Despite the uncertainty surrounding tariffs and potential trade wars, American automakers still continue to build a majority of their cars right here in the good old USA. According to the 2018 Kogod Made in America Auto Index, General Motors beat out cross-town rivals Ford and FCA for having the most American-made vehicles. What are those top two vehicles? The Chevrolet Corvette and Volt, in that order.
The index itself ranks over 500 vehicles and relies on data from the American Automotive Labeling Act as well as on-site dealership visits aimed at calculating the estimated domestic content of the most popular vehicles in the US.
Additional criteria taken into account includes profit margin, labor content, major component sourcing, and major location of research and development activities. Not to be outdone, however, is Ford. Although it didn't make the top two slots, it still did very well in the overall top 10. Two F-150 models took the number three and four slots, the Lincoln Continental came in at number five, the Ford Taurus at number nine, and the Lincoln MKC at number ten.
As for FCA, two Jeep Wrangler models took the number six, seven, and eight slots. The Kogod Made in America Auto Index was started back in 2013 by Kogod School of Business Associate Professor Frank DuBois, and it supposedly offers the most comprehensive listing of American-made cars currently on sale.
"For a consumer interested in buying American or perhaps just curious about the 'DNA' of their car, my index lists almost every car available for sale in the US market," DuBois said. "Most other indexes stop at the top 10 most American cars. You don't know about the bottom ten. Or the middle fifty. My index covers over 500 cars." DuBois also acknowledges that globalization has caused the death of the all-American-made car.
"It's likely that no vehicle has been truly 100 percent American since the Model T," DuBois added. "And you could argue that some of those parts were mined or manufactured out of the country. This index gives the best current estimation of domestic content for vehicles sold in the US.
