Why Don't We Have More European Cars In America?

Why don't we have [insert adorable Euro vehicle here] in America? Well. the answer is both easy and complicated.

[AMXBB]

European cars aren't rated to carry americans, that's why we don't need 200 HP in every car.

[LogitechXibanga]

"European cars are smaller because european roads are smaller" And european people and thiner too

[ScubaChris]

People get so hung up with 0-60 times and then spend most of their time in slow moving city traffic.

[Whatley]

I'm probably a bit late here, given that this was uploaded in early 2020, but let me weigh in here as a German:
Many of us Europeans tend to prefer smaller vehicles because:
+ as was mentioned, our infrastructure is smaller. This is due to the fact that most of our cities are fairly old (many 100s of years) and were thus founded at a time when cars weren't a thing (compare this for example to something like Las Vegas). This means that municipal pathways and parking spaces - while they have obviously widened over time - just cannot be as wide as they are for instance in countries that are much more expansive, like the US or Russia.
+ We are much more fuel-"sensitive", meaning we do gravitate to more fuel-efficient cars, given the expensive fuel we have to buy and the high taxing rates for high-displacement vehicles. We are also governed by highly ecologically minded politicians, who like to introduce very strict ecological policy rules, making gas-guzzlers fairly inattractive.
+ There is (weirdly) a shared sense of "he who's got a big car is a big j3rk". The thinking goes that people who feel the need to buy large, expensive, massive cars somehow have something to compensate which makes them seem less intelligent than people who go for the "optimal choice".
+ Lastly, our distances are just shorter and we are much more densely populated overall (233 people per km² in Germany vs. 33 people per km² in the States). I'm in the centre of Germany, if I drove four hours into any direction, I'd be leaving the country. Country-crossing trips are USUALLY only done for holidays and only if you really insist on going by car. Otherwise, people just like to fly.
I don't. That's why I drove my Renault Scenic all the way down to Madrid and back :)

[legambaz]

Compare to the rest of the world, cars in America are dirt cheap, roads are like runways; wide and all in straight lines only, parking lots are aplenty and mostly free, gas is cheap like bottled water.

[DigitalYojimbo]

This video should be named, why we don't have American cars in Europe.

[SimonPearce]

"If you have a 50hp car its going to be tricky to maintain 80mph on the auto-strada", says the man who's never been passed by a CinqueCento at 100+

[silveriorebelo]

wonderful logic: American cars are too big for European roads, and that's why there are not many compact European cars in the USA... lol lol lol lol

[SkywalkerWroc]

"Europeans are no necessarily shorter" - what a weird thing to say, on average Europeans are taller than Americans
"Wider drivers, that could a little bit of a problem, because European vehicles tend to be fairly narrow on the inside"... we're not as fat as Americans.

[pedrotrindade]

please every car can run 120kmh if driven properly (my 1.0 Up! can do at least 150 without any issues)

[GreySharr]

I drive a 1.2L 60Hp Fiat Punto and trust me, even though it is NOT fast by any mean, I can easily get to 130km/h on the French highway, and I even did 170 just for fun one day, so really the size of the engine is by no way defining its abilities. And while driving in a city, it is a perfect engine, it doesn't consume that much and has a nice enough acceleration for the road conditions.


Even if I'm considering buying a ~150Hp Peugeot 308, this is just because I want more horsepower, not that I need more.


Also it would have been cool to see other european cars like the 208/308/2008/3008 from Peugeot to compare

[EdwinV]

The Kia Soul isn't European, Kia's are from South Korea.
Last time I checked, South Korea isn't in Europe...

[imnotusingmyrealname]

There are also taxes that scale with power or emissions which are also a deterrent to buying a powerful vehicle.

[DerDoJo]

10:00 - i was driving a 50HP car for almost 10 years on the Autobahn. maintaining 130-150 km/h (90-95 mph) was no problem. Getting there was tricky. But 120km/h (75 mph) was always possible easily.

[giovannibez]

"0-60 in 11 second is slow" Dude, my 69hp Yaris does 0-60 in 18 seconds (and i am optimistic).

[ldmtag]

Most european cars can go way above the speed limit. The difficult part is to pass slow vehicleson the narrow road

[stoffr]

I think you have just misunderstood the whole concept of buying a car: to buy a car that suit your needs. So while you talk all big about American horsepowers, 0-60 and 1/4 mile times, you fail to realise that a fiat 500 wasn't even built for this. Same with all the other compacts. They are rental cars and for old ladys/first time buyers. Its not going to haul 2 tonnes of water up Ike gauntlet or compete against a charger on the highway. It's strange that you think that America is STILL a trendsetter but reality is it hasn't been since the 80's.

[rgoonewardene]

In London, where the average speed is about 8mph, with traffic lights every few hundred yards, whether your 0-60 is 3 or 13 seconds, is of little consequence.

[bullsharkreef]

I rented a Peugeot 308 diesel while traveling in Greece. This thing cost nothing in fuel, the first day I thought the fuel gauge was broken because it wasn't moving, yet I never felt like I was underpowered even in mountainous roads. I would purchase this car immediately, as in I would be on my way to the dealer right now, if it was available in North America(Canada).

[ast]

A couple of notes:
- Many of us live in cities and have no need to leave said city more than once a week. Base engines are considered the "city choice". But for most of us the Captur 0.9 is underpowered. You're gonna get good city fuel economy but it drops significantly outside of it due to the 5 speed gearbox and the fact that you have to floor it to go anywhere. Our bigger engines don't really consume more fuel outside the city but the EU test cycle seems to reward smaller engines which is why we have them. It's not about the consumer. They calculate CO2 emissions based on the fuel economy cycle and if it's over 95 gramms/km (45-ish US mpg equivalent) the manufacturer has to pay a significant penalty for each vehicle sold.

- We love(d) diesels (thanks VW...) because they get you real world 45-50 mpg if you drive them gently and they have variable geometry turbos (something you don't find in 99% of turbo petrol engines due to problems with heat management) which means they have peak torque at 1500 RPM and even in that region there is virtually no lag. That responsiveness is missing from turbo petrol engines. They have peak torque down low but if you floor them at 1500 RPM it's gonna take 3 seconds to get into boost vs 1 second in a diesel.

- Our parking spots are smaller but we learned to use them better. If a spot is 5-6 feet longer than your car, it's considered big and easy to park. 3 feet longer than the car is still fine for us. And we do that even if the car has no parking sensors or cameras.

- Due to fuel prices it's often cheaper to fly to a holiday destination than it is to drive there so we rarely drive more than an hour at a time.