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Automotive Industry
AUTOS: Camry Tops List of ‘Most American’ Vehicles
Toyota sedan beats Ford F-150 for first time in index of most domestic content, U.S. manufacture and sales.
Bob Golfen  |  Posted July 05, 2009   Phoenix, AZ
For those auto shoppers who want to buy American, here’s a surprising new study about what actually constitutes a U.S.-made car or truck in this global marketplace.

The “most American” 2009 vehicle is the Toyota Camry, according to research by the automotive website Cars.com. Camry beat out the Ford F-150 pickup truck for the No. 1 spot.

The nation’s best-selling vehicle, F-150 has held the top position since the American-Made Index began in 2006.

Car.com’s study rates each car and truck sold in the United States based on where it’s made, its percentage of U.S. and Canadian content and its annual sales results. Vehicles that are being discontinued, such as those from the doomed Pontiac brand, are eliminated.

“In today's global economy, there's no easy way to determine just how American a car is,” Cars.com said in its report. “Many cars built in the U.S., for example, are assembled using parts that come from somewhere else.

“Some cars assembled in the U.S. from strictly American-made parts don't sell very well, meaning that fewer Americans are building those models.”

Of the top-10 cars and trucks on the list, five of them are from Japanese brands, the most ever, according to Cars.com. Three others are from General Motors, and two are built by Ford.

Four are full-size pickup trucks, two are minivans and four are sedans or hatchbacks.

The 10 Most-American cars are:

1 - Toyota Camry
2 - Ford F-150
3 - Chevrolet Malibu
4 - Honda Odyssey
5 - Chevrolet Silverado 1500
6 - Toyota Sienna
7 - Toyota Tundra
8 - GMC Sierra 1500
9 - Ford Taurus
10 - Toyota Venza

This year’s index reflects “the industry-wide sales collapse that's fast reordering the landscape of which cars sell well and which ones don't,” the study states.

Sales of F-150 are down 40 percent while U.S. and Canadian content has slipped, the researchers added. Camry sales are off, too, though not nearly as much and its domestic content has risen.

With the three domestic brands taking a beating this model year, they hold the lowest number of top-10 spots since the index began.

Bob Golfen, Automotive Editor for SPEEDtv.com, is a veteran auto writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, who has driven and evaluated essentially every new vehicle sold in the United States. A lifelong car enthusiast with a passion for collector cars, car culture and the automotive lifestyle, he annually attends and writes about Arizona's famous January collector-car auctions, focusing on Scottsdale’s monumental Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Event. SPEEDtv.com fans email veteran Automotive Editor Bob Golfen at

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