Purpose The main purpose of the research is to continue to the understanding of the relationship between the country-of-origin effects and automobile evaluation and apply the Extended COO-ELM model(Bloemer, Brijs and Kasper, 2009) for the cognitive processes underlying country of  origin-effects. The study also aims to give managers some information to assess consumer's purchase intentions of car and assist them in managing their product's COO. Design/methodology/approach A self-administered survey was used in this study.The main samples consist of the 31 students in Linnaeus university from more than 10 countries.The Spss software was used to analyze the empirical data which provide the source of judging three hypothesis of the study. Findings The results indicated the impact of country of origin on automobile evaluation is mainly moderated by other prior country-product knowledge rather than the perceived economic development.In addition, the different cognitive processes  underlying country of origin-effects occur when responders evaluating Chinese automobile and Swedish automobile Originality?Value The paper applies ELM model with extensions.This finding yields some insight for the efficiency in marketing strategy of Chinese car and Swedish car. By designing the marketing strategy more efficiently, the managers will subsequently make a better decision of how brand and country of origin should be managed. Paper type Research paper