This was an old topic (more than one year!)
As the situation evolved in that time, and even changed recently with the "made in" field, it is maybe better to make a new more precise definition than the one made above.

About cars with no flag, there are the "made for movie", "custom made" and most of the "unknown" which will stay without flag...

Is it an idea to put this sort of stuff, how to use the fields into the guidelines?
That way it will be read by more people I think...

I think the Volvo 343 is a bad example as it origin lies in The Netherlands, it was designed as a DAF....

There are quite a many vehicles identified but with no country origin flag (5-6 pages). Maybe we should decide a certain date to solve all these cases ? If several admins would do this work at the same time we would solve this quite quickly. It's a slow work to do on your own.

Made in US, yes, but the car was still originated from Chrysler France...
Cars made for other countries often got other engines and trim etc.

Pour les Dodge Omni et Plymouth Horizon: seule la carrosserie était similaire au modèle européen. En revanche, elles étaient largement surmotorisées pour pouvoir supporter le choc de la dépollution de l'époque. Donc, dans ce cas, il me semble qu'on peut les lister "made in US"

OK then we agree

What aboux the VW Fox that we have in Europe? I listed it as "origin: Brazil, made for: EU" as it is similar to the original brazilian model, and built there.

That's exactly what I mean. If a car is being built in a different country but not sold as a car from that different country, then the origin is the country where the brand name came from. For example the BMW X5 and Z4 are being regarded as German cars, even though the factory is located in South Carolina, USA. And if there is a special version solely sold in the USA, then it would be 'Origin: Germany, Made for: USA' even though it never left the USA.

We cannot list all the cars with a simple rule like "country where it is produced" or "country where it is designed".
Lots of Japanese and German cars made for USA are produced in USA, but they should be listed as originating from Japan and Germany, IMHO.
Same for Dodge Omni / Plymouth Horizon : though they were sold under US makes and produced in USA, they are, for me, French cars: they were designed by Chrysler France.

How to use the new fields 'Origin' and 'Made for'


'Made for' is an optional field that shows for which country a car was made, if it differs from the regular model.
Examples:
- European cars made for the USA, als regulations demanded different lights
- Cars from the Americas sold in Europe under a different model or even different brand name


'Origin' is the country where a car was produced.
Examples:
- Ford Mustang: USA
- Ford Anglia: UK
- Ford Vedette: France
- Ford Taunus: Germany

So not the country where the corporation is at home is important, but independent subsidaries that sell cars under their name for their (local) market.

Difficult are those companies that own factories in other countries that are just used for the production of a car.
Examples:
- Volkswagen produced in Bratislava, Slovakia
- Saab in Nystad, Finland
- Volvo in Born, the Netherlands

As those companies sell their cars as if made in the home country this is the country name that should be used.

The same applies to cars produced by a sub-contractor.
Examples:
- Volvo in West Bromwich, UK, by Jensen
- Chrysler, BMW, Saab, Mercedes-Benz, and Jeep in Graz, Austria, by Magna Steyr

Here, too, the county is that of the company who's brand name is used (S, USA, D, respectively).


It is not so important were a car was first designed, otherwise the first cars of BMW or Rosengart would be British.


Global aspects and ownership makes it more and more difficult to classify a car exactly. Very often it helps to see how a company is regarding this aspect. For example Bentley is strongly pointing out that they are British, even though the new Bentley Continental Flying Spur is being produced in Dresden and is related to the VW Phaeton.