import re

lof_terms = ['car', 'car manufacturer', 'popular']
str_content = 'This is a very popular car manufacturer.'

rx = r"(?=\b({})\b)".format("|".join(map(re.escape, sorted(lof_terms, key=len, reverse=True))))
pattern = re.compile(rx)
found_terms = re.findall(pattern, str_content)
print(found_terms)