Regional Attachments

While a recent study determined that many import-branded cars are actually more “American” than those from the “Big Three” domestic makes in terms of their manufacturing and content, we suspect few buyers look beyond the brand when it comes to making a buying decision. And that decision is likely to skew more towards what are at least perceived to be American cars and those from European and Asian brands in different parts of the country. That’s according to the car-shopping site CarGurus.com in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which queried dealers around the nation to determine the share of consumer interest by brand. Perhaps not surprisingly, domestic-branded models continue to rule the roads in the Midwest, with Detroit (69.5 percent), Oklahoma City (58.6 percent) and St. Louis (57.7 percent) leading the pack. Meanwhile, those living in San Francisco (27.7 percent), New York (27 percent) and Miami (26.3 percent) tend to choose European-branded models most often while residents of San Jose (43.7 percent) and Boston (43.1 percent) instead favoring vehicles having Japanese or Korean nameplates.