The trips that we have made to Europe, we have found the roads and streets, especially in smaller town, are not made with large vehicles. Cars, to the US drivers, are an extension of themselves. Many go into significant debt to keep up appearances. Europeans have been used to high fuel prices and they drive appropriate automobiles. Manual transmission is the standard, automatics are the rarity. TBF, the distances traveled are shorter for daily drivers in Europe, US drivers spend a large amount of time on the road, getting to and from work.
I remember one trip where we rented a car and toured a good portion of the Danish/Northern German area. The vehicle was a manual transmission and there was a feature that caused me concern until I had gotten used to it. When pulled up to traffic light and stopping and depressing the clutch causes the engine to stop. I thought for sure we would need a tow back to the rental counter. It seems this is a feature to save fuel ans when you release the clutch, the engine springs back to life. Not sure what this does to starter life.
Europeans see automobiles as a tool to do a job, Americans see a status symbol as well as transportation, imo.
Do you think Europe has a vendetta against US auto makers as I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
From the roads I have driven in Ireland and Europe, nothing bigger than a Mazda MX3 would be my choice.
No, but they will soon. Rightfully so.
Yeah, a CrewCab F250 would be fun....NOT...The larger trucks you have would be a nightmare here.
You are allowed to import them and they are completely road legal but they just don't work well.
Do you think Europe has a vendetta against US auto makers as I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
The larger trucks you have would be a nightmare here.
You are allowed to import them and they are completely road legal but they just don't work well.
Nope. Ford are cutting back on production and Vauxhall Chrysler sold all their facilities to Peugot. That's their decision as the biggest selling cars each year were Fords and Vauxhall hatchbacks.
Just as a slightly different take - this video is of a guy letting American truck drivers try out his Scania at a truck show in the US. Their reaction to the comfort and drivability is interesting....
The actual test driving starts around 5 minutes and 55 seconds in.
You just don't see US style trucks at all here and from the video the same is true for Euro trucks in the US.
Which part of the country do you live in?
You'll see more of the big cab-over style trucks here away from London and they are just as big as the American counterparts. Main difference is that you can (if you are happy to pay more) get your American truck extended / customised a bit more in the US. In Europe, legislation banned trucks over 61.5 feet in length so the power unit and driver compartment in European trucks was built upwards so that you kept the same length but the trailer could be longer (and thus stay within the 61.5 feet limit.)
Military trucks that move tanks and other military vehicles around don't have to conform to those rules - and drivers don't need to sleep in the cab so the whole vehicle is dedicated to the power unit.
You'll see a lot of these down in Surrey near the tank training grounds as well as up here in the north.
I live in Bedforshire in East Anglia.
There will be large trucks in the area then. Pretty sure of it.
There are loads of large trucks for moving
Trump recently complained that Europe doesn't buy enough American cars but there are plenty of perfectly reason why we don't and in fact the UK used to buy an absolute shitload of US cars.
During the time of Tony Blair the talk was about politicians trying to capture the vote of the Mondeo Man (the Ford Mondeo was the top selling car for decades) who were middle class and seen as socially mobile at the time. That was a time when US companies could sell cars here and compete.
Now though US cars are larger than our roads can accomodate are not as fuel efficient and are just not designed with Europe in mind.
I don't think there's actually any anti-US bias when people buy a vehicle they just get the best they can for the budget they have and for a while that was the US then it was Japan and now it's Korea.
Do you think Europe has a vendetta against US auto makers as I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
Fun fact.. the biggest American Truck makers..owned by Europeans... Mercedes and Volvo specifically.I've been watching a few of those and the differences between US and Euro trucks is pretty insane.
I thought such a utilitarian vehicle would have been standardised long ago but the different styles are wild.
You just don't see US style trucks at all here and from the video the same is true for Euro trucks in the US.
Not being a trucker I have no idea which is best.
Volvo isn't owned by Europeans.Fun fact.. the biggest American Truck makers..owned by Europeans... Mercedes and Volvo specifically.
I've been watching a few of those and the differences between US and Euro trucks is pretty insane.
I thought such a utilitarian vehicle would have been standardised long ago but the different styles are wild.
You just don't see US style trucks at all here and from the video the same is true for Euro trucks in the US.
Not being a trucker I have no idea which is best.
Volvo isn't owned by Europeans.
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