Quast

A few decades ago it was easy to spot an import car. They were small, mostly 4- cylinder econo-boxes that were made in Japan or Germany. However, over the last 2 decades, more and more foreign manufacturers have built plants here in North America. Honda built the first Japanese manufacturing facility in Ohio in 1979. Today, Honda builds the Accord, Civic, Odyssey, and Acura MDX in plants in Canada and The United States. Toyota builds the Camry, Avalon, Corolla, Solara, Tacoma, Tundra, Matrix, Sienna, and Lexus RX350 in plants across Canada and the United States as well. Nissan builds virtually all of their vehicles in The United States including the Maxima, Altima, Titan, Armada, Frontier, Pathfinder, and Xterra. Mitsubishi, Subaru, BMW, Hyundai and Mercedes-Benz also build cars throughout The United States. So do you still label a car an import if it's made in your own country? Are the Crown Victoria and Chevrolet Impala imports because they're made in Canada? What about the new Ford Fusion? Is that an import car? It's made in Mexico.

Okay, perhaps an import is a vehicle that is designed somewhere else regardless of where it is built. Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, Nissan, Subaru and others have Research & Development centers in the United States (mostly in California). Many also have design studios there as well. So can a car still be labeled an import if it's designed and built and sold in The United States? The reality is that there are no longer imports and domestics. Ford builds cars in Europe, Asia and North America. As does General Motors. What about Chrysler? Is it still a domestic? Daimler-Benz (a German company) owns it. Is Bentley an English car company? Volkswagen AG owns it and most of the major components come from Audi. BMW owns Rolls Royce and the quintessential English car, the MINI. I wonder if people in England think of those cars as imports or domestics?

Unions here in North America want consumers to "buy American". At the Detroit auto show in January the UAW handed out bags at the Ford booth that said "Buy American" in big letters. Needless to say, it caused confusion, as I didn't know if they meant buy the Toyota Camry that is built in Kentucky or the Ford Fusion that is built in Mexico, or the Dodge Charger that is built in Canada and uses many components from the previous generation Mercedes E-Class.

Let's face it. Consumers should pick a car based on what's best, not on the location of a company's mailbox.

Peter Johnson is the chief writer for http://www.all-about-car-selection.com