2019 Honda Ridgeline Is Cars.com's Most American-Made Truck
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The Honda Ridgeline is the most American-made truck in Cars.com's 2019 American-Made Index, an annual study that analyzes assembly location, parts content, drivetrain sourcing and factory employment to rank the most American-made cars, trucks and SUVs. The Ridgeline nabbed the third spot in the top 15 for the 2019 index, ranking more American made than any Ford, Chevrolet, GMC or Ram truck.
Related: Cars.com's 2019 American-Made Index: What's the Most American Car?
PickupTrucks.com is a network site of Cars.com, and we asked the architect of the index, Cars.com's Senior Consumer Affairs Editor Kelsey Mays, to dive deeper into the trucks that made the list and those that didn't.
Five of the top 15 vehicles on the 2019 American-Made Index are trucks. In order of ranking, those are:
9: GMC Canyon
13:Ford F-150
Why is the Honda Ridgeline the most American-made truck?
Mays explained: "The Ridgeline is assembled in Alabama, rates well in parts content as reported by the American Automobile Labeling Act content, and has U.S.-sourced engines and transmissions. It's one of seven Hondas [including Honda's luxury Acura brand] in the AMI's 15 vehicles for 2019, and readers might be surprised to see so many from an automaker based in Japan. But the annual index, which we've conducted since 2006, goes to show that the badge on the hood seldom tells the whole story. Honda employs relatively many Americans at the factory level, and it has U.S. assembly for about two-thirds of the cars it sells here. That's more than GM and FCA — and it's well above the industry average, which is only a little over half."
Why is it more American made than the Ford F-150?
"Although it's assembled in Missouri and Michigan, the F-150 has lower AALA content for the 2019 model year, with notable foreign sourcing among its available engines," Mays said. "Still, Ford employs a lot of Americans at the factory level relative to sales, giving the F-150 excellent scores in the AMI's employment category." Where are the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and Ram 1500?
"Both the V-6 and V-8 engines in the Ram 1500 have a lot of Mexico sourcing, which drove down its scores," Mays explained. "The Silverado 1500 and Sierra 1500, meanwhile, have some final assembly in Mexico, as well as just 42 percent AALA content [below the 55 percent cutoff to make the list]."
How It Works
The American-Made Index considers five main factors in its ranking:
- The final assembly location
- The origin of parts in the car as reported for the AALA
- The origin country (or countries) for its engines
- The origin country (or countries) for transmissions
- The number of Americans its parent automaker employs at the factory level
Missing from the consideration set are heavy-duty vehicles, which have a gross vehicle weight rating of 8,500 pounds or more. Those are exempt from the AALA and thus lack published parts content.
For the full list of the 15 most American-made vehicles, including the top spot, see Cars.com's 2019 Most American-Made Index.
More From PickupTrucks.com and Cars.com's American-Made Index:
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