Don't expect to tell where a new car was made by reading the label.
Beginning Oct. 1, all new cars must display a label designed to tell shoppers how much of the vehicle was made in the United States.But you can't take the label at face value. Parts and labor that originate in Canada count as American, for example, while components from Mexico do not.
And the same part may get more patriotic weight when it goes into one car than when it goes into another.
The label will show:
- The percentage of parts from the U.S. and Canada.
- The percentage from any other nation that contributed more than 15 percent of the parts.
- The country where the engine was made.
- The country where the transmission was made.
- Where the car was assembled.
The most important measure of a nation's involvement in producing a car is the place of assembly. But there was no need for a new law - or its estimated $13 million implementation cost - to disseminate that information, which has been listed on the driver-side doorpost for years.
It's the attempt to pinpoint the percentage of the vehicle's parts coming from different countries that holds the most promise - and the greatest potential to mislead.
The law puts cars built by American subsidiaries of foreign companies (say, a Honda plant in Ohio) in the foreign camp.
If your goal is to "Buy American," the label may send you off in the wrong direction.
For labeling purposes, the origin of a part depends on the relationship between the supplier and the manufacturer.
If the supplier is wholly owned by an American manufacturer, the calculation is simple: If, say, 60 percent of a part's components are from the United States or Canada, the part is considered 60 percent American.
But if the supplier is independent, the same part would be counted as if it were 100 percent foreign. That's because if 70 percent or more of the components in a part from an independent supplier are American, the part is considered 100 percent American.