The 'Most American' Cars Are... - Kelley Blue Book (2024)

The most American car of all is the 2022 Lincoln Corsair, according to the Kogod School of Business at American University. The compact SUV from Ford’s luxury division jumped an astonishing 43 spots from last year in the annual study, which looks at the percentage of U.S. and Canadian content in each car for sale in the United States.

Yes, a school called American University counts Canadian parts in its Made in America Auto Index. They have a history department, but it hasn’t explained the War of 1812 to the business school.

List Shuffled by Bizarre Year

2022 was a topsy-turvy year in the auto industry. Supply chain challenges forced automakers to shift their parts supplies, resulting in significant changes to the index.

Last year’s winner, the manual transmission-equipped Ford Mustang, dropped to 22nd because Ford sourced transmissions from Mexico during a shortage.

Foreign Cars Getting More American; American Cars More Foreign

But perhaps the most surprising outcome is that Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Nissan, Toyota, and Volkswagen all increased their U.S. content while GM, Ford, and Stellantis (parent company of Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram) all presented drops in domestic sourcing.

Foreign automakers may be sourcing more American parts thanks to federal policy.

The Kogod school explains that the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement made American automakers more likely to source parts from Mexico. But recent revisions to the agreement may “incentivize producers to return some of their sourcing to the USA.”

The trend is likely to continue. Changes to the rules governing electric vehicle (EV) tax rebates have recently encouraged automakers to bring EV factories to the U.S. as well.

The 10 Most American Cars

The Kogod School’s Made in America Auto Index looks at trim levels since automakers may source parts for each trim from different countries. Breaking the results down that fine also results in many ties — the top 10 list has 24 cars on it.