Consumer Reports: What makes a car 'American'? - Hartford Courant
It has been almost 40 years since the first U. S. -built Volkswagen Rabbit rolled off an assembly line in Westmoreland, Pa. , forever changing the definition of "American car," according to Consumer Reports. During those four decades, the automotive industry has increasingly become a global enterprise, with automakers and their suppliers grabbing parts from all over the world, then building and selling those polyglot vehicles in as many countries as... "You're never going to get a car made 100 percent in one country anymore," says Eric Fedewa, a supply-chain expert with industry consultancy IHS. The traditional Detroit automakers accounted for almost 6 million of the more than 11 million vehicles made in the United States last year -- although Toyota and Honda are close to Fiat Chrysler Automobiles as the No. 3 U. S. producer. To help consumers understand how "American" a new vehicle is, every car has to display a parts-content window sticker. It lists the final assembly point, source of the engine and transmission and which countries supplied 15 percent or more of the vehicle's equipment. Thanks to some creative lobbying, the AALA lumps in Canadian content with parts sourced in the U. S. Everywhere else counts as "foreign" -- even Mexico, despite both Canada and Mexico being part of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Source: www.courant.com
