Fewest vehicles ever found eligible for Most American survey

Mon, 30 Jun 2014

Once again, the most American car on the market is from an American brand. The Ford F-150 retained its number one spot in Cars.com's annual survey of the most American vehicles, trumping the Toyota Camry, which remains at number two.

Ford taking the top spot is small consolation, though, as the Detroit Three aren't too well represented here. General Motors scored a win at number seven, with the Chevrolet Corvette, while Chrysler squeaked in at number ten, with the Dodge Viper. Outside of those three vehicles, Toyota and Honda dominate the top ten.

What's most remarkable, though, is that there were so few cars available for this year's list.

"Only ten 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 US is up, but parts are coming from all over the world, making the notion of classifying cars as 'American' more difficult than ever."

In addition to the smaller batch of cars, the bottom four (Corvette, Honda Ridgeline, Honda Crosstour and Viper) are all first timers for the Most American study.

How did these results develop, though? Well, in addition to their final assembly location, Cars.com takes into account parts content, eliminating cars with a parts distribution below 75 percent American. All cars must be built in the US, while discontinued models need to have a US-built successor heading to market.

Take a look below for the full press release and list of winners from Cars.com.

Ford F-150 Ranks "Most American" In Annual Cars.com American-Made Index
Fewest Cars Eligible in Index's Nine-Year History

CHICAGO, June 30, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Cars.com, the premier online resource for buying and selling new and used cars, today released its annual American-Made Index, with the Ford F-150 taking the top spot for the second year in a row. The ranking takes into account three factors to determine how "American" cars are, including domestic-parts content[1] (percentage of a vehicle's parts considered to be "domestic," meaning built in the U.S. or Canada), final assembly point, and overall vehicle sales.

"We uncovered a pretty remarkable phenomenon when compiling this year's list," said Patrick Olsen, Cars.com Editor-in-Chief. "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. 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."

While the top two spots on the index remain the same from previous years, the bottom of the list introduces four models that are first-timers to the Index. Additionally, this year's index leans heavily towards foreign automakers, which fill seven of the top 10 spots.

"This is a drastic shift from the past," said Olsen. "For several years, there was a pretty even split between domestic and foreign automakers on the list. For the past two years, three GM crossovers made up about 30 percent of the list, however they've dropped below the requisite domestic parts content and, as a result, Toyota and Honda really dominate."

Rank	Make/Model	Manufacturer	U.S. Assembly Location(s)	Rank in 2013
1	Ford F-150	Ford	Dearborn, Mich.; Claycomo, Mo.	1
2	Toyota Camry	Toyota	Georgetown, Ky.; Lafayette, Ind.	2
3	Honda Odyssey	Honda	Lincoln, Ala.	4
4	Toyota Sienna	Toyota	Princeton, Ind.	5
5	Toyota Tundra	Toyota	San Antonio, Texas	7
6	Toyota Avalon	Toyota	Georgetown, Ky.	10
7	Chevrolet Corvette	General Motors	Bowling Green, Ky.	-
8	Honda Ridgeline	Honda	Lincoln, Ala.	-
9	Honda Crosstour	Honda	East Liberty, Ohio	-
10	Dodge SRT Viper	Chrysler	Detroit, Mich.	-

"The top spot on the American-Made Index has gone back and forth between the Ford F-150 and Toyota Camry for several years," said Olsen. "This year's ranking showed little change to the top of the list with the F-150 and Camry continuing to take the top spots thanks to strong sales for both models and no change in their domestic-parts content. This is the second year in a row that the F-150 is being considered the 'Most American' vehicle and its fifth time in the number one spot since the index was created nine years ago."

For full results, additional content and more information about the 2014 American-Made Index, visit www.cars.com or blogs.cars.com.

ABOUT THE AMERICAN-MADE INDEX

Cars.com's American-Made Index rates vehicles built and bought in the U.S. Factors include the percentage of parts considered domestic under federal regulations, whether the car is assembled in the U.S. and U.S. sales. We disqualify 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.

ABOUT CARS.COM

Cars.com is an award-recognized online destination for car shoppers that offers information from experts and consumers to help buyers formulate opinions on what to buy, where to buy and how much to pay for a car. Cars.com offers thousands of new and used vehicle listings, expert and consumer reviews, side-by-side comparison and build and price tools, photo galleries, videos, unbiased editorial content and many other resources. As the 2013 "Highest Ranked Third-Party Automotive Mobile Site" by J.D. Power, Cars.com puts millions of car buyers in control of their shopping process with the information they need to make stress-free buying decisions. Launched in June 1998, Cars.com is a division of Classified Ventures LLC, which is owned by leading media companies, including A.H. Belo (NYSE: AHC), Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), The McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI), Tribune Company (OTC:TRBAA) and The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO).

By Brandon Turkus