A new report from digital automotive marketplace Cars.com that analyzed and then ranked the top 15 new vehicles that contribute to the U.S economy shows the impact of globalization, while also revealing that many Americans still value buying American-made automobiles. Globalization has made it difficult to pinpoint which models are actually produced domestically because automakers still heavily depend on many international suppliers for thousands of vehicle parts.
Over half of the respondents want to buy a car that contributes greatly to the U.S economy, but younger respondents under the age of 35 were more likely to buy vehicles made abroad than their older counterparts. Across all age groups, however, many Americans are worried that trade tensions and tariffs could potentially lead to an increase in vehicle pricing.
A significant majority do agree that buying American-made cars will create more jobs in the U.S, but Kelsey Mays, senior editor at Cars.com, stated that younger generations are used to importing goods from abroad and are therefore not as insistent on buying American made. Additionally, over half of the Top 15 companies named build their cars from parts made in foreign countries.
Illinois-built Jeep Cherokee ranks as the most American-made vehicle of 2019 based on the Cars.com American-Made Index, yet it’s produced by Italian-American automaker Fiat Chrysler. Cars ranked 2nd, 3rd and 4th were by Honda, while the 5th, the Chevrolet Corvette, was American.
“Despite a lot of talk around new tariffs and the looming U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, few of the automakers in the top 15 indicated major manufacturing changes as a result,” said Mays. “Even if they had, manufacturing can’t change overnight. A single vehicle has tens of thousands of parts from third-party suppliers across the globe.”
