“The Wrangler is the closest descendant to the military jeep that helped the Allies win World War II. Just in that regard, it had very good American credentials. I was kind of tickled to see it goes deeper than that,” said Joe Wiesenfelder, executive editor of Cars.com.
In spite of that, it’s the first time the Wrangler has topped the American-made index.
Last year, for example, the top three vehicles were the Toyota Camry, Honda Accord and Toyota Sienna.
The index isn’t meant to be the be-all-end-all definition of what’s American and what’s not, but rather is aimed to give car buyers some gauge of “Americanness” in an industry that is ever increasing its supply chain complexity in a global marketplace.
Case in point: In its inaugural year, 60 vehicles met the criteria for ranking. This year, under the method that had been used since 2006, just three vehicles would have met that baseline.
Wiesenfelder said that’s primarily because the percentage of domestic content has been declining across the board.
Because of that, Cars.com revamped its method, lowering the overall domestic content threshold and adding new criteria, including looking at where a vehicle’s engine and transmission are built.
“Those are two very expensive, labor-intensive components in a vehicle that we think helps kind of bolster the Americanness of the vehicles assembled here,” Wiesenfelder said.
The index noted all engines and nearly all transmissions put in the Wrangler and Cherokee are made in the United States. The vehicles also had one of the highest concentrations of domestic parts content, with 75 percent for the Wrangler Unlimited, 74 percent for the Wrangler, and 70 percent for the Cherokee.
Though the list has always required final assembly to be in the United States for consideration, this year also looked at sheer numbers of the labor force. The Toledo Assembly Complex, for example, has about 5,000 full-time employees.
The Cherokee was built in Toledo for many years until April, when production was idled to be restarted this year at a plant in Illinois. The Taurus is built in Chicago.
Toledo’s “It matters where you make it” tagline aside, it’s difficult to say just how much buyers really care about where their vehicles are built and how many of their parts come from domestic suppliers.
“There’s a big difference between the Midwest and the Southeast for sure in mentality. Most of the people in the Southeast really don’t care where it’s built, how it’s built, how much domestic content is in it,” said Ralph Mahalak Jr., who has Fiat Chrysler dealerships in Ohio and Florida.
“In the Midwest, it’s a different story,” Mahalak said. “Lots of people really care about where the vehicle is manufactured.”
Even so, different people have different definitions of what makes an American vehicle. Is it the badge on the grille, the site of final assembly, whether the workers are represented by a union, or the where the company that that makes it is ultimately based?
“You dig deep enough it and gets confusing really fast,” said Ed Kim, an analyst with AutoPacific.
Take, for instance, the Chevrolet Sonic. It was designed and engineered in South Korea, but it’s built in the United States and sold as a Chevrolet — the most apple pie of all brands.
As the world continues to shrink, experts say vehicles are only going to get more global, driven primarily by economics.
Cars.com found in a recent survey that 25 percent of respondents would consider buying only from an American manufacturer, up from 13 percent last year. But Wiesenfelder notes that’s a survey of intention, which is not necessarily the same thing as actually signing the paperwork.
Three Hondas and an Acura made the Cars.com list. One, the Acura RDX, is built near Columbus, while the other three are built in Lincoln, Ala.
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