Mentioned in a recent thread, which I'll admit to not being able to find, the sorry facts about why US cars are so rare in Europe are laid out in this article. Some of it is obvious, like the sheer size of some US vehicles, and others are not. It's worth watching, even if it engenders even more acrimony between trading partners for many other, perhaps less expensive items. I have a real Hamilton watch, but apart from that, and stuff I've bought whilst IN the USA, or all of my reloading equipment [ALL US-made], and two Ruger handguns, I have one other thing made in the USA - my hoodie, from Tillamook Cheese Factory, made in California.

Anyhow -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v4BB6L_nRw

And please remember that I am NOT the author. Brickbats on the YouTube page, please.

Thanks for posting. I did not find anything that I would not agree with. That video just stated it like it is.

When I was stationed in Germany, they loved our sports / muscle cars both older ones and new ones and many times I would see them and on the autobahn. I would also sometimes see the SUV and trucks. God Bless

An honest appraisal of how many American cars would actually be sold in England or Europe cannot be seen without eliminating the VAT and other onerous taxes on them.

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Originally posted by tacfoley:
Mentioned in a recent thread, which I'll admit to not being able to find, the sorry facts about why US cars are so rare in Europe are laid out in this article. Some of it is obvious, like the sheer size of some US vehicles, and others are not.....

Overall I agree and Euro vehicles are generally smaller overall. But there are luxury cars like Mercedes that are larger than Cadillacs.

Size of SUV's was brought up "Chevrolet's Equinox is elephantine compared to a VW Tiguan" when it's not "elephantine" at all, actually they are essentially the same size.

Equinox 183"L 74"W 65-66"H

Tiguan 186"L 72"W 66"H

I didn’t care for that video much. Tac, I don’t consider that a “brickbat.”

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Originally posted by PowerSurge:
An honest appraisal of how many American cars would actually be sold in England or Europe cannot be seen without eliminating the VAT and other onerous taxes on them.

Yep, they use high import taxes to control market access. Ford and GM have companies there to beat these tariff/tax/vat.

Some of the most popular vehicles in England are Fords, Cortina, Fiesta, Focus, Puma, Transit and Mondeo.

Same here, TMats. If there was any mention of American-made compact vehicles that would work just fine on European roads I missed the reference. It was all big cars and SUV's, with lots of shots of muscle cars from the '60's and beat-up jalopies from the '50's.

That video is just another attempt at validating Euros hate for America and Americans and the comments reflect that.

Not sure if this has been mentioned in Part one.

Another reason influencing car purchases in Germany is how they are taxed. Not sure what the current rates are but an example is 20/30/40 euro per 100cm of displacement. So if you buy a 5.0 liter engine it would be 1000/1500/2000 euro a year tax on the vehicle regardless of origin. The rates are based on emissions class. So displacement and emissions determine your annual taxes.

There is a fixed rate on historic vehicles so regardless of displacement it is one price.

IIRC, Both Ford and GM have/hgad UK and EU plants, the top selling car in the UK is the Ford Puma and Transit van (commercial) for years the Fiesta, Focus, Cortina, Mondeo have all led sales in the UK.

Opel and Vauxhall were GM brands until being sold and eventually being owned by Stellantis.

So basically to stay around vat/tariff Ford builds cars in the UK.

I’m not convinced size is what matters since the US makes plenty of models that equal the sizes available in Europe. Fuel economy would seem to follow. Handling could certainly be an issue as well as quality though Renault and some British models have had reliability problems too. German cars recently have lost their reliability reputation too. Mostly I can see why Europeans would rather support the EU economy just the same as Americans might want to support US manufacturing (though it’s more and more with foreign labor, parts sources and assembly).

Don't forget US vehicles are Left hand drive, UK folks still insist on driving on the wrong side of the roads

We do make vehicles that would work, but we'd have to setup a whole line to build RHD cars.

Nothing was incorrect, some of the comparisons were odd such as comparing a Ford Mustang with a BMW M-series...huh? Or, the over-exaggeration of vehicle sizes, a BMW 3 or, 5-series, a Mercedes E-class or a Skoda Octavia are same sized as American-model counterparts; of course this overstatement gets emphasized with the video/imagery used. Like here, if there was Hellcats, Chargers, and Cameroes available in Europe, a good number of twenty-somethings would buy them up, make lots of noise late at night, do stupid things and then sell them off as their life-changes.

The biggest hinderance to American vehicles making an impact in Europe is 3-fold:
1. there's a lot of car brands in Europe, from the established German big-5, the longtime UK, French & Italian brands, to small unknown brands that don't come to the US like Dacia, Skoda, SEAT and Capra. Its a crowded field which makes Ford's continued presence rather impressive.

2. Home sizes in Europe are smaller & more dense thus parking is much harder, most people live in apartments/flats/condos; not unusual to go to small cities and there's many, many high-rise residential buildings right up against each other and the garage holds a fraction of the number of residences. There's definitely single-family homes all around but, garages are usually off-site at some distance and the town/village being very old the streets are tiny compared to US roads. Sure a farmer in France could use a F-150 but, the town he has to go into is still tiny making navigating a chore.

3. Lastly the ace-card, if tariffs don't scare-off companies its the regulatory environment...VAT, fuel taxes, emissions penalties, registration and a variety of other surcharges are all intentionally designed to create an onerous process to discourage vehicle usage in-general.

An American idea of a European car is not really representative of what normal people drive. Sure, BMW and Mercedes make some large models that get imported here, but most people don't actually drive those over there, unless they're filthy rich. Even in Germany you'd see a lot more 3-series BMWs and C-Class Mercedes than the big 7s and Ss.

Back when I lived in Europe growing up my family had a 1994 Skoda Forman until it got stolen. It was a tiny, cheap, no-frills wagon. Think better than a Lada, worse than a VW. 1.3L engine, top speed of 140km/hr on the Autobahn, manual everything. Cramming our family of five into it pretty much required a shoehorn. But it was small, practical, and pretty much the go-to model for a regular family that made enough money to afford a car in the Czech Republic at the time, and competitive with your Fiats, Renaults, Seats, etc.

We knew people that had brought their 1991 Ford Explorer over with them, and that thing was an absolute monster on European roads (and compared to current models the '91 was tiny!). The shipping costs, import duties, and emissions mods they had to make to comply with Euro regs were outrageous, and just driving the thing around was horribly expensive because gas costs twice as much as it does here.

Yes, the US market has some subcompacts, but let's be honest, would you rather have a Chevy Spark or a VW Golf? The Europeans are just better in that sector. Ford also makes cars in Europe, specifically designed for the Euro market, and they sell pretty well. American cars, designed for use in the US, just aren't optimized for use in Europe.

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Originally posted by HRK:

quote:

Originally posted by PowerSurge:
An honest appraisal of how many American cars would actually be sold in England or Europe cannot be seen without eliminating the VAT and other onerous taxes on them.

Yep, they use high import taxes to control market access. Ford and GM have companies there to beat these tariff/tax/vat.

Some of the most popular vehicles in England are Fords, Cortina, Fiesta, Focus, Puma, Transit and Mondeo.

Fords are made right here in Dagenham Essex but the Cortina ceased production in the late 70s, the Focus is also built in Spain and a few other places, like the Fiesta. the Puma is long-gone, the Transit is THE most popular van, ever, and the Mondeo is also history.

We have your ford Edge 'compact' SUV, the same size as my Skoda Kodiaq, and the Ford S-Max mpv - a one-of-a-kind family mpv. The Kuga is the mid-sized SUV and of course, electric stuff, of which I know nothing.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: tacfoley,

[URL= ]This was in Helsinki Finland last fall[/URL]

quote:

Originally posted by tacfoley:
Fords are made right here in Dagenham Essex but the Cortina ceased production in the late 70s, the Focus is also built in Spain and a few other places, like the Fiesta. the Puma is long-gone, the Transit is THE most popular van, ever, and the Mondeo is also history.

Is Vauxhall still a GM brand?

I remember letting my daughter climb into the car thru the hatchback, knock the car out of gear and release the parking brake so I could push the car out of a slot in a parking garage because they were so tight you could not even open the doors with cars parked correctly. It was a Mercedes B Klasse which is not even that big.

It helps living in a country where the road widths aren't determined by the width of an ox cart.

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Originally posted by corsair:
Is Vauxhall still a GM brand?

Opel/Vauxhall got sold to whatever group Peugeot's apart of. GM doesn't have a consumer level brand in Europe anymore, and I think they're trying to reintroduce Cadillac.