I received an email the other day from Donald Dale of Suffolk, Va. Dale owns a 2008 Buick Enclave, which he was considering replacing with a 2013 Buick Encore. That is, until Dale discovered that the Encore was built in Korea. Now he’s having second thoughts.

"I’m no jingoist," he said, explaining that he wanted to buy a product that was built in America and thereby support our economy.

But as Dale discovered, buying simply by brand name won’t assure you that you’re buying American.

General Motors and Ford have had international operations for decades. Until recently, overseas divisions ran independently of their U.S. corporate parents. It’s not hard to understand why: For most of that time, the typical American car, truck or van was much larger than vehicles sold elsewhere.

In the past few years, rising fuel prices forced many motorists to seek smaller, more fuel-efficient cars just as the federal government toughened fuel economy standards.

In response, GM, Ford and Chrysler did what Toyota, Honda and Nissan have done for decades: Produce one model in a segment and sell it worldwide. They did this by bringing in the smaller car designs that they built elsewhere.

So General Motors’ German Opel division designed the Opel Insignia, and it’s sold here as the Buick Regal. GM’s Australian division, Holden, built the platform that underpins the Chevrolet Camaro. And remember Korean automaker Daewoo? It’s now GM Korea; it engineered and builds the Chevrolet Cruze, Spark and Sonic, and the Buick Encore.

GM isn’t alone.

Ford’s small-car lineup, including the Fiesta, Focus and C-Max, has a European feel because Ford’s European operations created them. Ford’s EcoBoost 2.0-liter engine is built in Spain; the Ford Fusion is built in Mexico.

Chrysler, now majority-owned by Fiat, builds the Dodge Dart in Illinois with a U.S. engine. It sports an Italian transmission and a platform derived from the Alfa Romeo Giulietta. Is the Dodge American or Italian? Is Chrysler an American company or a European one?

Such questions are becoming harder to answer.

In the meantime, Honda, Nissan, Toyota, Subaru, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and BMW have manufacturing plants in the United States. According to Automotive News, 39 percent of all U.S. auto industry employees work for a foreign automaker.

If such things matter to you, look at the price sticker on the new car or truck you intend to buy. There, you’ll find a box titled "parts content information." It lists the country of origin for that vehicle’s parts, engine, transmission and final assembly point.

It may surprise you.

Consider two competing compact sedans: the Honda Civic and the Chevrolet Cruze.

The Honda Civic is built in Marysville, Ohio. The Cruze is built in Greensburg, Indiana. Both facts can be found on their price sticker. And so can this one: 65 percent of the parts on a Honda Civic come from the U.S. or Canada. For the Chevrolet Cruze? 45 percent.

Which car is the import and which the domestic?

In a world in which nothing is certain but changing times, old assumptions are hard to dismiss; the facts, much more so.