It's just the difference in culture. We can't relate to the other and find their cars and methods of transportation strange and undesirable.
Wat? BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini etc. are econoboxes? Also: I personally don't hate american cars, but i don't really like them either.
I've explained before that I consider german and italian cars as their own category. I consider European, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, american, Russian/soviet and Korean as my main car makers. Don't anyone even say Germany and Italy are inside Europe. I know. Doesn't mean I can't classify them as their own category. And when I say european cars, I mean any cars that are designed for Europe and sold there. So european cars designed and sold under american car names also count in that. Has nothing to do with who makes it, has to do with the car itself. Although I gotta say I like the Ford Transits. Seem like decent pieces of machinery. But don't mind me. I'm just a thickheaded american.
Ok. You may want to add British Cars as own category. Aston Martin, Jaguar, AC, Caterham, MG, Noble, Rolls-Royce, ...
I'll defend American cars because I'm American, but they really aren't anything special. I'd rather take a German car any day. BMW's, Mercs, Audi's, Volks... They're all so wonderful. They just cost too much in the States for me to get one as a first car unfortunately.
The entire point of this thread is judging the merits and downfalls of cars and car manufacturers based on the continent they reside: Europe, or the Americas. Certainly not by whatever silly categorisation systems people invent. The cars in here are either European or American. Not European, American, Mercedes-Benzian, Audian, Ferrarian... Don't forget British Leyland
I just don't think it's fair to lump citroen and BMW together. Oh yeah french is also a category. American cars aren't well built at all, but I like them more than other countries. I like how they're designed and stuff because they tend to be bigger. I just like how they are. The best carmakers come from Japan. American, and new german cars are unreliable. Korean cars, while they have come along way in the past 10 years, still have room to improve. European automakers vary greatly in build quality and reliability. That's why I like to subdivide them up by country. Soviet cars...idk. I really don't know about soviet cars. I just know they're built hard as a rock and can put up to a lot of abuse. New Russian cars are shit. Chinese cars are shit, but are improving. Japanese cars are reliable and are usually pretty good looking. I'm not biased by automaker, just by what kind of car it is. Sure shitboxes are efficient cheap practical etc. I don't really care about any of that. Accept cheap, but I'd spend money on a nice crown vic before I'd buy a brand new 17,000 dollar car. beh whatever I give up
Sure. I don't give a shit. It actually used to be a separate nation. And I only differentiate those countries from Europe when it comes to car makers.
I understand what Potato meant when he said "European". He obviously knows that German manufacturers, Italian manufacturers, etc... are European. By "European" he meant the manufacturers that are not sold in the U.S.
i personally disagree with potato's opinions on european cars, especially the shitbox part, i consider a shitbox to be a shit car (like the ford pinto for example) and not cars like the ford focus and stuff, because the entire point of them IS to be an efficient A-B passenger car, so of course there going to be an efficient A-B passenger car. besides, if you really want to have fun in the focus, MANUAL TRANSMISSION, or ST model (which only has the manual transmission as far as i'm aware)
I've driven just enough in both conditions to compare ... well, to a certain degree. Let's say I've driven 5.000 miles in US, with typical US cars, and ... well, I don't know, 200.000 miles in Europe. With typical European cars. The "conditions" are indeed very different. Typical for European are : small roads, people driving fast. Typical American is : big roads, people driving slow. It's a mental difference, as well as a physical difference, which explains both. Reason why Europeans drive manual, is because fuel is expensive, and manual gearboxes are better to conserve fuel. Actually, manual gearboxes are better for anything, but if I get started on that, I can't stop. Let's say automatics are better for 1 thing : it's easier to eat a hamburger, or check out e-mail, while driving. For the rest, it's an inferior system. I'm talking on REAL automatics, not about semi-automatics. Which really are semi-manuals, but all depend how you use them. Most people leave the semi-automatic in full-auto mode, which is a waste of technology, but that is something else. But, the difference between US and Europe ? People in Europe are way less calm when driving ... it's a bit like a game : they want to speed all the way through. Depending on the country one is in, the speed is checked lightly, or very lightly, or not at all. But, in any case, much less than in the US. The speed limit often is the MINIMUM speed everybody is driving. That is not exaggerated, that is true. If the speed limit is 120kmh (which is 75 mph), people driving anything between 110 and 160. And 160 kmh = 100 mph, nearly. But despite that, traffic here (West-Europe) is not that bad. OK, accidents happen, but not much more than compared with anywhere in the US. It's not just speed that kills people. What is also true in Europe, is that roads are different on quality. The best example is Germany, where they keep it their pride to get the roads in the best condition one can imagine. And, they often are. But, a lot of countries - even in the West of Europe - are in a much worse state than that. Never mind East-Europe. But people in Europe don't really care, good or bad road : drive ! Another typical difference is this : passing on the right. In a lot of countries, this is very illlegal, and considered a heavy mistake. In US, everybody drives that slow, that everybody drives the same speed in any line, and don't have a specific lane for overtaking. If one comes to Europe, you gotta be careful about this, and when uncertain (which is a given for any newcomer) you got to stick to the lane which is most to the right. Keep in mind all the slow trucks drive in that lane. OK, there's an island somewhere where they drive on the wrong side of the road. There, it's the opposite side.
People drive slower in america? Huh Never would have figured that. I'm not so sure if it's true, either. Oh...western Europe. That explains it. There's a reason a lot of dashcam crash videos come out of there.
that wouldn't make sense either, since the initial message was: there are more accidents because they drive faster. But they only drive that fast in western europa since the good roads without speedlimits are located there.
