Thursday, October 21, 2010

Baseball, hotdogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet

In September of 2010, the top selling car or truck models sold in America were as follows:

1 - Ford F series
2 - Chevy Silverado
3 - Toyota Camry
4 - Honda Accord
5- Toyota Corolla
6 - Hyundai Sonata
7 - Nissan Altima
8 - Honda Civic
9 - Honda CR-V
10 - Ram series

As you skim through the list, you’ll notice that only 3 of the top 10 have “American” names. However, if you dig a little deeper, you’ll discover that the location of manufacture for the list is definitely domestic. Only one vehicle, the Toyota Corolla, is not made in America.

1 - Ford F series - made in Dearborn, Michigan and Kansas City, Missouri - but also made in Valencia, Venezuela and Cuautitlan, Mexico
2 - Chevy Silverado - made in Flint and Pontiac, Michigan and Fort Wayne,Indiana, but it is also built in Ontario, Venezuela, and Mexico
3- Toyota Camry - made in Georgetown, Kentucky, as well as Japan
4- Honda Accord - produced in Marysville, Ohio, as well as Japan, New Zealand, England, China, and Thailand
5- Toyota Corolla - produced in Fremont, California until March of 2010, but no more U.S production. The vehicle is now produced in Brazil, Canada, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, and Venezuela
6- Hyundai Sonata- made in Montgomery, Alabama, but also in Korea, India, China, Turkey and Egypt
7 - Nissan Altima - made in Smyrna, Tennessee , as well as Japan
8 - Honda Civic - made in Greensburg, Indiana, as well as Ontario
9 - Honda CR-V - made in East Liberty, Ohio, as well as Japan, U.K., China, and Mexico
10 - Dodge Ram series - made in Warren, Michigan, as well as Mexico

Due to some great advertisements over the years, the car that many people would consider to be the “most American” is Chevrolet, but the make only has one vehicle in the top 10, and it’s a truck.



The Chevrolet name has been with us since November of 1911. From 1949 to 1978, the full size Chevrolet Bel Air/Impala/Caprice was the number one selling car in America in all but three years, but the last time that a Chevrolet was the number one seller was 1986, when the mid-size Celebrity took home the honors.

In 1963, one out of ever ten cars sold in America was a Chevrolet, but that is no longer the case.In 2009, the Chevrolet brand was a solid 200,000 units behind number one Toyota, but the gap would be even larger if you considered passenger cars only, and not trucks. That's likely one of the main reasons that Chevrolet replaced its ad agency of 91 years in May of 2010.

Chevrolet has 20 different models that are either in production, or have recently stopped production. The list of models, as well as where they are produced, is as follows:

Aveo - made in Korea
Camaro - made in Canada
Caprice - made in Australia
Corvette - made in Kentucky
Cruze - Ohio
Impala - Canada
Malibu - Kansas City and Michigan
Volt - Detroit, Michigan
Cobalt (recently dropped) - was made in Ohio

Avalanche - Mexico
Colorado - Louisiana and Thailand
Silverado - Canada and the United States

Express - Wentzville, Missouri
Uplander - Georgetown, Kentucky

Equinox - Ontario, Canada
HHR- Mexico
Suburban - Janesville, Wisconsin and Mexico
Tahoe - dropped - was produced in Janesville, Wisconsin
Traverse - Spring Hill, Tennessee and Lansing, Michigan
Trailblazer - made in Ohio, Oklahoma, Russia, and Venezuela

If you “count ‘em up”, you’ll find that only 10 of the vehicles sold by Chevrolet are made in the United States, and there’s not a lot of “Detroit iron” on the list. The only vehicle that Chevrolet makes in Detroit is the Volt.

If you on occasion get nostalgic about “the good old days”, buy or rent a Chevrolet and take a long trip across the country.

After all, America is asking you to call.

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