QOTD: Does American Made Matter to You?

Cars.com's American-Made Index list for this year is out and it's getting buzz this week. We covered part of it the other day.

Yours truly also said through a Zoom briefing on the list.

There's a lot of interesting stuff that goes into it, and defining what is "American Made" and how much a vehicle is "American Made" is a process that uses five factors. In short, determining whether a car is American Made is, at least for Cars.com, not as simple as looking at where a vehicle's final assembly takes place.

That makes sense to us -- most industry observers know it's not that simple. Engines and transmissions might be built in one country and shipped to another for a vehicle's final assembly. Companies based overseas have plants and corporate offices right here in the U.S. The Honda Accord I once owned was built in America, despite being one of the most well-known cars sold by one of the best-known Japanese makers.

I think we've mostly moved beyond "buy American" when it comes to cars for the reasons listed above -- yet I will also point out that when I was in college, my then-girlfriend, who had an interest in going into politics, pointed out that aspiring politicians should drive a car sold by one of the Detroit Three in order to better appeal to voters. Never mind that some cars sold by Ford, GM, and the brands that would eventually become Stellantis were, even then, not built in the U.S.

I am not sure if her assertion was true back then, and I certainly suspect it isn't now. But I wanted to ask you, the B and B, what you think.

Does a car's "American Made" percentage matter to you? Or do you just not care?

Sound off below.

[Image: Virrage Images/Shutterstock.com]

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