August 6, 2013

While one auto-buying referral service was researching what states are the most ‘patriotic’ for purchasing domestic brand vehicles, CarGurus was surveying the top cities for similar information.

The trend, as you will see in the listing below, has the highest concentration of domestic brand buyers in the midsection of the country. Asian and European brands dominate the interest of buyers on the east and west coastlines.

At the top of the cities list (below) is Detroit where domestic shoppers account for 67.8% of inquiries. That is understandable since the Detroit area is the corporate headquarters of GM, Ford and Chrysler and employs thousands of workers in their factories. Only 10.97% of shoppers in Detroit show interest in Asian brand cars.

One city in the bottom 10 rankings of U.S. Metro Areas by Level of Consumer Interest in Buying American Brand Cars stands out. That city is Washington, DC. Our nation’s capital shows the highest percentage of shoppers’ interest in Asian brand cars in the nation at 33.55%.

Here are the cities that comprise the top and bottom 10 of the study:

The Top 10:

The Bottom 10:

I found this information (from TrueCar) to be interesting and yet some states that are in the top 10 for most patriotic surprised me. On the other hand, the list of least patriotic states had no surprises.

Beginning with the title of the article from TrueCar (The Top 10 Most ‘Patriotic’ Car-Buying States) it seems that buyers of domestic vehicles support our economy more so than those that purchase from foreign manufacturers. However, with Michigan ranked #1 as the state with buyers most likely to buy new domestic vehicles, there is no suspense. But when you consider the neighboring state of Ohio, not listed in the top 10, there is a question of why.

Michigan with auto factories all over the state does not have any foreign assembly plants located there. There are research centers from brands such as Toyota that have offices but no assembly lines. Perhaps some of the resistance of Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Subaru and others not to build cars in Michigan stems from the early years of doing business in the U.S., and particularly in Michigan.

I recall the days when anyone driving an import to the employee parking lots of domestic brand factories could end their work day and find their vehicle vandalized or in some cases burned. It’s also common knowledge that the foreign manufacturers were not interested in working with the labor unions.

As suppliers visited the offices of the Big Three (Chrysler, Ford, GM) driving any vehicle other than a domestic was a sure way to lose an account. It just wasn’t allowed.

Ohio has huge factories such as Jeep in Toledo and GM in Lordstown but, as mentioned, it’s not in the top 10 list of states. The listing for cities shows Cleveland at number two.

States Most Likely to Buy New Domestic Vehicles:

States Least Likely to Buy New Domestic Vehicles: