The days of American cars looking like they were designed on another planet compared to those from Europe and Japan are long gone as American manufacturers now design cars that often look as though they could quite easily have come out of a design studio in Stuttgart, Paris or London as one in Detroit.

However, it appears America prefers models from foreign manufacturers; just take a look at the shortlist for this year's North American Car of the Year (NACOTY) Awards. The semifinal shortlist of ten contenders has just been published, and there isn't a single American car on the list.

To be fair, a good number of the semifinalists are built on production lines in the U.S., but the manufacturers are almost exclusively German, Japanese and South Korean. The only contender from outside those three territories is the Alfa Romeo Giulia. If anything, the list shows the growing dominance of Asia as a powerhouse of automotive excellence.

Three German cars make the list, which are the Audi A5/S5 Sportback, the BMW 5 Series and the Porsche Panamera. Two evergreen models that have dominated the American sedan market for decades, the Honda Accord and the Toyota Camry, predictably make the list in their 2018 model year forms. The other Japanese representatives are the relatively niche Subaru Impreza and the Lexus LC.

The list is completed by three models from South Korea in the form of the Hyundai Ioniq, Kia Rio and the Kia Stinger, which is testament to just how far those two brands have come in the last decade or so.

Of course, trucks are the really big-selling vehicles in the US, and the three contenders for the truck of the year award are all American: the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2, the Ford Expedition and the Lincoln Navigator.

Three finalists for the NACOTY award will be announced during the Los Angeles Auto Show in November, with the winner then being unveiled at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January.