Four of Top Five Most American Cars Are Japanese

The Toyota Camry earned the top slot in Cars.com‘s annual American-Made Index. This is the fourth year in a row that the Camry has placed first. The Ford F-150 is in second, with the Honda Accord, Toyota Sienna and Honda Pilot following. Moving outside the top five, the Toyota Tundra took seventh.

The ratings include vehicles that are assembled in the US and have at least 75% of their parts sourced from the US and Canada. They also take sales into account on the basis that more sales equate to more jobs for Americans and more profits for dealers in America. These sales figures create tight competition, shown by the gap between the Camry and the F-150, which is the tightest in the index’s history.

Patrick Olsen, Editor in Chief at Cars.com, said “according to a Cars.com survey we conducted in May, nearly 25 percent do prefer to buy American and nearly half of those people would be swayed to buy a foreign make if they knew it was assembled in the U.S. We do our index every year to make sure shoppers who do factor this into their purchase decision have the right information.”

The data comes from the American Automobile Labelling Act. Since 1994 manufacturers have had to list where a car is assembled, what percentage of the parts come from what country and where the engine and gearbox are made.

The American made vehicle with the highest American parts content, is the Toyota Avalon which is made in Georgetown, Ky. It features 85% American parts with the engine and gearbox both being made in the US. The only vehicle with more domestic parts is the Toyota Matrix, with 95% American parts, but is assembled in Canada and has a Japanese gearbox.

Ranking as the third most American sourced vehicles, the Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana are made in the USA and use 82% domestic sourced parts, but they often used Mexican made transmissions.