Ricracing

Northern America is a huge area that did get invated by europeans some time ago.

In these days the US people do not have a vast social security as in wester Europe.
The labour union cost do not explain GM, Ford and in some part ol' MoPar problems.

The US car factories makes what the people wanted and that has been mostly pick-up trucks,
etc. still big sellers.
US did not learn anything from the energy crises back in the late '70's.

All in all, for those who do not understand US policy, culture, virtual democracy but also the
vast possibilities all this has produced must be an idiot.

Even the best makes misstakes - and not more about this.

But as an old Michigan resident visiting MI. towns like Cadillac etc, this hurts.

big_ipaq

If we leave aside BMW and generally premium cars, Ford Focus and Ford Mondeo, along with Mazda's build on same chasis, are the best handling low-cost cars in Europe.

m630

...you misunderstood me, what im saying is that without the US market, there is no big BMW, MB, Lexus or LV or anything that deals with luxury goods, its the US that buys them or at least allowed them to grow to the levels that they have in the past 2 decades, so infact, you can say they are producing these cars and goods for the US market, so to say that american's are less sophisticated is really a demeaning statement, though a common theme in the world today...unfortunately, the ROW really thinks that what they see on tv is true American life, and those of us here knoe that they could not be further from the truth..many of my european friends are shocked when the get to the US and dont see all the bs that hollywood puts out there as americana.....

as for appreciating things, im sure that americans appreciate things just as much as the rest of the world, do you somehow believe that the so called 'Uppper class' of europe are in any way superior just because they call themselves by titles and their lineage as somehow Royal or their blueblood makes them appreciate finer things more? It is surely for status as much in europe as in the US

i would say that Americans are the most sophisticated people in the world, in fact, we are so much so that we allow the world to spit on us and we keep on giving, though we are viewed as the evil empire.....

baadaaboo

Just cars??? I think more then that...

KAF

Now that is presumptuous !!

Uk525i

I'm not so sure European cars are better necessarily. Different, but not better. I'd love an American car, but pretty rare here in Uk. Apart from Kia ( with Cadillac badges on ! ).
Its a shame that European cars are now so common over there. On trips to US i used to love seeing your cars & it was like being in a movie set for me!, now it looks too like Europe!.

steve_gus

its strange that in the USA Lucas is seen as the 'prince of darkness' - things go wrong....... In the UK Lucas never had that reputation. Lucas has long since changed ownership.

In the british automotive media, the USA is felt to produce cars with crappy handling. I must say of the several hire cars (and the buick rendevous SUV I had for two weeks 3 months back) bear this out. The feeling is, you dont have real corners in America, so the car is set up really soft for comfort.

This compromise was stronly felt on the XJ-S Jag I owned once. It has 300hp through a USA 3 speed GM TH400 box - crap. Felt like 120hp with that box, but a great gentle cruiser. The handling was soft and crap too.... but then 50% of these cars went to the USA market, and the car was likely set up for that purpose.

Roads in the states are NOTHING LIKE those in the UK. We dont have big wide multi lane highways to the local mall. We generally have much narrower roads, with dual and 3 lane carriageways for major routes. Also, land was dived up over 100s of yeas, and you had to put roads between farmer brown and farmer jones's fields, so as a result you get twisty lanes, not fast wide routes.

So, essentially we have different roads and different requirements.

Our fuel is ballistically priced, so we drive smaller, potentially better handling cars.

We also generally have higher speed limits - you can at most times drive here at 80 mph in a 70 road without too much risk.

One further perception, not performance related, is that USA cars have crap interiors. Again, this is what ive seen in general - that all seem to look like the dash was designed by the same guy!




cheers

steve

ps - few people would buy the doblo

pps - USA didnt exactly help things re euro car quality when GM rescued Daewoo .............

steve_gus

I think the french and italians might argue with that.....


cheers

steve

UUronL

Here is my take on this issue - and it's one I have spent time pondering as well.


I'm 34 years old, and grew up riding in a myriad of Chrysler, Mercury, Lincoln, Dodge, Chevrolet, etc... automobiles. Most of my young life was spent in large floaty New Yorkers, etc... You get the idea.

As a teenager, my friends were borrowing their dads' old muscle cars and some even had 80s detroit V8 offerings like Mustang GTs and IROC Zs.


The reason I give this background, is because I'm describing -American cars-. The muscle car and the big boat comprise the most identifiable of American driving experiences. They are ours, and if you grew up during a certain time you can appreciate them.

The modern day Corvette probably scared the OP's wife because well... it's wickedly fast. There isn't much in the way of contemporary german offerings that can touch it (aside from the very fastest Porsche automobiles). Those would likely scare her too.


I travel quite a bit for work, and so I get subjected to a lot of rental cars. Even with memberships in #1 Club Gold and Emerald Isle, you get stuck with some real garbage. One bright spot though in my experience has been the Chevy Impala. I find that it is a really competent American car that reminds me of some of the American cars from my youth. I actually like driving it. It made me wonder if other Americans enjoyed driving an -American- car too, rather than an American car trying to mimick a Japanese car or a German car. I think the answer is that our SUVs drive very similarly to the old American passenger car archetype, and is probably one of the reasons they're so darned popular here. They're V8s, and they share some of the same dynamics as the old boats I grew up riding in.

Say what you will about our automotive industry, but we actually do a few things really well. Trucks and SUVs, and performance cars. The GT40, Viper, and Corvette are very capable cars. The $70K Escalade and the lower end Yukon Denali are simply wonderful vehicles to ride in.

daydok

Even though the Tesla is from San Carlos, CA, the actual car has the Lotus frame and build. (That's probably why you find it appealing).