It’s hard to say. Is my Canadian-built Chevy an American truck? What about my Nissan built in Mississippi?
I’ve owned two Chevys, both were garbage. I’ve owned seven Toyotas and two Mazdas, all were completely functional and reliable. At least two of the Toyotas were built in Canada. Both the Mazdas were Japanese. I don’t count the Scion because it had almost 150k miles when I bought it. It might not have ever become an oil burner if I had done the maintenance since new.
My preference is for a Japanese-branded car regardless of where it’s made. The corporate attitude about quality and reputation is the thing that makes the difference, and my experience is that the American companies just care about next month’s balance sheet and the consumer can get stuffed.
I spent the latter part of my career studying schools and what made them get better or worse. The single biggest factor in determining the success of the school was the Principal. You could replace every teacher in the building and scores would be unchanged, but when a poor leader was replaced by a good one within a couple of years everything changed. It was a huge bright line in the data. I think every auto plant in the country is capable of building good vehicles, but it’s not the primary goal for all. Compare the relative quality of a Camry built in Georgetown, KY to a Ford F150 built in Louisville as a great example of that. Both companies are drawing from the same pool of workers.
