Toyota Camry tops Cars.com American-made index for 3rd straight year

For the third straight year, the Toyota Camry mid-sized sedan tops the 10 vehicles in Cars.com's annual American-Made Index.

The index ranks U.S.-assembled vehicles based on the percentage of their parts made in the United States and the number of vehicles sold to domestic consumers. At least 75 percent of the parts in every vehicle on the list were made in the United States.

"The Camry remains an incredibly popular vehicle, and higher total sales require a higher number of U.S. factory workers and a larger number of U.S. suppliers -- all of which contribute to Toyota's ranking," Cars.com's editor-in-chief, Patrick Olsen, said in a statement.

Most Camrys are assembled at Toyota's Georgetown, Ky., plant, which employs 6,429 people.

About 25 percent of Camrys are made at Subaru's plant in Lafayette, Ind., Toyota spokesman Jim Wiseman said. Toyota contracts with Subaru to make the vehicles, Wiseman said.

Through May 31, Toyota sold 125,218 domestically made Camrys in the United States and about 80 percent of the parts in the Camry are made domestically, Olsen said.

Wiseman said today that the company was committed to using locally made parts.

"Part of Toyota's guiding principles is to support the communities where we're based," Wiseman said. "The best way we can do that is by using locally made parts."

While it's advantageous for foreign automakers to use U.S.-made parts, Olsen said the Detroit 3 use fewer locally made parts to cut costs and better compete globally.

"They've lessened their domestic parts content but strengthened their bottom line," Olsen said in a telephone interview.

Two other Toyota vehicles cracked the top 10: the Sienna minivan at No. 6 and the Tundra full-sized pickup at No. 9 . With three vehicles in the rankings, Toyota tied General Motors for the most vehicles in the top 10.

GM's Chevrolet Malibu mid-sized sedan ranked third, up from fifth last year. The Chevrolet Traverse crossover was No. 8 and the GMC Acadia crossover rounded out the list at No. 10. Neither the Traverse nor the Acadia was on the list last year.

For the second straight year, the Honda Accord claimed the second spot in the rankings. The Accord is built at the automaker's Marysville, Ohio, plant and 120,035 American made units were sold in the first five months of 2011.

Honda's Odyssey minivan also made the list, coming in at No. 5.

The Chicago-made Ford Explorer made its debut on this year's list at No. 4 and is the only Ford Motor Co. vehicle to make the rankings. According to Olsen, 85 percent of the Explorer's parts are made in the United States.

The Jeep Wrangler, ranked No. 7, is the only Chrysler vehicle on the list.