- The recently released 2015 American-Made Index from Cars.com, which ranks cars with at least 75 percent domestic content, has just seven cars on it. That’s down from 29 cars five years ago.
- The top-ranking vehicle, the Toyota Camry, may be made by a Japanese manufacturer, but it rolls off of assembly lines in Georgetown, Ky., and Lafayette, Ind.
For a short time I worked in an insurance agency in a rural-ish town in the mountain west. I got a great laugh out of a wanna be cowboy who strutted in to the office to insure his fancy new Dodge MEGA CAB pickup. When I took the VIN, I remarked "oh cool! This is one of the new line from Mexico" in a faux-excited way. He recoiled and launched into some diatribe about Murica... I smiled, thanked him for coming in and enjoyed knowing that VINs don't usually lie...
As someone who grew up elbow-deep in the guts of America's automotive failures, I find it somewhat perverse that the two cars I'm most interested in the moment - a Cadillac CTS Coupe or a Chevy Corvette - are tied for first place on this list. I currently drive a '95 Dodge Stealth which is a mitsubishi in everything but name. If they were still available, I'd buy another. As it is, there are no AWD coupes that aren't either (A) fuggly or (B) German and having lived in LA for seven years, I'd rather drive something fuggly than something German.
The last vaguely attractive vehicle manufactured by Subaru: Subaru also doesn't understand the cardinal sin of turbo lag. I test-drove a WRX STi and you could put your foot in it... wait... wait... there we go. Subarus are great for when you want to put your accelerator in the bank to make compound interest over the coming fiscal year.
The Darth Vadery obstinacy of the CTS still appeals to me. That, and used they go for about the same with AWD or without. I got plenty of shit to spend too much money on this year and next. If I'm lucky the Dodge will hold out another couple-three years.
Tangential, but does anyone else find those bright red "Related" links incredibly distracting?
I am really interested in hearing the business reasons for making parts overseas, assembling in the US, and then shipping the assembled cars back overseas. I would assume that countries with the infrastructure to produce car parts would have the capability of assembly as well.
Thanks for this. I've been hearing about this a lot lately This American Life just released an episode covering GM's failed attempt to adapt to Japanese manufacturing styles.