Are you proud of your "Made in America" car/truck? Would that be ""Built Ford Tough" or "I Love What You Do For Me, Toyota"? Interesting comparison here...

Globalization in a nutshell...Your "Made in America" car or truck may very likely be made by a foreign company. In the graphic below, I put side by side cars.com analysis of the cars/trucks that are for sale in the US from 2006 and 2010.  They rank vehicles by where they are assembled and if they contain over 75% made in America sourced parts. There has been quite a re-shuffling of the deck in just 3 years.

I don't completely know the reason for this,  I will offer a semi-educated guess as to what maybe happening.  Japanese companies in the US are generally (if not at all) unionized, hence pay lower wages than US automakers. This means they can "affordably" buy US made parts--Jobs for assemblers AND for the workers in the industries making the parts. US automakers on the other hand, pay higher assembly wages, hence must cut costs by purchasing less expensive parts from foreign sources--- Jobs for assemblers in the US but not so much for workers in the industries making the parts. The net effect: On a per car basis which company is supporting more American jobs?

(HT: Carpe Diem--what would I do without this resource!)

From Cars.com---""What Are the Top American-Made Cars?

""Cars.com's American-Made Index rates vehicles built and bought in the U.S. Factors include sales, where the car's parts come from and whether the car is assembled in the U.S. We disqualify models with a domestic parts content rating below 75 percent, models built exclusively outside the U.S. or models soon to be discontinued without a U.S.-built successor. ""



Source: Cars.com



""Detroit's full-size pickups, once a dominant force on the AMI, remain off the chart. The F-150 held a commanding No. 1 spot in the first three years that Cars.com compiled the index, with domestic parts content as high as 90 percent. Alas, today's Michigan- and Missouri-built F-150 bears only 60 percent domestic content rating. Similarly, the Chevrolet Silverado, which held second place for much of the F-150's reign, has just 61 percent domestic content. Chrysler's Ram 1500 pickup's 70 percent domestic content fares better, but it still falls short of the AMI's 75-percent cutoff.""