars are, including domestic-parts contenti (percentage of a vehicle's parts considered to be domestic, meaning from the U.S. or Canada), final assembly point and overall vehicle sales.
|
Rank |
Make/Model |
U.S. Assembly Location(s) |
2015 Rank |
|
1 |
Toyota Camry |
Georgetown, Ky., and Lafayette, Ind. |
1 |
|
2 |
Honda Accord |
Marysville, Ohio |
- |
|
3 |
Toyota Sienna |
Princeton, Ind. |
2 |
|
4 |
Honda Odyssey |
Lincoln, Ala. |
4 |
|
5 |
Honda Pilot |
Lincoln, Ala. |
- |
|
6 |
Chevrolet Traverse |
Lansing, Mich. |
3 |
|
7 |
GMC Acadia |
Lansing, Mich. |
5 |
|
8 |
Buick Enclave |
Lansing, Mich. |
6 |
In a consumer survey conducted this month by Cars.com, when asked about reasons for they prefer to purchase from an American manufacturer, 53 percent of respondents indicated it was because they wanted to support the local economy. However, only 13 percent of consumers based their purchase decision on whether a vehicle is from an American manufacturer; that's down from 28 percent just one year ago.ii
"These cars have a significant impact on U.S. auto sales," Olsen said. "The eight cars on this year's list accounted for about 1.5 million U.S. sales in 2015, or about 8 percent of total U.S. car sales."
For more information on the 2016 Cars.com American-Made Index, visit www.cars.com/news.
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i http://www.nhtsa.gov/Laws+&+Regulations/Part+583+American+Automobile+Labeling+Act+(AALA)+Reports
ii Cars.com American Made Study, Qualtrics, June 2016
To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/carscom-reveals-the-real-story-behind-american-made-cars-300386099.html
SOURCE Cars.com