Greg Shafer ended a lifelong streak of buying U.S.-made cars when in August the 53-year-old drove out of a Columbus, Ohio, dealership behind the wheel of a Buick Envision.

His $40,000 sport-utility vehicle is one of the first cars to be sold in America that was built in China. Mr. Shafer decided its provenance wasn't an issue because "once you drive it and experience all the features, it feels far from a made-in-China car."

As the U.S. auto industry's rising reliance on Mexican car factories becomes a hot topic in the 2016 presidential election, customers like Mr. Shafer are delivering a boost to General Motors Co.'s made-in-China strategy.

The No.1 U.S. auto maker in terms of sales started selling the Chinese-built Buick Envision in North American dealerships in late spring, importing relatively small numbers of the vehicles to give a boost to the Buick brand. A few months into the experiment, dealers are clamoring for more because they say most of their customers don't care where the vehicle is made.

"There has been very little pushback," said Chris Haydocy, co-owner of the Haydocy Buick GMC in Columbus, where Mr. Shafer bought his SUV. "Most people realize the world is flat now."

U.S. auto buyers routinely purchase cars imported from Asia, including South Korea and Japan, and much of the initial disdain for those products has faded as imported nameplates become the norm. Ford Motor Co.'s plans to invest $1.6 billion in a new small-car plant in Mexico has become a symbol of U.S. production jobs being exported in election debates. Mexico's share of North American production has doubled to 20% in the past decade, with most of the output slated for the U.S.

The made-in-China label is a new one for the U.S. auto industry and represents a hurdle due to quality concerns. Cars with bad fit-and-finish and outdated components have been displayed by indigenous Chinese auto makers at U.S. auto shows for years, but have never been made available for sale here.

China's growing reputation for making higher-end consumer goods such as Apple Inc.'s iPhone has made the idea of Chinese-made cars more acceptable for U.S. buyers, said Michael Dunne, a strategy and investment adviser at Dunne Automotive Ltd.

GM's decision to import the Envision, disclosed late last year, riled factory workers at home. The United Auto Workers called it a "slap in the face to U.S. taxpayers" that had financially supported GM in the 2009 bailout of the auto industry.

GM said the strategy made sense because Buick, which is one of the largest-selling brands in China, had holes in its U.S. product lineup at a time when low gasoline prices had buyers clamoring for more SUVs. With ample Envision capacity at a Shandong province factory, executives decided to carve out tens of thousands of units and send them to the U.S.

"This is the advantage of having such a strong presence in the two biggest markets in the world," GM North America President Alan Batey said in an interview. "We couldn't have done it [in the U.S.] if China hadn't done that vehicle."

Volvo Car Corp., owned by China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, last year began shipping small numbers of a version of its S60 sedan to the U.S. from a plant in Chengdu province.

In the U.S., Buick barely ranks among the top 20 auto brands by sales volume. The brand is a stalwart in China, however, where sales are quadruple Buick's annual U.S. volume and more than double what Chevrolet sells in China.

The Envision is built by Shanghai GM, the auto maker's joint venture with SAIC Motor Corp., but was designed and engineered by GM at a facility just outside Detroit. Last week, the Envision earned the top safety rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

The Envision quickly became one of Buick's top sellers in China as buyers moved to SUVs from sedans and vans. GM sold about 150,000 Envisions last year—its first full year on the market—and is on pace to top 200,000 this year, on par with Jeep Cherokee sales in the U.S. The brand is selling more than 1,500 Envisions a month in the U.S. as GM ramps up imports.

Greg Heath, managing partner at Mark Christopher Auto Center in Ontario, Calif., said he is less worried about his customers' perception of the Envision's Chinese origins than he is about getting more of the SUVs. His dealership sells GM vehicles, including Buick.

"We'll get them in droves from a big shipment," he said. "Then it'll be months before we get any more."

Made-in-China cars aren't expected to become a big part of overall U.S. car sales. Mr. Dunne said other auto makers may ship cars from China to the U.S. as production capacity there surges ahead of demand. China's car factories will have the capacity to make about 40 million light vehicles this year, while sales are forecast to hit around 25 million, according to researcher IHS Automotive.

Western auto makers are likely to limit any exports from China because it is usually more profitable to build cars where they're sold, Mr. Dunne said. There are timing issues, too. U.S. Buick dealers said it can take as long as six months to receive a custom-made Envision, more than double the normal wait time for a vehicle assembled in North America.

Write to Mike Colias at mike.colias@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 06, 2016 12:55 ET (16:55 GMT)