American Concept Cars
- Home
- LIFESTYLE
- CARS
Publish date:
How American Is Your Car Really?
As Kelley Blue Book reminds us, a global economy means any product can be made anywhere. The days of calling a car 'American,' 'German' or 'Japanese' based on the company name alone are over. So is it an illusion that you're driving an 'American' car?
Tesla
As Kelley Blue Book reminds us, a global economy means any product can be made anywhere. The days of calling a car 'American,' 'German' or 'Japanese' based on the company name alone are over. So is it an illusion that you're driving an 'American' car?
Where your car is made and where the company that made it is headquartered are often two very different addresses.
What constitutes an American car is routinely up for debate, but the core of that battle comes down to minutiae. A car, truck, van or SUV/crossover is the sum of its parts, and those parts all come from somewhere. How "American" a car is depends largely on how many of those parts are made in the U.S.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration freely admits there's no such thing as a 100% American car and notes that one of its most American vehicles, the 60% U.S.-produced GM (GM) - Get General Motors Company (GM) Report Chevrolet Spark takes 21% of its parts from South Korea and is assembled there as well. Then again, there are cars such as the BMW X3 that are assembled right here in the U.S. (South Carolina, specifically), but only get 10% of their parts from this country.
In fact, it's getting very difficult to use words like "American," "Japanese," "Korean" or "German" to describe an automobile. A car's heritage my lie in those countries, but companies the world over build their vehicles without boundaries. Here in the U.S. alone, we have Nissans and Volkwagens built in Tennessee, Subarus built in Indiana, Toyotas (TM) - Get Toyota Motor Corp. Sponsored ADR Report from Texas and Kentucky, Kias from Georgia and Hondas (HMC) - Get Honda Motor Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR Report , Hyundais and Mercedes-Benz from Alabama.
As a result, there are very few cars that are made where you think they are. Sure, you can still count on Jeep Wranglers from Toledo, Ohio, or Ford (F) - Get Ford Motor Company Report F-150s from Dearborn, Mich., but can you look at the car in your driveway or at your curb and know for a fact where it was built? The folks at vehicle pricing and analysis site Kelley Blue Book do this for a living and often can't place where a car came from, never mind the parts in it. However, with their help, we found 20 vehicles whose company names don't make it entirely clear where they're assembled. You can guess, but prepare to be wrong more often than you're right:
TheStreet Recommends
Ferrari (RACE) - Get Ferrari NV Report visits the NYSE.
This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned.
Mercedes-Benz CLA
Made in: Hungary
Starting price: $32,050
Don't get too bent out of shape about this: the entry-level Benz the CLA supplanted, the C-Class, is made in Alabama. Meanwhile, the folks in Hungary dropping a 2-liter 4-cylinder into a Mercedes have given it a combined 32 miles per gallon.
That mileage makes it easily the most efficient of the entry-level vehicles in the luxury segment, but this sedan and its big, honkin' grill with the prominent Three-Pointed Star make up for the paltry 208 horsepower of this baby Benz. You can get a 375-horsepower all-wheel drive version with sports suspension and racing brakes, but we have no idea why you'd want to turn this vehicle into a German Camaro.
Just enjoy the touchscreen infotainment system with Bluetooth and HD radio, the mbrace smartphone app with five years of free features, and the the radar-based collision, attention and braking assistance. If you really want a Mercedes that's more about performance than monthly payments, work your way out of the entry level first.
Source: https://www.thestreet.com/lifestyle/cars/cars-that-arent-made-where-you-think-they-are-html
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar