'American-Made' Quality Still Seen as Inferior

The Detroit Three build plenty of high-quality cars. Buick, Ford and Lincoln scored above average in the latest Vehicle Dependability Study from J.D. Power and Associates, and Cadillac ranked third in the study's rankings. J.D. Power's three-month Initial Quality Study had Cadillac, GMC, Chrysler's Ram trucks and Chevrolet ranking above average.

But a Harris Interactive poll released Wednesday said car owners still view American-made cars as inferior. Of 2,634 U.S. adults polled 35% said they find the quality of such vehicles inferior to those of imported cars, outpacing the 24% who said they find import brands inferior to domestics. However, a larger chunk (42%) deemed quality about the same.

Recent studies don't help Detroit's case. Chrysler's brands ranked near the bottom of J.D. Power's three-year dependability study, though the automaker's sales chief told us last February that new owner Fiat brings a "maniacal" quality focus. Indeed, Chrysler's Jeep division ranked above average in Consumer Reports' latest 28-brand reliability survey, and it was the only Detroit brand to do that.

American-Made Index: Odds and Ends

Compiling the American-Made Index always brings its share of interesting tidbits, and this year had no shortage. Here are a few:

• For 2012, the highest domestic parts content for a single vehicle comes in the Toyota Matrix hatchback. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Matrix hits 95% DPC — a percentage not seen since 2007. But here's the catch: The Matrix isn't even built in the U.S. Toyota assembles the car in Canada. For a variety of reasons, the American Automobile Labeling Act includes Canada as a "domestic" supply source. (That's one reason the AMI uses assembly location as a key determining factor.) Matt Blunt, president of the Detroit Three’s lobbying group, the American Automotive Policy Council, explains: "Canada was included because at the time that AALA went into effect, it would've been very difficult to disentangle what's one of the most integrated bi-national production operations in the world."

American-Made Index: Which Automakers Affect the Most U.S. Workers?

Cars.com's American-Made Index gauges how American a car is on a model-by-model basis, but there are lots of other ways to determine just how American a car is. If you look at raw employment figures, Detroit automakers have a larger footprint in the U.S. than do their foreign-owned competitors — but competition is closing the gap.

Could the Ford F-150 Top Cars.com's American-Made Index?

Cars.com's American-Made Index has become a bellwether in the automotive industry for the past six years. It gauges the impact domestic manufacturing has on the economy on a model-by-model basis.

Because the AMI takes into account not only where a vehicle is built but also what percent of its parts are considered domestic, a few big-name vehicles have been absent from the list in recent years including Ford's best-selling F-150 pickup truck.

PickupTrucks.com is reporting that is about to change.

For 2012, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration lists the F-150's domestic content at 75%, which will likely return the F-150 to the AMI. The 2012 F-150 could even land at No. 1 as it did in the first three years of our ranking.

We say "likely" because the figures released by NHTSA are early estimates that need to be confirmed when real figures are available.

Cars.com’s 2012 American-Made Index will be released this summer when all the facts are in. You’ll have to wait until then to see if the F-150 can unseat the Toyota Camry as the most American-made vehicle.

Toyota Camry, Honda Accord Hold Rank on Latest American-Made Index

The Toyota Camry and Honda Accord retain the top two spots on this year’s American-Made Index, a list that considers where cars are built, how many are sold, and how high their domestic parts content is.

This year marks the sixth time we’ve conducted the AMI, and the Camry tops the list for the third year in a row. None of Detroit’s full-size pickups — the Ford F-150, Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and Ram 1500 — made the list, but the three automakers still account for half of the index. Ford’s redesigned, Chicago-built Explorer hit the ground running with a fourth-place start, and GM fielded three vehicles: the GMC Acadia and the Chevrolet Malibu and Traverse.

We also look at why so many cars — 21 of the top 50 best-sellers — are still imported entirely from Canada, Mexico or overseas. Check out the full list, and leave your thoughts below.

2011 American Made Index

An American Family Goes American-Made on ABC News

Buying American is a noble cause, but it can be difficult to do these days. Armed with Cars.com’s American-Made Index, ABC News reporters David Muir and Sharyn Alfonsi joined the Stewart family from Hillsdale, N.J., as they shopped for a new car, looking for those that would create more jobs for American workers.

The Stewarts considered the Toyota Camry, which finished at No. 1 on the 2010 American-Made Index, and the Ford Escape, which landed at No. 3. ABC News headed to the Ford assembly plant in Kansas City, Mo., and the Toyota plant in Georgetown, KY., to find out which car created the most U.S. jobs. They considered three questions that are crucial to landing a car on our American-Made Index:

Letter to the Editor: Taking Issue With Cars.com's American-Made Index

Dear Mr. Olsen:
The Cars.com compilation claiming to rank vehicles on an "American-Made Index" for readers and consumers is, unfortunately, misleading since the methodology used to screen the list fails to place a premium on the American content of vehicles. Most readers would assume the car ranked first had the highest American content, but that is not the case. The list instead rates vehicles using a methodology that gives weight to the number of cars sold, rather than a data model focused on rating the actual content of the vehicles and its parts.

Hyundai CEO: 80% of Cars Bought Here Will Be Built Here

Hyundai CEO John Krafcik told CNNMoney yesterday he expects four out of every five Hyundai models sold in the U.S. to be built here by the end of next year. That includes the redesigned Elantra, which is slated to move to the automaker's Montgomery, Ala., plant from its current production in Korea; this would put Hyundai atop the automotive pile in terms of the percentage of cars bought here that are built here, CNNMoney reports.

That's not to say Hyundai's U.S. footprint eclipses the Detroit Three.

America's Third Largest Domestic Automaker: Honda?

If the Cars.com American-Made Index has done anything, it has raised the level of discussion on what defines an American car. That’s why it comes as only a mild surprise to find out that the third-largest domestic producer of automobiles in the U.S. is Honda. 

According to Automotive News, Honda beat out Toyota (the third-largest seller of vehicles in the U.S.) and Chrysler, which builds nearly all of its cars in North America. 

This year, Honda has built 555,734 vehicles in the U.S. and a total of 756,788 vehicles in North America. That bests the 468,440 vehicles that Chrysler produced in the U.S. and Toyota’s 430,535*. To be fair, both Toyota and Chrysler build more vehicles in North America than Honda, but both depend more on Canadian production than Honda does. 

Ford and General Motors still far surpass Honda in terms of U.S. production. 

We also found out today that Honda built more vehicles in the United States than in its home country of Japan through the second quarter, according to the Detroit News. 

Honda has more than 10 factories in the U.S., with two new plants under construction, and 14 R&D facilities. Honda employees more than 27,000 people in the U.S.; Toyota has 28,700 American employees. Honda was also the first Japanese automaker to build cars in the U.S., starting with the Accord back in 1982. 

So again, we ask: Can a foreign automaker that builds here count as domestic over a Detroit Three automaker that builds beyond our borders yet advertises its vehicles as American? 

*Toyota’s domestic production includes NUMMI-produced Tacomas and Corollas. More than 50,000 Toyota Camrys have been built by Subaru through a collaboration with Toyota for 2010. These vehicles were not included in Toyota’s own domestic production.

More on the Made-in-America Debate

Cars.com’s American-Made Index details to what degree different models from different automakers are actually made in the U.S. The winner in the 2009 AMI is the Toyota Camry, which is built in Kentucky and Indiana. However, the other side of the made-in-America debate has to do with where the profits from each car sold actually go. Basically, Toyota’s headquarters and much of its R&D is done in Japan, so buying a Camry may help employ someone in Kentucky but it also helps people employed in Toyota City.

CNNMoney.com took up this second part of the debate and interviewed an economist from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago to see if the profits going overseas outweigh the benefits of U.S. employment. The result isn’t as cut and dry as our AMI, of course, but it seems the short-term benefits lie where the cars are built and long-term benefits boost the company’s hometown.

Surprise! Buying American still matters (CNNMoney.com)