How Best to Measure an American-Made Auto?

By Matthew McMullan
Jun 29 2015 |
Is this the home of the most American-made car auto there is these days? | Photo by flickr user Mike Mozart

It’s all in the details.

This week, Cars.com released its annual American-Made Index, which rates – you guessed it – just how Made in America many popular car models are.

What ranked at the top? The Toyota Camry, which is assembled in Kentucky and Indiana.

That stands in contrast to another list, produced by American University’s Kogod School of Business, that attempts to answer the same question. The 2015 Made in America Auto Index determined that the most American-made car out there was a six-way tie between a number of GM models – the Buick Enclave, Cadillac CTS, and Chevrolet Corvette among them.

So why the discrepancy? The difference, as always, is in the details.

The Cars.com index lists a few of the factors included in its index score: Whether the car was assembled in the United States, U.S. sales, and the percentage of parts considered domestic under federal regulations — compiled data that was mandated by the 1992 American Automobile Labeling Act (AALA).

The Cars.com index doesn’t list models that fall under an AALA content rating of 75 percent. The result? There are only seven cars listed on the Cars.com index, and among them the Camry is king.

But is the Camry really the king of the car campground?

Not so fast, Kemosabe. As both Cars.com and the Kogod indexes note, there are limitations to that AALA data. Thee AALA lumps Canadian and U.S. content together, and cars with very little actual domestic content may be allowed to use labels from vehicles with a higher content rating — if they come from the same carline.

So to paint a more complete picture, the Kogod index gets creative. In addition to the AALA data it awards points based on assembly location; inventory, capital, and other expenses; where a model’s R&D takes place; in which country the automaker’s corporate headquarters are located; and where each model’s engine and transmission are made.

With all of those different data points included, the Kogod Index places the Camry in a four-way tie for ninth place.

It’s worth noting, as Cars.com does, that American auto exports are up, Toyota sells a lot of Camrys, and that means a lot of Camry-making jobs in Kentucky and Indiana. But that’s not everything, counters the Kogod study. While foreign manufacturers’ increase in American sourcing and production is laudible the study’s author writes, it’s not everything:

The true impact of these activities on the U.S. economy is reduced by the repatriation of profits back to the automaker’s home country, and by limitations in the amount of R&D activities performed in the U.S.

Which index should you use, if you’re in the market for an American-made automobile? Take a look at each one, and make an informed decision.