Thanks to @VehicleNanny for giving us permission to share this post from VehicleNanny.com!
For the third year in a row, Cars.com has compiled a list of all of the vehicles that are built in the United States. Ninety-five vehicles are on this list, but another 250 or so are built elsewhere and sold in the United States. Those are not shown on this list.
In case you missed my article on the 2021 report, it can be read HERE.
The rankings
In developing the 95 car ranking, Cars.com based their conclusions on the following criteria:
- Assembly plant location (must be located in the U.S.)
- Parts content (percent of U.S. and Canadian parts)
- Engine country of origin (U.S.)
- Transmission country of origin (U.S.)
- U.S. manufacturing workforce (an analysis of each automaker’s direct U.S. workforce involved in building the vehicles and parts, factored against that automaker’s U.S. production footprint).
Full detail about the report can be found HERE on Cars.com.
The top 20 ranked vehicles are shown in the chart below, with a comparison to their 2020 and 2021 ranks. Vehicles noted as “unranked” for 2022 have either been discontinued or they did not make the top 95:
The complete list of 95 vehicles has been compiled and included in a PDF file found HERE.
Ranking notes/observations
Most notable is the inclusion of the Tesla Model X and Model S, which was not on the 2021 list. Supposedly, their updates in 2021 prevented them from making the list last year. More than likely, Elon Musk was playing games with sales data.
A number of other models saw significant movement from last year. This could be due to changes in the their North American content or competing models that were all new for 2022, starting production in the United States.
Special note to my Canadian friends: Cars.com touts this as the most “American Made” cars report. It only includes vehicles made in the United States, but does give credit for components made in North America. So, you got that going for you!
Missing models
Some vehicles may be missing from this list due to a number of mitigating factors:
- Models with a gross vehicle weight rating above 8,500 pounds — mostly full-size vans, three-quarter- and 1-ton pickup trucks, and larger commercial vehicles — which are exempt from providing content on their pricing labels. The same goes for models from automakers that build fewer than 1,000 cars in a given model year.
- Models set for discontinuation.
- Vehicles not yet scheduled for production at the time of the study (April 2022).
- Vehicles only built for government or commercial fleet (not retail units).
Final word
Ultimately, does it matter to car buyers if their vehicle is within the 95 on the list? Would a Ford Maverick made in Mexico, Land Rover from the UK or any number of GM products from Canada be acceptable to them?
I grew up in this business, but have no issue with buying a vehicle made outside the U.S. Ultimately, the vehicle’s reputation, style and performance are what matter to me.
