Driving Smart: What's the Most American Car?
Just in time for the Fourth of July, Cars.com’s American-Made Index highlights the most American cars built and bought in the U.S. The 2018 index has a new top model in the Jeep Cherokee, an SUV built in Belvidere, Ill., with high domestic content and U.S. sourcing for all of its available engines and transmissions. The Cherokee was last year’s No. 2 car, but it moved up to No. 1 as the prior highest-ranking model, the Jeep Wrangler, was redesigned with lower credentials.
Related: Cars.com 2018 American-Made Index: What About the Least American Cars?
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Shop the 2018 Jeep Cherokee near you
Cars.com redesigned the American-Made Index last year to really focus on the impact of a shopper choosing one model versus another. Factors include where a car’s final assembly occurs, how much domestic content it has — expressed as U.S. and Canadian content by the American Automobile Labeling Act — as well as where the available engines and transmissions come from, plus how many U.S. factory jobs each automaker provides.
Now in the second year of its redesigned methodology, the index continues to show that it’s no simple task to determine how American something as complex as a car really is — and the badge on the hood doesn’t always tell the whole story. Jeep leads off the top 10 for 2018, but four models come from Honda, including the automaker’s Acura luxury division. Lastly, there’s three from Ford and two from GM.
See the full list and plenty more details on Cars.com.
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