DRIVING CULTURE CLASH: Why do our Cars LOOK so Radically Different?

Car culture defines both the American Dream and modern German 'Zeitgeist'. The American Auto Industry is embodied by imagery of freedom, adventure and power; while German car culture embodies precision, engineering excellence and technical superiority... But in 2023, we still value a lot of the same qualities in our vehicles as consumers. So why do the bestselling German car versus the bestselling US car, look so radically different from one another? The answer may surprise you.

Join me as I discover the driving preferences, design philosophies, and performance capabilities that define the best-selling cars in the USA and Germany. We'll explore factors such as fuel efficiency, technology features, safety ratings, and driving experiences to provide you with an in-depth analysis.

Whether you're a car enthusiast, planning to buy a new car, or simply curious about the automotive industry, this comparison will leave you informed and entertained. Buckle up as we take you on a thrilling ride through the world of automotive excellence!

Let the battle of the bestsellers begin! 🏁🏆

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Episode 114 | #germany #usa #family #car #autoban #drivingingermany #driving #cycling #ford #volkswagen #mercedes #mercedesbenz #audi #germancars #americancars #americana #engineering #germanengineering #motor #motorsport #expatlife #movingabroad #americaningermany #america #livingabroad | Filmed July 28th, 2023

Jump to Your Favorite Topic 🙌 :
00:00 Intro
01:31 American Car Culture vs. German Car Culture
04:24 Bestelling Car in America vs. Bestselling Car in Germany
08:21 Radically different Automobile Safety Standards
13:20 The Most Important Factor in Car Buying Trends
17:02 We are all getting fatter
21:04 Want to video chat with me?

Other Videos from our Channel on Driving in Germany and Car Culture 🇩🇪 :

(BAD!!) Driving: Germany vs. USA | The WORST Drivers?

DRIVING IN GERMANY CULTURE SHOCKS | What Surprises Americans

Driving: Germany vs. USA | This Surprised Us!

🎥 More Videos to Check Out:

@NotJustBikes These Stupid Trucks are Literally Killing Us

@DWREV What Happened To Quality German Cars?

@CuriousReason Why Did The American Car Industry Fail?

📝 Sources from this Video:

Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (2018) "Zukunft der Automobilindustrie"

Car and Driver Magazine (2022) "The 25 Bestselling Cars, Trucks, and SUVs of 2022"

Axios (2023) "Pickup Trucks: From Workhorse to Joyride"

Governors Highway Safety Association (2022) "Pedestrian Traffic Fatalities by State"

Euro NCAP (2022) "Safest Family Car Report"

Resources for You:

Need English speaking insurance plans in Germany? Check out Feather!

Want to Learn German, English, French, or Spanish? We use Lingoda for German, check them out!

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[TypeAshton]

Correction to the Video: The Ford KUGA is the European Counterpart to the Ford Escape (not the EcoSport as noted in the video). Although fun fact! The Ford EcoSport is not even available for purchase in the United States. In Europe, the EcoSport is the small SUV option to the larger KUGA, where as the Escape is the smallest SUV offered to US consumers in the Ford line-up.

[johnhendriks]

I think the cars in Germany are not very different from the rest of Europe. I am from Amsterdam and I think the Netherlands look like Germany. I think the general point is that drivers in Europe value quality over quantity. It is not good to generalise in general but my idea is that Americans want everything bigger than everyone else in the world.

[clara-sophievogel]

It is actually a pretty common concern in german news by now, that especially newer models of high class brands such as bmw reduce window size and visibility for the driver in favor of a heavier exterior and more safety for the people inside the car, relying on cameras and sensors for pedestrian safety. So we start to emulate that trend from the US... :( Personally I feel like the front of that newest ford pick-up looks like a snow plow for children. Pretty scary.

[foobar]

I can add some more points
- divers license: a European class B driver's license is limited to 3500kg while to my understanding in the US a car driver's license allows a lot more
- considering towing the license things get a bit more complicated, but in general it is preferable to have a car below 2t as this will allow a 1, 5t trailer within a class B license. If the combination stays below 4.25t it can be driven with a B96 license
- Utility trailers are probably also one reason why smaller cars are not really a disadvantage. It is so much more comfortable to have a normal-sized station wagon in everyday life and use a trailer for trips to the hardware store than driving around a huge truck all the time. A trailer is cheap to buy, cheap to maintain, has low taxes and will last for decades. It is also easy to buy one for 2 years when it is really needed and sell it afterward (this is what I do for my current landscaping need)
- infrastructure is not just roads. A full-size pickup truck will have little fun in a parking garage. The prevalence of oversized surface parking in the US makes parking a huge vehicle much easier

[lesparks]

Expat American Living in Wiesbaden here. When I was a young Military Police Officer working in Kitzingen, my Polizei counterpart (who had spent time in the US) summed it up like this, "Americans like to cruise, Germans like to drive."

[liferethought]

100% Porsche over F150 and I loved your point that they now typically serve a similar function. So true.

[thomasschmidt]

Good morning tbff,
As a scientist in a completely different field, I adore your Wissenschaftskommunikation! You are already one of the few channels where I don't filter/skip the ads, and I am now finding myself for the first time considering supporting someone via patreon. Not because of the extra benefits (I am completely happy with the vids, please don't put pressure on yourselves with the benefits!), but just as a Thank You for your awesome content. I hope many others will consider (and actually do it) as well. Good luck with it and cheers from a few hundred km ti the north!

[margreetanceaux]

How it started: driving lessons (Netherlands, 1972) in a VW Beetle. How it went on: 3-month road trip (US, 1976) in a Toyota Corolla station car, considered extremely small by about everybody there, but quite comfortable for 2 people. How it is now: Ford C-max which has a higher seat, hence comfortable for getting in/out; removed one of the backseats, for easy transport of my rollator.
Point is: treat your car like any household item - don’t buy a complete Kitchen Aid, if you bake about 4 cakes per year, just bc it looks impressive (and takes 1.5 square feet on your countertop).
Thanks, Ashton, your comparisons are always very informative!

[dasmaurerle]

Yup, my American in spe-father in law was always confidentially making fun of my little Audi S3 (haha, your little box fits on the back of my Pick-up...) until I made him drive it on the Autobahn here in Germany on his first visit.
He has been very quiet, when it comes to cars and highways ever since...bless him😂😂🏎🏎❤

[peter_meyer]

The Raptor - Cayman example is on point. Both are sold as "Race Cars".
As usual, a very well researched and produced video.
Thank you Dr Ashton.

[johngretzinger]

Great video! Thank you! But, you stopped just short of revealing the real reason our vehicles, here in the US, are so utterly stupid. CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards, for which the category "light trucks" do not have to be included. Just as quick as that regulation was adopted, car-makers here, began to manipulate consumers through advertising, to buy a lot of trucks! They transformed the vast majority of car buyers to truck buyers through deceptive and manipulative advertising so they wouldn't have to include the majority of their sales in their Corporate Average Fuel Economy numbers and, in fact, the majority of their sales became excempt from those standards. If pickups were actually included in those standards, you would see US manufacturers change their business model immediately!

[benjaminloehner]

I think one major contributing factor to the rise of the SUV worldwide (or the pickup in the US) is marketing. Let's stay with the SUV: If you compare a minivan and a SUV with the same length and width, the minivan will provide more space for passengers and cargo, better line of sight and is more economical due to its' overall design. But the car industry successfully implemented the thougth, that you NEED an SUV. You NEED wide fenders for your BIS ASS wheels. You NEED an agressive and tall hood to instill FEAR of being crushed in the people in front of you, so they move over and let you pass. You NEED massive ground clearance in case you have to go offroad, although your car probably won't see a Feldweg in its' whole lifetime and the biggest mountain you'll ever climb is the Mt. Bordstein. You NEED to sit as high as possible, to have a better view in the distance. It doesn't matter that you're blocking the view for other drivers, it doesn't matter your bloated carriage is blocking your own line of sight in close proximity, so you can't see smaller obstacles like the aforementioned Bordstein or kids. You NEED the massive Stadtpanzer for YOUR safety. It doesn't matter the poor single mom and her kids in her rusty subcompact she can barely afford, will be crushed to death, because YOU are to incompetent to pilot your humongous pile of metal. There is a true story of a woman, who killed a kid on a school run. She was unable to see the kid in front of her bloated Mercedes ML, because her line of sight was obstructed. In court she said, she NEEDS that kind of car for school runs. Just observe a parking lot at a shopping center for a while. Tiny persons, barely able to see over their steering wheel, struggling to manoeuvre their massive SUV into a parking spot, because they're unable to comprehend the size of their car. YES, there is a tiny fraction of owners, who really need vehicles with offroad and loading capabilites. Hunters, forest workers, farmers, rescue services, etc. but surprisingly, those often use comparably small cars like the Lada Niva, the Suzuki Jimny, the Skoda Yeti (when it was still on the market), Subaru crossovers or the Mercedes G-Wagon (in it's original non-luxury, boxy version without massive fenders) or coming to pickups the Nissan Navarra or Mitsubishi L200. But as i said, those are only a TINY fraction of buyers. The pickup and the SUV, are (by a wide margin) the most antisocial vehicles for private daily use, but F*** YOU environment, F*** YOU fellow road users.

[performingartist]

Never been so happy to get back home to Germany a couple days ago and onto the train and then back to my little Fiat Punto after going crazy waiting endlessly at traffic lights in the States for three week in my rental mid-sized SUV. Being forced to drive there is hell (and I'm from Detroit, the most car centric place on earth!).

[herrunsinn]

06:45 "As a midwestern girl...", Well, I too am a "midwestern farm boy", but instead of loving pickups, trucks, and SUVs, I distain them. Even as "a boy" I always disliked the top-heavy rough ride of our pickup. With even the slightest unevenness of the road surface, I was thrown around inside it like I was inside a baby's rattle. To this day, climbing into a lumbering pickup or SUV is anything but a treat. Give me a road gripping and "zippy" sedan any day.

Oh yes, I too live in Germany and (at least on that aspect) I love living in a place where I don't even need (or have) a car at all. I can easily get to anywhere in my city (day or night) with the fantastic public transportation system.

[chrisb]

We lived in Würzburg for about four years when I was in the military. We brought our Chrysler Town and Country with us and it felt huge. I agree that having a truck in the US does seem more like a status symbol than anything else. Now that we don't have to seat 5 kids, our car is a four door hatchback. Interesting analysis.

[JohnMckeown-dlcl]

As an actual "gearhead", who has probably owned close to 100 different cars over my lifetime, I agree with your perspective on the difference between the US and Germany (actually all of Europe). I have owned everything from a land yacht (69 Chrysler New Yorker) to a small compact/economy car (VW Beetle), including 3 pickup trucks. Currently I drive an Opel Corsa because it fits my life and needs currently. All served a need in their time and they were generally what was being sold in the place/time. For cars, I always drifted more to the smaller end of the spectrum because I found them more practical. They were more economical on fuel, easier and cheaper to repair, simpler to operate and easier to maneuver. Prior to the 1973 oil embargo, American cars were huge and had massive engines. Afterward the trend shifted to smaller cars with smaller engines and has never returned to the pre-1970s size (except for trucks that remained about the same size). Yes, vehicles have grown, but it seems in a strange way. Existing models grow larger, but many times new, smaller models continue to be introduced. Toyota is an example. The Corolla was their smallest model for many years and continued to grow in size. Soon it was as large as the Camry once had been, so they introduced the Yaris that was about the same size as the original Corolla. VW did the same thing when the Golf grew larger they introduced the Lupo that was the size of the original Golf. I find the more interesting factor in the future is how European infrastructure will cope with the changes. Many streets are too narrow for two American sized cars to pass and the width and length make it hard to park them in the streets (1 F-150=2 Golfs). Parking lots are also interesting. The average spot is sized for European cars. If you can manage to get a Ford F-150 into a spot it will stick out halfway into the traffic lane and you will not be able to open your doors because the other cars (properly parked) will be too close.

[reneolthof]

I truly appreciate your balanced views on almost all subjects you explore, but in this specific case I am in the NOT JUST BIKES camp. The ongoing trend of expanding cars is alarming at best and downright criminal in true fact. Protecting yourself better is all very well, but in this case it goes at the expense of all other street users, who become more and more vulnerable.

[blainestreeter]

Yes. You are bang on, here. I’ve been in the automotive industry for many years. Here in America I routinely tell folks to get their lumber and mulch delivered. I was sitting in city traffic one day, looking around and thought myself… we have it all wrong. If everyone drove a smaller car, instead of an SUV or truck, our traffic would be dramatically reduced because the available space on our highways would be increased by about 30%.

[JasRoss]

As an expat in the UK for a decade, I have often had this conversation. One key point of realization for US vs UK is the massive difference of a middle class life between the two. In America, you often see a lot of "toys" being hauled around in trucks and SUVs. Boats, Quad bikes, jet skis, etc etc. That is basically completely unheard of in the UK with exception of very wealthy families with estates. In the states, esp weekends, you are going to see this multiple times a day. In the UK, you'd count on one hand per month.. if that.

[MrPicky]

Glad that I stumbled on your Youtube channel like 2 years ago. It has evolved to become one of the best on the whole Youtube.
Well researched and presented in a way that everyone can understand it. Fantastic job, can't wait for the next one.
Alles gute aus Island 😊