As long as most of us can remember, there has been discussions of Domestic versus import cars. As a young couple in the Eighties, we bought a Japanese import because it was the best fit for our lifestyle and pocketbook. My Dad was upset because he believed in buying domestic. It took him years to come over to the import side & now I don’t think you’ll ever catch him driving anything other than a Toyota.

Over the past few years, as the lines between domestic and import have blurred, I’ve begun using the tagline “traditional domestics vs. modern domestics”. The former would obviously be a Ford, GM or Chrysler, while the latter could be anything from a Honda, to a Suzuki or a Chevy.

Cars.com has posted a list of the Top Ten American Made Cars. This list is not only based on the manufacturer’s country of origin, but also the origin of parts, where the cars are assembled and how many were sold.

The list may surprise some of you.

#1. Ford F-Series assembled in Michigan, Missouri, Kentucky, Virginia

#2. Chevrolet Silverado, Indiana, Michigan

#3. Toyota Camry, Kentucky

#4. Ford E-Series, Ohio

#5. Chevy Cobalt, Ohio

#6. Ford Explorer, Kentucky, Missouri

#7. Chevy Malibu, Kansas

#8. Ford Escape, Missouri

#9. Toyota Sienna, Indiana

#10. Chevy Trailblazer, Ohio

The funniest thing happened during dinner last night. We were enjoying pre dinner drinks at TGI Friday’s in Buffalo, when a large group of Amish folks were leaving the restaurant. A few of us were trying to figure out which cars in the lot might belong to them. I suggested the all black Liberty or the Chevy half ton work truck. One of our friends thought it would be either the plain jane Honda Civic sedan, or the black Escalade (oh the irony). It turned out that they crammed about ten people into a brown Toyota Sienna. I guess seatbelts (or seats for that matter) aren’t of much concern to the Amish.
The doors were still open, when a young lady, clad in a traditional skirt an little white hat, hopped out of the van and ran over to the big Chevy. When she fired it up, we could hear the rumble from inside and one of the guys at our table pointed out the chrome dual exhaust tips. The young driver then backed out of the parking spot & stopped behind the Sienna. At this point, she proceeded to LIGHT IT UP!!!

Now a bit of wheel spin might be construed as an accident, but what happened next was too cool. The big black truck again backed up across the lot. This time, it was quite obvious that the front wheels were locked, while the rear tires spun themselves silly, filling the air with blue tire smoke. When she released the brakes, the truck lunged forward as the tires bit & then they started to spin again, creating more smoke. The truck then stopped, the girl jumped out & ran around to the passenger side & a guy jumped in to drive away! It was one of those moments that you wished for a video camera, because nobody is going to believe you.

Ah…to be an Amish youth in Rumspringa!