Domestic Content

Did you know that Chevrolet and Cadillac are French names?

Hard to tell what a "foreign" car is anymore...
Which vehicle has more "domestic content" - that is, percentage of parts value from the United States and Canada - the Toyota Corolla or the new Chevy Tahoe? I wouldn't ask that question if the answer weren't the Corolla - with 75% domestic content, according to the Detroit Free Press' calculation. The new Tahoe has only 67%, and 25% of its content is from Mexico. I always figured inexpensive small cars like the Chevy HHR and Cobalt were heavily Mexican. I didn't realize GM's huge gas guzzlin' SUVs were largely Mexico-sourced as well. Not that there's anything wrong with that! If you don't want unfettered immigration from Mexico then it makes sense to buy products that create decent jobs in Mexico. Still, you have to wonder if the price of maintaining Big Three UAW assembly jobs in the US is the outsourcing of more and more parts overseas. Honda, by way of contrast, doesn't have to support the UAW and is able to source 75 percent of it's Pilot and Ridgeline vehicles domestically. Some 80% of the Toyota Tundra is domestic.