Irrelevant 'Most-American Car' Ranking Changes Criteria, If Only to Flesh Out Results

While there are some who still proudly use the old slogan “ Buy American,” the concept is only loosely applicable to automobiles. While you can certainly support American brands, every automobile on the road is an amalgamation of parts from all over the world — and has been for quite some time.

This year, the automotive research website Cars.com, which began ranking the country’s “most-American” vehicles in 2006, was forced to change its criteria after only three models qualified under the old system of measurement.

For 2017, Cars.com has added country of engine origin, country of transmission origin, and U.S. factory employment relative to a company’s sales to its previous criteria of American parts content and final assembly location. It was also forced to lower the overall percentage of domestic parts a car needs to qualify by a full fifteen percent — from 75 to 60 percent.

Read more
  • Kwik_Shift_Pro4X Oof. (again)Not looking good.
  • DungBeetle62 This happened after a run of black cars that lasted Nov 1999 - Jan 2022.And while I like black cars, I had to vote with my dollars so we'll (hopefully) still have a choice
  • Arthur Dailey 'Ere it's a nice little runner.Actually anyone with my log-in/sign-in name and picture absolutely should not be commenting on this article.
  • Arthur Dailey Is the original Legend absolute peak Honda?
  • MaintenanceCosts Curb weight of this version is likely north of 4500 pounds. Expect it to feel like a W221 S-Class, not a sporty coupe.