Did You Know the Chevy Silverado Is Built in Canada? These Other Imported Cars May Surprise You Too
Canada's car industry produces more than 1 million cars annually, both mainstream products and some spicier fare.In the past, there have been some unusual Canadian-market oddities like the Chevy Beaumont, but t...
- Canada's car industry produces more than 1 million cars annually, both mainstream products and some spicier fare.
- In the past, there have been some unusual Canadian-market oddities like the Chevy Beaumont, but the North American market is more homogenous today.
- The Canadian car industry is also quite old, with Ford of Canada being established four years before the Model T arrived.
Early July is celebratory BBQ season on both sides of the 49th parallel, with Canada celebrating its national holiday today, on the first of the month. While there's a certain amount of cross-border tension these days with tariffs, the U.S. and Canada's automotive industries are deeply intertwined, with parts and assembly flowing to and fro across the line. It's a bit like that Journey song where the small-town girl and the city boy meet on the midnight train. Geographically speaking, South Detroit would be located in Windsor, Ontario.
As such, we salute the car industry of Canada on this anniversary day of the country's confederation with a tip of the hat—perhaps a serge, Mountie-style one—to the actual cars that are built there. Here's a look at some four-wheeled machinery that's impeccably polite right up until you start making fun of hockey and/or Bryan Adams.
Toyota RAV4
Toyota is, somewhat surprisingly, the largest Canadian automaker, responsible for about half the industry's production. Located in Cambridge and Woodstock in Ontario, Toyota Manufacturing Canada (TMMC) has sprawling facilities that employ thousands of people, and yes, there's a Tim Hortons cafe right on the grounds. Can't start your shift right without a double-double and a pack of Timbits, eh?
The RAV4 is easily the bestselling passenger vehicle in Canada, just as it is south of the border. Doesn't matter whether you're taking Junior to hockey practice or baseball tryouts, a mid-size crossover that can haul gear and put up with the occasionally snowy winter works well everywhere.
Lexus NX and RX
TMMC also assembles the non-plug-in hybrid versions of the Lexus NX and RX in Ontario. The plug-in versions are imported from Japan, the same as with the PHEV version of the RAV4.
Honda Civic and CR-V
Honda has a bit of an interesting early Canadian history, in that the company sold cars there years before trying to get into the U.S. market with the little N600. Able to be ordered through certain Honda motorcycle dealers across the country, the sporty but tiny S600 was sold in roadster and coupe form in the mid-1960s, complete with a small-displacement four-cylinder that could rev to 9500 rpm. If a moose ran out in front of you, then you could just drive under it.
Modern Honda offerings are a lot less exotic, with the CR-V and the sedan version of the Civic being Honda's main Canadian-built models. The Civic began production in Alliston, Ontario, in 1986, and there was a minor flutter when the then-president of Honda's global operations let slip that the Canadian-made cars were actually scoring better in quality control tests than the Japanese-made ones.
Chevy Silverado
A country that produces 40 million tons of wheat every year requires a lot of pickup trucks to get farming jobs done, and it's no surprise that Canadians buy a lot of pickups. They also build them, at GM's Oshawa plant, at least the combustion-powered versions. The Silverado EV is built in Detroit, or, as Windsor residents might call it, North Windsor.
Chrysler Pacifica
Mopar vans have been as much a part of junior league hockey tournaments as the Zamboni that polishes the ice since the early 1980s. And, since 1983, Chrysler has been building them in Windsor Assembly, a facility with roots stretching back to the 1920s.
Dodge Charger
Also built in Windsor, Dodge's Charger, both in EV form and with the twin-turbo inline-six. The previous Challengers were also built in Ontario, although at Stellantis' Brampton plant—and yes, that includes the Hellcat.
It might seem odd that such an all-American supercharged slab of muscle would be assembled in Canada with V-8s shipped from the U.S., but there's some hellish precedent. In WWII, one of the toughest special-forces units out there was the Devil's Brigade First Special Service, a joint U.S.-Canadian fighting force that was the forerunner to the Green Berets. They were feared by the enemy and also tended to "liberate" Jeeps from other Allied forces.
Ford Mustang GTD
Every Mustang GTD chassis starts out being made in Flat Rock, Michigan, the same as every other Mustang variant. However, to build its most special 'Stang, Ford then ships the GTD's bones up to Markham, Ontario, home of Multimatic.
More of a niche specialist than factory-level production, Multimatic is actually five companies with different specialties. The GTD is handled by Special Vehicle Operations, which also built the previous Ford GT and makes sure every example of the wildest Mustang is both brutally fast and also has a faint whiff of maple syrup about it.
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Brendan McAleer is a freelance writer and photographer based in North Vancouver, B.C., Canada. He grew up splitting his knuckles on British automobiles, came of age in the golden era of Japanese sport-compact performance, and began writing about cars and people in 2008. His particular interest is the intersection between humanity and machinery, whether it is the racing career of Walter Cronkite or Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki's half-century obsession with the Citroën 2CV. He has taught both of his young daughters how to shift a manual transmission and is grateful for the excuse they provide to be perpetually buying Hot Wheels.