83.8 percent of its autos sold in US were made in N. America

A record percentage of Honda vehicles sold in the United States last year were built in North America, the Japanese carmaker said Friday - further blurring the definition of what constitutes a foreign or domestic vehicle.

The carmaker, whose U.S. and North American headquarters are in Torrance, said 83.8 percent of its Honda and luxury Acura vehicles sold here were made in this continent.

By contrast, in 2008, 77 percent of vehicles sold in the United States were built either in this country, Canada or Mexico.

"As part of our long-standing commitment to build Honda and Acura products close to our customers, we have steadily deepened our automobile manufacturing roots in the U.S. and the North America region," Tetsuo Iwamura, president and CEO of Torrance-based American Honda Motor Co. Inc., said in a statement.

Honda, which started producing cars in the United States in 1982, has worked to brand itself as American to U.S. consumers by emphasizing its major operations and thousands of workers in the United States.

Honda builds 15 automobile models at seven North American plants, four of the factories in the United States. Honda has two plants in Ohio and one each in Alabama and Indiana.

A big reason for last year's increased percentage of sales of U.S.-built vehicles is the rising share of Honda CR-V SUVs sold last year. The CR-V is built in Ohio