Toyota Camry tops this year's Cars.com American-Made Index
Cars.com has once again published its annual American-Made Index that rates vehicles built within the United States based on their sales and percentage of domestic parts content. This year's list has a number of movers and shakers based mainly on the fact that a troubled economy has torpedoed sales of some models and others are now ineligible because their parent brands are being canceled.
The Ford F-150 has lost its top ranking in the American-Made Index for the first time since Cars.com began producing the list back in 2006. The new No. 1 is – gasp – the Toyota Camry. Assembled in Georgetown, KY and Lafayette, IN, the Camry's upswing in domestic parts content helped it barely edge out the F-150, which has seen both its sales and domestic parts content fall year-over-year. Toyota, in fact, had four models make the American-Made Index this year including the Sienna, Tundra and first-timer Venza.
General Motors placed the Chevrolet Malibu, Silverado and GMC Sierra, while Ford had the aforementioned F-150, and list newcomer Ford Taurus, which enjoys the highest domestic parts content of 90 percent. No Chrysler vehicles made the top ten, although one Honda did: the Lincoln, AL Odyssey has an 80 percent domestic parts content rating and thus sewed up the #10 spot. You can view the full list after the jump and visit Cars.com to read more about how the index was produced.
[Source: Cars.com]
The Cars.com American-Made Index
1. Toyota Camry – Georgetown, Ky.; Lafayette, Ind.
2. Ford F-150 – Dearborn, Mich.; Claycomo, Mo.
3. Chevrolet Malibu – Kansas City, Kan.
4. Honda Odyssey – Lincoln, Ala.
5. Chevrolet Silverado 1500 – Fort Wayne, Ind.
6. Toyota Sienna – Princeton, Ind.
7. Toyota Tundra – San Antonio, TX
8. GMC Sierra 1500 – Fort Wayne, Ind.
9. Ford Taurus – Chicago
10. Toyota Venza – Georgetown, Ky.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Luis 12:39PM (6/30/2009)
This is not a huge surprise.
Reply
zamafir 12:56PM (6/30/2009)
nope, no news here. If you want a competitive, long lasting, american made car spend that patriotic dollar on a camry. Plus it's a convenient topic to bring up whenever anyone talks about american build quality. It's not the workers, it's the decisions made at the higher levels, as cars like this and the X5 prove.
alex 3:58PM (6/30/2009)
this list is retarded. why the hell is it based on sales, but not based on where design/engineering took place? With these rankings you could have 2 cars built in the USA, with the same % US content... one designed/engineered in the US with low sales and one designed/engineered abroad with high sales... and the vehicle engineered abroad is deemed more american? that's ridiculous. what the hell does sales have to do with how american the car is?
audi_arena 8:01PM (6/30/2009)
@ alex
I agree. Expecially since development makes up such a big percentage of the costs.
tuxchown 8:09PM (6/30/2009)
How easily everyone forgets.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2007/01/toyota_sludge_settlement.html
ultimatemxcn 1:56PM (7/01/2009)
Umm...... Toyota has design and engineering facilities here in California. Don't get me wrong I don't know where this car was designed. But it could have EASILY been designed, engineered, and built by Americans here in the U.S.
the4thheat 3:45PM (7/01/2009)
@alex
Because then the list would be biased towards very volume cars, since it's a lot easier to have a 100% domestic content if you build 1000 cars a year.
This way it reflects the impact on the US economy, including people who build cars and build car parts. Because building parts for 400,000 cars is a bigger economic impact than getting an order for 1000 parts.
I think their formula isn't just straight up sales multiplied by percentage though or a lot of other cars would probably be on top. But ignoring the fact that one vehicle sells half a million units a year and the other one sells 10,000 would be pretty silly too.
tanooki2003 1:07AM (7/02/2009)
I'm not surprised either
merlot066 12:09PM (7/13/2009)
As Randy or somebody else said a while back, "A Pontiac built in Australia is more American than a Honda built in Ohio". The D3 make a lot of their cars in America, and the ones they don't they make nearby in Canada or Mexico. The fact of the matter is that the D3 are based in America, so their profits stay in America. If Ford makes $500 million profit, they pay whatever the tax is on $500 million dollars to the American government. If Toyota makes that, it goes to Japan.
Bobmarley 12:41PM (6/30/2009)
5/10 are Japanese!? ...sorry had to state the obvious
Reply
Jake 12:41PM (6/30/2009)
"the Lincoln, AL Odyssey has an 80 percent domestic parts content rating "
Had to read this about 3 times before I got it. Kind of Ironic to manufacture your product in a town that shares the name of a competing brand.
Reply
Luis 12:45PM (6/30/2009)
Kind of ironic to have a town in a Confederate state named after Lincoln.
Joe K. 12:45PM (6/30/2009)
Yeah, it reads like the lincoln model is an AL Odyssey...
compy386 3:01PM (6/30/2009)
Step 1: Change name of small town to Toyota
Step 2: ?
Step 3: Profit
Randy915 5:12PM (6/30/2009)
Toyota, AL..... has a nice ring to it.
bdubsee 12:46PM (6/30/2009)
The Camry will NOT be an American car until Toyota moves its headquarters to the United States. As long as the profit and intellectual property are held in Japan, it is a Japanese car made by a Japanese automaker in America.
Reply
The Other Bob 12:50PM (6/30/2009)
Not to knock the ones that are assembled here, but we need to point out that a large number of Camrys and Corollas are still imported from Japan. They will have close to zero domestic content.
phez 12:53PM (6/30/2009)
"... based on their sales and percentage of domestic parts content." As in, toyota buys parts from, ahem, America; builds the car in, ahem, America; and pays, ahem, Americans to sell the car. Not to mention those working at, ahem, Toyota of America.
By your comment, I'm afraid what you'll do when you find out how much of the computer you're posting on is [not] made in America.
Erik 12:54PM (6/30/2009)
This is very true, and a lot of people do not recognize the importance of factors other than the loaction of assembly of the parts and whole. That being said, the name of this list is "American-Made," so I would argue that Camry belongs on it.
Luis 12:55PM (6/30/2009)
YTD Camry sales are 120k domestic, 3k imported. So that's insignificant.
Corolla didn't make the list. About 20% of Corollas are imported.