About This Quiz
Once upon a time, there were only so many cars being made in so many places. Detroit was the hub of all automaking in America and it was where the Big Three were doing everything. But times change! Britain had a strong auto industry, as did Germany and Italy and France. Japan became a huge force, America started outsourcing to Mexico and Canada, and other countries began to develop an auto industry as well. Soon enough, you could find assembly plants in places like the Netherlands and Slovakia. Big manufacturers developed partnerships with smaller ones to share facilities and resources, and before you know it some Japanese cars are 100% made in America while American classics were being put together just outside of Toronto in Canada.Â
It's kind of surprising to see where some cars are actually put together these days. You can probably guess some of them, but can you get them all? Do you know which American brands assemble their cars in Thailand? Or which Italian cars are being put together in Mexico? Or how about which German performance vehicles are actually made in Bratislava? If you care to take a guess at where your cars are being made, take the quiz and see!
Honda has been making its best-selling Accord since 1976 and it's been on the "Car and Driver" 10 Best list 30 times already. Honda built a plant in Marysville, Ohio for the car's second generation back in 1981 and has been making them there ever since.
Also known as the G-Wagen, the Mercedes-Benz G-Class is a series of luxury SUVs that have been in production since 1979. The current generation has only been in production since 2018 and the company manufactures them in the Austrian city of Graz.
The classic pony car dating back to 1967 is one of the icons of American automaking. The first generation was made in California, Ohio, and Switzerland of all places. From 1993 to 2016, for the fourth and fifth generation, they were assembled in Canada.
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Despite being a Japanese automaker, Suzuki is fully international when it comes to manufacturing its cars, and it's outsourced pretty much everywhere. You can find plants assembling the Suzuki Swift in Hungary since about 2004, plus others in Pakistan, China, India, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Porsche's popular SUV is assembled in Bratislava, Slovakia at the Volkswagen plant there. If you have an older model, you might have one that was produced in Germany as well, but since 2017 production has fully moved to Bratislava.
Lincoln is a sub-brand of Ford, and it produces its MKZ model in a plant in Hermosillo, Mexico. When the MKZ was first introduced back in 2006, and up until 2012, it was marketed in most places as the Zephyr.
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Fiat's remarkably popular minivan isn't made in Italy like you might expect, rather in Serbia. Still, Italy is pretty proud of them and Italy's Winter Olympics team used Fiat 500Ls as their go-to vehicle back in 2014 at the Sochi Winter Olympics.
Early generations of the Dodge Challenger were made in both Detroit and Los Angeles. The third generation started production in 2008, however, and those have been produced ever since in Brampton, Ontario, Canada.
Hyundai first began manufacturing the Santa Fe in the year 2000 for the 2001 model year in Korea, Russia and Egypt among other places. Fourth-generation Santa Fe's for the 2019 model year and beyond are produced in Montgomery, Alabama, and have been since 2006.
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South Korean automaker Kia does make Kia Sportages in South Korea, of course, and it also assembles them in places like Russia, Slovakia, Pakistan and Algeria. By 2016, the Sportage had become Kia's best-selling model worldwide.
Fiat is all over the world when it comes to car assembly. The Fiat 500 was made in Italy waaaay back in the day, but the newest versions, available since 2007, have been manufactured in Mexico. That's opposed to the 500L which is from Serbia.
Early generation Nissan Micras, also known as the Nissan Cherry in Japan or the Nissan March in other parts of Asia and Latin America, used to only be assembled in Japan and England. Since 2017, the only assembly plant making the Micra is in France, however.
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German though Volkswagen may be, it assembles its cars all over. The seventh-generation Jetta started production for 2019 in China and in Puebla, Mexico. The capital of Mexico, Mexico City, was built on an old lake bed. The city sinks each and every year as more water is pumped for the increasing size of the population.
Ford has extended quite far beyond Detroit assembly. The third generation of Ford Focus cars were manufactured all over the world with plants in China, Taiwan, Russia and Thailand as well. Ford and Mazda co-own a plant in Thailand called AutoAlliance Thailand.
Smart cars are pretty renowned for their tiny size. The first generation of Smart ForFour was made in the Netherlands while the second generation has been assembled in Slovenia, where one in 20 people keep bees. The Smart ForFour is made with Renault and, in fact, shares about 70% of its parts with the Renault Twingo.
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Even though the Smart ForFour is made in Slovenia, the Smart ForTwo is made in France. Like its four-seat cousin, the ForTwo shares most of its parts with the Renault Twingo and it's made in a plant that shares production with Renault.
Although there are plants in both Flint and Pontiac, Michigan as well as in Ohio and Indiana and Canada, GMC Sierras are manufactured in Silao Guanajuato, Mexico. One-third of all the trucks Chevy and GM makes are produced in this plant.
The Jeep Renegade is actually the first Jeep model to be made outside North America but still sold in North America. There are plants in Brazil, China and Italy where it's been manufactured since 2015.
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The Toyota Yaris is also known as the Toyota Echo, the Belta, the Platz, the Vitz and the Vios. While they are assembled in Japan, they're also made in a plant in Valenciennes, France. In North America, they're actually rebadged versions of the Mazda2.
Mercedes-Benz has been manufacturing the CLA since 2013. Aside from plants in both Indonesia and Thailand, the main manufacturing facility is located in a city called Kecskemét in Hungary. The name of the city means "goat," incidentally.
Audi is a German manufacturer, but they don't produce the Q7 there. There are three factories where the Q7 is made, one of them is in Russia, one of them is in India and the main plant is located in Bratislava, Slovakia. Slovakia is all about history, and the world's oldest pharmacy was established there in 1649.
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The latest generation of the Volvo S60 is manufactured solely in the United States. This is the first Volvo that has ever been fully assembled in the US, as previous versions had been made in Sweden, Belgium, Malaysia and China.
The Volvo S60 is built at a plant in Ridgeville, South Carolina at a 2.3 million square foot facility, the 6th such factory that Volvo has built around the world. The plan is to produce 60,000 units every year there, and up to 100,000 if need be.
Buick's crossover SUV the Envision is manufactured solely in China at a plant in Yantai. There was some controversy around the release of the Envision in the United States, as auto worker unions were not happy with the idea of an American car being made in China and then imported to the US again.
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The Chevy Spark is actually made by GM Korea at a plant in Changwon. It's sold as the Chevy Spark in North America, but in a number of international markets throughout Europe and the Middle East, it's sold as the Daewoo Matiz.
Mitsubishi first started making the Mirage back in 1978. Earlier models had been made everywhere from Japan to Australia but the current generation are manufactured in the Philippines and also in Thailand, where you'll also find the miniscule bumblebee bat.
The Buick Cascada is one of those cars sold with about a half-dozen names including the Opel Cascada, the Opel Cabrio, The Vauxhall Cascada and the Holden Cascada. Regardless of the name, they all come from the same facility in Poland. You can find Piwnica Swidnicka in Poland as well, a restaurant that opened in 1275.
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If you like the Mini you can get them manufactured in two places. The first is a plant in Oxfordshire, England and the second is in the Netherlands. Since the year 2015, however, the convertible model has only been made in the Netherlands.
The Tesla is an all-American sort of car that's manufactured at the Tesla plant in California. The Teslas that are sold in Europe are assembled at a plant in Tilburg in the Netherlands even though the parts are still made in California.
Infiniti is the luxury label of Japanese manufacturer Nissan, but it makes the QX30 at a plant in Sunderland, in England. Or it did anyway, as Infiniti stopped making the QX30 as of the year 2019.
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Buick started producing the Regal way back in 1973. It's come a long way since then and is currently in its sixth generation made at two different plants. One is in China and the other is located in Russelsheim, Germany.
Fiat has made cars all over the world, and various versions of the 124 have been made in places like Morocco and Italy over the years, but the 124 Spider was only produced in Japan. The design was based heavily on the Mazda MX-5 Miata and is made in the Mazda plant.
The Mercedes-Benz Metris was the cheapest Mercedes model available in the US at the time of its release in 2014. It's manufactured in multiple facilities around the world, but the main one seems to be in Vitoria-Gasteiz in Spain.
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The Ford Transit Connect is usually used as a delivery or commercial vehicle and has been available in the US market since 2010, although it has been in production since 2002. They're assembled at a plant in Valencia, Spain.
Chevy's SS was being manufactured at a Holden plant in Australia, manufacturing models for export to the US. The SS itself is essentially a rebadged version of a Holden VFII Commodore, so it makes sense that it's made there.