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.
Only in prairie states. Roads in mountains or hilly areas are windy, broken up (potholes), limited shoulders, low to medium for visibility. In other words, they were built upon a horse trail. The interstate system corrected much of that and made dedication to large radial turns, passing lanes, and limited access. We also have lots of buses, vans (in high demand when they do arrive in Europe), large commercial trucks that those in compact cars aren't thrilled about riding next to on crowded highways. compact cars suffer when they get on highways. milage drops a lot compared to a slightly bigger car with a little larger engine.
Just a bit north of Abbottsford there's a highway entrance that has a yield sign, then only a little more than 100 metres for you to accelerate from 0~120kph before the lane merges into the highway. It's fine in regular times cuz I don't have to stop, but during rush hour it's a PAIN IN THE ASS to try to merge in as I guarantee you there will be lots of cars - at around 120kph cuz this is still in the exurbs and the gridlock that starts at the suburbs is still a dozen km ahead - I must completely stop and wait for a gap. If I floor it, my Volvo can make it pretty close to 120kph in that short distance but only just, lucky I no longer live there and don't have to experience the adrenaline from worrying if the gap in traffic is wide enough for me to merge in. So for suckers like me, who has to use that short onramp to get on to the hwy. If the car's 0-60 is significantly longer than 7sec then it could be a problem. I am more nervous take that onramp with the ford explorer cuz that thing takes around 8sec to get to 100kph.
@@rickfeng4466 that’s why on European motorways drivers change to the left lane to allow cars to merge when approaching and passing a slip road. Just common courtesy and driving etiquette when you have slower accelerating cars. If there is a lot of traffic on the motorway then people let you in when trying to merge. Don’t see how this is a strange concept.
@@drzej3k794 Two problems: First is the angle of that entrance, it's not a parallel entrance but a slight turn, obstructing vision. Second and more importantly, not all drivers do that. Yes, some still do so I can get in after only a short wait. What I felt is that in the 9 years since I got my driver's license, fewer and fewer drivers do that. Some don't move over when people trying to merge onto the highway, some don't even accelerate when merging onto the highway, a lot will pass a car with the lane change turn signal on even if they aren't very close. Some don't even use their turn signal at all! Hey, this is Vancouver, the city with THE WORST traffic in all of Canada. It's awful and your "common courtesy" is mostly just a memory from a few years back.
EPA and shit....bumper for example... American just like to buy car like fastbfood... they don't buy car without tv adverts and local dealer take too much cut...
I’m am American and I weigh less than 80kg. I’ve been to quite a few European countries and have driven plenty of European cars in Europe. How about driving a Dacia Duster on the German Autobahn? 110hp pushing 2 tons? Yeah, no.
Even my old 2002 Skoda Fabia with 75hp goes to 140 easily and is still happy to go faster... Edit: I managed to reach 167km/h (about 104mph, the rated top speed) in that 18 year old car! When going downhill, even more than 180km/h (112mph) is possible.
heck i got to 140 kmh in my 50 hp citroen ax ...granted if i were to crash i would have been dead and to be collected with a spoon, ah and and the steering wheel felt like some sort of reciprocating industrial machine, but it can be done
the unfortunately cancelled Loremo LS had a 50hp engine and was going just over 200km\h... the GT had like 65hp and was doing 230... hell, even the Skoda Octavia wagon with the 1.6TDI loves cruising at 160km\h helps when you actually think a bit on aerodynamics and not designing you cars like bricks.
Reference to the part he states gas cost $6.8 per gallon and many are way too big. In many countries, like Germany, tax yearly on the size of the engine. So a 6l engine is going to get pretty F'n expensive.
You mean "why don't europe got 3500kg V8 SUV that does 14 mpg and 0 to 60 in 12 seconds ?" No thanks, my 2L Renault Megane with 3 times less power than the average car in the USA would outrun it and consume 3 times less fuel. We don't need those useless cars
"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.
@Kathleen Henson No. USA is more fat than England. Europe is much prettier than the USA thanks to those old roads etc, it's their history. And whats wrong with Europe liking Manuals? That shows they are actually more engaged with their driving. moneyinc.com/most-obese-countries-in-the-world/ worldpopulationreview.com/countries/most-obese-countries/ www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/maps-and-graphics/the-most-obese-fattest-countries-in-the-world/
@Kathleen Henson Big and roomy is not only a question of preferences, it comes as a cost. The Renault in this video is not small by any European standard, and at 41 mpg, it is not a fuel sipper either. European compacts, 10-11 ft long get close to 60 mpg.
@@Tore_Lund I OWN four parking spots, 2 in my garage, 2 in the driveway. And there's also free parking on the street in front and alongside my house. Amazing what you can do when 60-80% of your money isn't going to the government ...
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 :)
In the US, most of the German brands except for VW are high end luxury brands (Mercedez, BMW, Audi, Porsche, etc.) so people tend to think that the folks driving around in a German car are jerks. =) I write this with no disprespect to Germany and the great cars that the German automakers build.
I refuse to belive the "oh hes got a big massive car he is a jerk" when Europeans have brands like BMW, Audi, MB, Rolls Royce, Bentley and all the other typical "privileged brands" like some of those cars are huge. And continue ue to get huge every generation they have
it's a waste of time to translate this video is for stupid people from the USA who don't even have a passport, it's American propaganda🤣🤣🤣 Reno citi car for old people and Hona Jazz Fiat 500 🤣🤣🤣
@@R4donX Yeah, here in the U.S. you get these people that drive these massive over-sized SUV's like the Suburban or Cadillac Escalade, and much of the time there's only one person in the vehicle - the driver. The guys with the oversized pickup trucks and SUV's are definitely trying to compensate for something.
@@imnotusingmyrealname4566 NP, I kept waiting for him to mention it too... but ofc that was after the higher petrol prices... BTW welcome to the land that brought Europe the SUV, the Big Mac and the best tobacco in the world.... lol.... Well at least the Americas can be proud of bringing, Chocolate to the world :)
@@nc3826 Apparently you don't watch Trevor Noah? The 2 biggest cultivators of cocoa for chocolate are in AFRICA. In fact, those 2 countries account for 70% of the known cocoa and have decided to join together and form a cartel....the OPEC of chocolate.
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.
500 as a rental or cheap car? Hell no. 500 is a fancy city car. It's for a people who have more money, and they want to have good quality small car. For rental and first time buyers (if ever) there is Fiat Panda. Just like from Seat lineup, Leon, normal compact car is cheaper than same configuration Ibiza, that is smaller car.
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.
That mean you were struggling. American cars could do that in their sleep. Most American cars feel like driving a Mercedes. I live in America and it never appealed to me so I drove European cars in America. How wrong I was until I tried driving an American car. They smooth to drive, powerful, spacious and can take lots of driving abuse. When I came back to Europe when I was driving european cars I was shocked at how flimsy the cars feel. The gear stick in European Cars feel like a toy.
@@bighands69 I dont know where they feel like driving a mercedes. I've driven mostly GMC and Ford. Also had the pleasure of riding around in some more expensive models like the Cadillac Escalade, and I gotta say they're handling is kinda shit. The biggest problem I have with American cars is it seems like no one figured out how to make a good suspension system yet. Going over a speed bump especially with a gmc feels like you're about to start flying. And while yes American cars are usually quite larger and more powerful we only tolerate it because the gas here is so cheap. While I had some fun with a 400 hp f series ford that thing drank fuel like a motherfucker. In germany where a liter can be up to 1.40 euros if not more I'd definitely prefer a smaller vehicle even with size restrictions. Most American's I see behind the wheel of trucks are either aged moms who god only knows why they need a f150 4x4 EcoBoost or some fatass who can barely fit in it already.
@@danielurecheanu Handling? That sounds like something a motor journalist would say when driving around a track. Cadillac are like driving a Mercedes as Are Lexus. We are not talking about over steer or understeer which is not relevant on a road. A Mercedes will have dreadful handling compared to a 1970s lightweight Porsche on a track.
@@bighands69 I have driven a Chrysler, with a gear stick that felt like the transmission is made out of gelatine pudding. I could move the stick an Inch in every direction without shifting. If it feels that wobbly i do not care how big the stick is. German or Japanese transimissions feel much better. American cars are better now than maybe 15 years ago, but still not really that great.
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.
-Well American Cities were built up a little over 100 years ago vs over half a millennium ago. So our infrastructure was designed with cars (model T's) in mind. This meant there was plenty of space for cars even in the cities, so vehicles like the gulf are as small as we need. Also with highway fuel economy being so important to auto manufacturers because of the dedicated epa rating, we got very tall overdrive gears for highway cruising, even on vehicles that realistically will never leave the city. But yea we don't have the same type of emissions regulations, but they get the same job done, but in a very different fashion. -Diesels in America and diesels in Europe serve 2 different purposes. Diesels in Europe are fuel economy champs, whereas in America they are workhorses. Fuel economy champs here go to hybrid petrol vehicles and quite honestly the hybrid petrol method of super high fuel economy seems to be the smarter way. Diesel here is usually tied to 5.9L+ inline 6 and V8 engines in large trucks designed to tow your house. No European would be crazy enough to buy a 15 mpg diesel torque monster -With the parking spot thing, in America there are regularly sold trucks that are 22 feet long and 7-8.5 feet wide. So while those parking spots seem colossal to a European, they might still be too small for some vehicles. Also Considering the size of said trucks engines, the hoods are usually bigger than some european compacts alone. So seeing over them is quite literally impossible so the new 360 cameras are a godsend. -Considering the distance most would have to fly here, especially coast to coast, a 20mpg vehicle (average highway fuel economy for the 3 most popular pickups) at 2.50 a US gallon would result in 125 dollars per 1000 miles, so double that for round trip. Tickets for a flight about the same distance would be about 800 round trip minimum so its wildly more cost efficient to drive. And since very few people will drive for almost 20 hours straight, a cheap hotel room for one night would still come no where close to a flight + rental car.
@@james2042 Don't get me wrong, most of our cars are perfectly fine on highways. I think the 0.9 engine in the video isn't a very good example because it's not what most of us drive. That engine really is meant for city use and nothing more. But yeah your EPA cycle makes much more sense than ours. It's ridiculous that larger engines are killed by fuel economy tests when in real life their fuel economy is often better than the tiny 3 cylinders. I do agree that hybrids are a smarter choice for fuel economy. But sometimes people want something rather than need something. Diesels are better to drive. At least when you're not stuck in traffic. They do get quite expensive when stuff breaks though. I don't know about the US but for us parallel parking spots don't really exist. You just have a line between 2 streets and park as many cars as you want. If you can fit your car, you park regardless of how long someone intended the space to be. I also don't think it's realistic to bring those huge trucks into cities. At least it's a rare problem from what I've seen. You can still park something the size of an F150 and most people don't have anything bigger than that. Cameras are surely nice but believe me, with the amount of space you have, it's way easier to park a truck without a camera than to park a small hatchback without parking sensors in most European cities. I spent 3 months driving around the US, mostly in California. I think I got an ok picture of what parking is like over there. I also realized most Americans have no idea how to parallel park properly.
@@ast5515 I personally drive an older grand cherokee and visibility to the ground is shit. My skid plates are always hitting curbs and can never see lines without opening my doors, and there are much taller and bigger vehicles than mine, so trust me when I say cameras are a godsend
@@james2042 They are a godsend but they are not necessary. I don't see the ground either. I just know where the lines are. Help with curbs: Just look to the vehicle next to you and position your vehicle according to what you see from them. This goes for not hitting curbs in perpendicular parking situations. With parallel parking you just have to feel it. I guess you can lower your passenger side mirror to help but I reverse parallel parked a car and a horse trailer into a spot about 25 feet longer than the thing. Just feel it. As for lines, you can look in your mirror and look at the lines behind you. In most parking lots they line up across multiple rows so it's easy to orient yourself. Otherwise it's just feel or position yourself so that you are in the middle compared to the car on your left and right. That's if you see that they are within the lines before you start parking. Parking in reverse also helps because once again you see the lines in your mirrors.
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
Top speed is fine. the problem with them in the USA is they must acccelerate very quickly to enter an interstate highway because many times people are unable to merge over to allow you to enter and the last thing you want to do is stop at the end of the merging ramp because merging on from a dead stop could be life ending for you.
@@scrambler69-xk3kv Trust me, even low HP cars can accelerate quickly enough haha, in France on the Autoroutes 🛣️ (= interstate in the US) I will usually go from 50km/h to 130km/h in a few seconds and still have plenty of time to merge ^^
in Europe e just have pulic transport that works and cities that are walkable, it's not a matter of horsepower or how big we like our cars. We use our cars to go on with our lives, otherwise in the US your life is completely influenced by your car
Public transportation is disgusting with trash everywhere and crack heads asking for money. Nobody wants to sit next to someone in a crowded train, we just want to have our own space.
@rogue I've driven punto naturalpower in work delivering food - when new, 0-60 was 19 sec, and this car was so tired after years of abuse... anything below 15 feels like rocketship to me right now
Most American cars can do 0-60 in 5-6 secs. And then the more powerful ones, can do it between 3 and 5 seconds. My 3.5L V6 Twin Turbo EcoBoost in my Supercab F150 can do it in the sub 5 sec range. Haven't tested it exactly, but a tuned version did it 4.3 secs, so I'd imagine that my stock version could do it at least around 5 seconds.
One thing you didn’t mention was that in Europe we road trip less and fly instead. I can drive the 1500km from London to Barcelona in Spain or I can fly for about £40.
yup. But even before fuel was as expensive as gold in Europe we drove smaller cars because our roads are more narrow and curved. Historical reasons for that, most of our roads have been there for hundreds of years and started designed for horses and hand drawn carts back in the middle ages. There's simply no room for a large US style car in many places in Europe. My dad had several and it was always a problem getting around older parts of cities, and getting into and out of parking garages. More than once he had to back out of a parking garage or road because the turns were so tight he simply couldn't make them in his Thunderbird, and a few times he nearly got stuck under an overpass with his Cherokee. Don't have that problem with a Golf or Focus.
But why would you want to speed crazy? Think, plan ahaed, leave in time, and you will get there anyway. And theres so much things to see while on the road.. :)
Y'all do realize 60mph is *slow* for a european autobahn, right? People 'round here are interested in 0-60 time (ok, 0-100km/h) since it is a decent indicator of what merging onto a motorway will feel like.
F a As I have said before, I think Americans refuse to abandon the British Imperial system because deep down inside they regret the revolution and want to be subservient to Britain.
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).
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.
As mentioned in the video, we have a fleet of small cars with 0.9 to 1.2 liter engines and 65-70 ps/hp. What he doesn't mention is, that the same cars often are offered with same or a bit bigger engines with 100-160 ps/hp.
Darth Wheezius Diesel models of small manual transmission cars are easier to drive. And they consume a lot less fuel compared to gasoline. Oh and gasoline is 1.5x the cost of diesel (in France).
Darth Wheezius maybe so. The only benefit I see is that manual petrol cars are slightly quieter. On larger cars though like the A4, 3 series etc there is very little difference. I would rather take the diesel in which case and get far better MPG. Also driving a manual diesel can be harder, in a petrol you can pretty much just be in whatever gear.
The reason why we don't have American cars: Too large for small resident roads and too wide to park. Fuel is too expensive. Though I've seen some idiots driving a Dodge Ram, pure for thrills.
Don't all the US high earners drive Mercs, Bentley and BMW. seems your average American is told from birth that they should always buy American regardless...
Metric doesn't work. The people in the USA are smart enough to know this. People who make airplanes and fly them are smart enough to know you don't use metric when lives are at stake. Don't believe me? Then tell me how far the moon is from the Earth in metric. I guarantee you will get it wrong and try to tell me the distance in an incorrect format such as kilometers. Why don't Europeans measure their time in metric? Oh yeah, they tried it for a few years in post revolutionary France, along with their calendar, then gave up and went back to the good old honest 24 hours to a day. So shut up about your stupid metric. It doesn't work.
For the record, any metric idiot will look it up and tell you it's about 360,000 - 405,000 kilometers and they are WRONG. Everywhere you see that listed on the web as the distance by metircards, but why aren't they doing it properly? I have yet to find ANYWHERE on the net where they state that the distance is 360 MEGAmeters to 405 MEGAmeters as would be correct in metric. Use your damn system CORRECTLY or don't, but until you do, stop harassing those who are smart enough to stay away from it. I can't find a single metric watch or clock easily on the internet either. Nobody I know of has ever gone by ten hour days, ten day weeks, ten month years, ten minutes to an hour, and ten seconds to a minute. All navigation on the planet uses the Coordinate system, not the metric system. We use latitude and longitude along with radians for the compass headings, NOT the metric method of navigation which I doubt any of you can even find a book on to tell you how to do it. No aircraft of any kind on the planet navigates with metric.
@@jkutyna I can't really tell if you're trolling or serious, but it seems like you have some misconceptions about the metric system. I could tell you the distance in centimeters and it would be equally correct. Time and Navigation are just straw man arguments. Tell me again what those 'klicks' are, your military likes to use...
@@Gunrunn3rTV we used nautical miles so i dont know wtf you are on about and the one and only reason to use metric in any argument is the decimilization so if you refer to the distance between the Earth and the moon in cm or km, then you are outright wrong.
Quarknjaguar I wouldn’t consider this true at 100%. Ever country has people who don’t know how to drive and don’t respect speed limits but the problem in Italy is that the same people think they’re better than everyone else. It’s mostly due to the fact that a lot of people who drive come from ignorant parts of Italy, you know, the stereotypical regions with a lot of small groups of homes with old people...
@@ilpatongi I think it's the same problem that we have in Romania. we have a lot of idiot drivers on the road. I call them "professional suiciders". Anyway the point is that the Us has lower speed limits then the EU. And even if the roads are narower we go faster. I like a lot of things made in america but to compare gasolin prices from us to europe and not mention that european gasoline has a much higer octane rating an to forget that in europe there are a lot of really fast cars on the road(bmw, audi, porche are euroean brands right?) is somehow misleading. And by the way. in eu 1liter of 95 gas is about 1.23$, in the us is about 0.77(theyr 80 to 90 octane rating). the average car in eu can go 100km with about 5.5l of gas and the american one uses at least 10. so in eu the price for 100km is about 6.7$/100km and in the us is about 7.7$/100km. Cheaper my ass.
In 2013, I went to the USA for a road trip. The rental company gave me a 2012 Jeep Liberty 3.7l V6 with 213hp and 235 lb-ft of torque. My own car here in Germany at that time was a 2010 Renault Grand Scenic 1.9l diesel with 130hp and 221 lb-ft of torque. Both vehicles were about the same size (same width, the Renault a few inches longer, the Jeep a little higher). Disappointingly, the Jeep offered much less space inside (the usual disadvantage in space economy a SUV has compared to a minivan). As expected, the jeep accelerated much better from a standing start, but the perceived difference at motorway speed was only slight. But my Renault was significantly quieter at highway speeds and hardly needed more than half of the gas the Jeep guzzled (I know, the comparison with a diesel is not fair, but ultimately the result counts). This comparison showed me quite clearly how different the priorities between American and European drivers are and why American cars sell so badly in Europe an vice versa.
Most of european brands (Renault, Fiat, Seat, Peugeot, MG) are available in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina or Colombia, and those countries are AMERICA too...
Headlamp levelling adjustment is a legal requirement in the EEA/EU as it takes into account vehicles towing trailers/caravans. Its usually deleted for other markets and the headlamp level fixed in place. A rear fog lamp is also mandatory in the EEA/EU as an early visual warning in low visibility fog for cars at the rear... believe me, they really are a useful in safety device in poor visibility... but an absolute pain when some arsehole uses them in the rain. No one uses gallons any more, just litres so it might be easier to include and apples to apples comparisons in future reviews.
The manual headlight adjustement is only used in "older" light forms (halogen bulbs) Xenon by law has to be self leveling, as do all the newer (LED) ones. Maybe due to the american models beeing higher trim they only sell the expesive light solutions there. Thumbs up for the mention of the foglight rain morons! But i have to say considering my 22 years of driving, i think the rear foglights should be removed. I have met more (more is an extreme understatement) drivers misusing their rear foglights those using them like intended. (people switching them on when still beeing able to see 200m ahead, not switching them off when another car is behind them and they can clearly see the headlights of the car behind them, using them just because it's dark outside, using them in light rain...)
@@EdgyNumber1 Right. Come to think of it. The ambiguity of national units like the ton, mile and gallon has led to a lot of engineering disasters with a big deathtoll over the decades. But then again abolishing it had the same effect. See wikipedia and documentaries here on youtube. Something's gotta give sooner or later. Let's see where China is heading: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_units_of_measurement
@@Telencephelon SI units are the way to go... even American professional engineers have to use them these days. The only other country I know that officially only uses the old measurements that don't make any sense is Liberia. A third world low index country.....
Right Lane Hog Alex didn’t mention them but they are still strong and for some models they outsell other variants. A good example of this on this list is the Octavia. Also the Golf and Focus have Wagon variants that also sell well. For example Focus Wagon is a very popular fleet car for reps in Poland as are similarly sized Renault, Opel, Peugeot and Toyota models.
@Pauline Weinberger The European wagons referred to are just better versions of hatchbacks not the 3 ton behemoths of yesteryear. BTW we have bloated, behemoth SUVs aplenty today.
Isaac Alonzo If Skoda was sold in the US, they’d be the same price as Volkswagens due to import costs from Europe. That would destroy Volkswagen as a brand. The same for Séat. It’s a major issue for European manufacturers. It’s also why the US won’t get the standard Golf Mk8. Its manufacture was just moved back to Germany from Mexico. Imports from Mexico have been tariff-free due to NAFTA.
Isaac Alonzo Where do you live? Here in US some people are obsessed with speed and power, and so the nice, torquey diesels are not so popular. I drove 2015 Golf TDI and sadly someone else took it quickly because it really goes effortlessly and get good mileage. I was scared about service though on the particulate filter.
James Medina That’s not at all why Diesels aren’t popular. They’re not popular because their fuel costs more than premium gasoline, negating all fuel saving aspects and because Diesel was banned for passenger cars since the 1970s. The Diesel cars are also more expensive here than gasoline. In Europe, they’re cheaper and the fuel is cheaper than gasoline. Their added noise, vibration and refueling mess are trade-offs of them being cheaper to buy and own, but in North America, they’re just added inconveniences.
The headlight adjustment has been mandatory in some eu countries for well over 20 years now. The reason all new cars don't have a switch is because some lights (usually xenon and led) are required to have automatic adjustment.
Does anyone else find it suspicious that Alex on Autos, and Alec from Technology Connections are never seen in the same room together? Seriously I just realized you guys are like brothers, bordering on clones.
This is a very good video!! I drive a diesel ford Mondeo (sold as a Fusion in the Us), it's a great car, quick, returns 56.9mpg on a run (47.37mpg US). it's 6-speed manual and on some of our roads, I wouldn't want to have an auto box on this car. A manual transmission means you have to be more aware of the vehicle, the road etc. as you also use the gearbox to help brake especially on mountain roads in southern Europe - a place where brake fade is all too easy to happen. Now, when in the US, I prefer the bigger cruising SUVs. But while remote towns in places like Italy require a tiny car, around town and basic urban driving doesn't require speed and long-range comfort so most homes have both a small car and a larger car for comfort and distance driving. I did street mapping work across the southern Italian mountains in an automatic diesel Golf and while it handled the mountains fantastically, and the vehicle torque was astounding - the car was physically too big for several places. But the whole thing is driven by economy - more miles for less money due to the fuel prices - which you touched on perfectly.
Taxes is most important. The Tesla Model 3 was actually the best selling car in the Netherlands in 2019 because you don't have to pay rigorous road taxes and taxes for emissions.
@@UhOhUmm Yes the Golf I used in the Italian mountains was an Auto, with the "flappy paddle" style leavers. You had to learn to be quick and in "sport mode" for it to be effective, and in that case it was very good.
@10:07 This is total BS. these engines are smaller, because it makes them fuel efficient, and modern cars use their power more efficient. My 1.2 polo has a 75HP engine. No it is not a fast car, but 80mph is easy. Any of those cars with small engines he mentions can do 100mph without breaking a sweat.
"Why dont we have these small little efficiant cars to America" Doing it the American way, instantly starts talking about HP :-) *facepalm* A similar silly arguement would be "Everything in Europe is just scaled ½ of the US" , that would make just as much sence One of the real reasons, is car taxes, in some EU countrys they are INSANE high, i think Denmark was the highest, clocking in at 180%. Imagine that for a sec US people, paying allmost for 3 F-Series truck, everything you get one ?, but if you bought a VW Up, you would only have 50% tax or something, what would you then buy?
True! And really in Europe when you talk with friends 'Oh how good that car would be!' refering to a luxury car. For sure your friends will say 'Yeah you will need a gas station for that!'. The fuel consumption is the biggest part in buying a car in Europe.
I live in UK, you have hit all the main points but also forgot some others, our housing is generally a lot smaller, most have no parking specific to their house in semi-detached or terraced style in cities. With people owning 2/3 cars per house parking is a nightmare so smaller cars help. I’d say the other main issue is people’s salary, I’d imagine we are on a LOT less than people in USA for doing the same job so smaller cars are a better option. The average car buyer looks at MPG before anything else. This is due to smaller incomes, a V8 petrol as a daily driver could cost you a daily take home for a weeks worth of work. We like our cars but due to the above we are forced into a huge compromise.
This is how I like it becuase it lowers the price of good cars on the used market becuase people are too scared of fuel guzzlers so they go and spend lots of money on some shit like a Vauxhall.
@@ikuzoburandeon i know plenty tall italians (even taller than you). Old italian generation were short, especially from some regions, now all teenagers are at least 6 - 6.1 tall.
I'm French and live in Houston so I'm acutely aware of the differences. I never even owned a car until I moved to Houston because you can't walk anywhere and there's no public transportation (or very little). I keep hoping for Citroen sedans in the US though :P
Back in my day, our Escorts in the USA had 88 horsepower brand new, and we were glad to have it. Only Cadillacs, Corvettes, and a few mustangs and Camaros tipped in at a robust 120 with their v8. You greedy kids and your turbo injected magical engines. Get off my lawn.
En France ou en règle générale dans l'Europe pas besoin d'un gros V8 pour 120cv! c'est ridicule, nous le faisons avec un 4 cylindres robuste plus économique et vu le poids de s voitures américaines 2 fois plus rapides ! alors je vois pas le besoin d'un tank américain qui bouffe 15 litres à 90 km/h alors que moi je consomme pour la même vitesse maxi 6 litres sur autoroute.
I have a European 1997 Ford Escort originally 1.8 115hp and then swapped for 2.0 150hp. It's my first car and I still have it and still use it. I have plenty of other cars, but how can I sell my little Escort if it is still making me smile when I drive it? I had it for 12 years and it is a never ending project car.
They didn't make a lot of horsepower because they turned pretty slow. The 1986 Ford Escort GT (1.6L) had a power curve that fell of a cliff at just over 5,000 rpm. Seeing that torque is multiplied by engine rpm and then divided by 5,252 rpm to calculate horsepower the max HP number was actually not that bad. The newer small engines get their peak horsepower numbers by spinning the shit out of a low torque engine.
In Europe this type of car (small city) exists in almost every family, either because it is a second car for the city, the first car of a young person or the only car of families with less resources. There are usually other cars in the families, usually from above segments (such as a Golf SW, a 3 Series, or an average SUV). These small cars are economical in European cities, are practical and cheap to maintain.
yea I call them shopping bags on wheels... I would rather take Polo than Superb for a quick run to get me a beer and pretzels :D especially during rush hours when parking lots fill to last spot
@@lamebubblesflysohigh "shopping bags on wheels" Haha, I have the same attitude towards it. We would never just own a big car. You always want a smaller one as well. I'll take the X5 BMW with 300+ HP to go on holiday throughout South-Europe or move the boat around. But to get the big shopping done I'm taking the 206 Peugeot(daily shopping is on foot)
Nr 1.reason ... cars in Europe are much more expensive compared to US. Less space, narrow roads, taxes, low emission pressure all rarther artificial reasons.
Cities. Cities were planned centuries before cars were invented so it's really hard to make it work as an American city. All that that you mention, the road sizes, the gas, the taxes are deterrents. They don't want small cities filled with cars because it's nightmare
You are right. If you take the price of fuel, most of it is made up of taxes put in by insane left wing governments. If you removed all fuel taxes, it would come closer to $3 a gallon, instead of $7. Same goes for emissions. The roads are narrow but not everywhere. Countries like Germany, Sweden or parts of Eastern Europe have quite wide roads. It's just the old historic cities of France, Italy, etc. Still, there are plenty of places here where you could enjoy a large car. The problem is the insane taxes. A new Mustang V8 would cost you about 5000 Euro a year just in taxes in most place.
Cities in europe weren't planned, which is the main reason. Most of them grew from little settlements, villages... into cities. And the raods couldn't grow in the same rate as the city itself because of buildings. @Protector of the Republic: easy to blame left wing governments, but if i take my country it's BS. Since WW2 we had a coalition of left and right for most of the time, and the taxes on fuel and cars in general were always put in place by both (and no not just tolerated by conservatives they actively wanted them). As for wide roads, it doesn't help you if you can drive a F150 on the highway or over land if you then have to park it ouside the village/city you wanted to go. A drive always has a begin and ending and those too are problematic if the vehicle is that big. Yes there are few places where it doesn't matter, but Italy and France aren't the exception, they are the norm. (even in Germany, Sweden and eastern Europe.)
I am a Brit who recently moved to the USA. I guess I must follow a stereotype because for my first car since moving here, I bought a Golf Wagon with manual transmission. I kinda like how it’s a little more unique over here vs the UK and how it stands out from the crowd of trucks and SUVs. The only engine available on the Golf Wagon in the USA (until recently) was the 1.8L turbo and by European standards that’s huge! When visiting family the UK we always rent the smallest and cheapest possible car and there is something to be said for them. Tiny engines with light clutches are a ton of fun to throw around the European roads and roundabouts. Thanks for the video. Really well put together!
I’ve owned cars from almost every major Japanese manufacturer as well as a few European ie. Renault, VW and Volvo. IMO, European cars are sexier and more comfortable than Japanese cars. But Japanese cars are cheaper and more practical to operate. But I prefer both to American cars.
The size of our cities and streets weighs equally. You just cannot use a full-size truck in a European city. You can barely use it in big American cities, actually.
@@james2042 Well, 15 mpg is pretty horrible, but people mostly don't buy it because it's 40% more expensive here than in the US, which pits it against much more refined sports cars. The latest Mustang took a big step but it still doesn't corner very well, and it's too heavy - Europeans appreciate handling more than straight line grunt.
@@TheUrbanEpicure yea you people run around with the fiesta rs and focus rs. Here we get mustang's, explorer st's and Raptors. The only non suv crossovers ford sells stateside are the mustang and the fusion, everything else got axed. And like said in the vid, most americans like trucks more than anything. I drive a grand cherokee with a 5.7 hemi. I plan on trading it in for a Sierra 2500hd with the diesel later this year. I'm going from one gas guzzler to another because quite frankly it doesn't cost that much and the usefulness outweighs the extra cost in fuel. The ability to hook a 7200lb trailer to my jeep is a massive convenience
You don't need 350hp+ and a 4 second 0-120km/h to drive 120km/h or 50km/h in the city's. Also everything in america is bigger. Houses, vehicles, people
Nope. We don't base every life decision on what we need. I happen to have a 350hp vehicle that will not get even close to 120 km/h in 4 seconds, but it pulls a 14,000 lb trailer like it doesn't exist. It's all about what you want to be able to do. If you have the means to have a big vehicle and/or house and that is what you want then who should tell you otherwise?
@@willswomble7274 Oops, wonder what they would think of me - regularly doing 16-18h drives from Baltics to Germany and back. I honestly never thought that the length of driving non-stop would affect the punishment in case of accident, how would they even know that?
@@willswomble7274 Five hours is just getting started. It's not that hard to cover 1,000 miles in a day if the traffic isn't too bad. Last October I drove from Boise ID to Maryland between Baltimore and DC over the course of 3 days.
Really upset we aren't getting the new Focus ST. Seems like Ford has completely given up on selling Compact cars, and maybe even Sedans in general, in America.
It's due to you not buying them . The profits on the SUV and pickup market with a sprinkle of muscle car. I love my focus ST it's a good size, fast enough, good in the corners and not too bad on fuel/insurance
American here, and I've been to Germany a few times. European cars might be slow, but the public transportation system is awesome. Why would you want to do a road trip by car, when you can take an amazing ride on the ICE train, which can go 150+ mph? Or why struggle to find parking in the city, when you can take a comfortable ride on a street car? Also, many roads date back to the middle ages, and were originally built for horses. I've been on a cobblestone road in rural Mecklenburg-Vorpommern that was built in the 1400's. You can only navigate old, narrow roads like that in a small car. If you had a Ford F-150 or a RAV4 or something in Germany, you'd be seriously limited in where you could go.
Same as the UK, though I would say our public transport isn't nowhere near as good as Germany. Our roads are very narrow too. I drive lorries for a living and some of the main roads I go down are barely wide enough for the truck. Especially in country lanes when you meet another truck coming the other way. You're practically driving in the dirt so your mirrors don't smash.
@@DarrenBoss1984 Oh yes, Germany's public transit is amazing. Though I am a car enthusiast, I feel bad for any American who chooses to rent a car when visiting there, instead of experiencing their public transit. Those ICE trains - whew! It's like flying, except you're on the ground. Who cares about the Autobahn, when you can experience a high-speed train that can go faster than any car? Oh, and everything's always exactly on time, never a minute too late. The German obsession with punctuality extends to their public transit system. I don't know if things have changed, but at least it used to be that trains in the UK were always late, and that arrival times were just suggestions.
"low" horse power European cars don't struggle with high speeds on the interstate network at all. My first car was a '99 VW Polo with 60HP, it had no trouble going down the Autobahn at 180km/h, that is about 115MPH, so way faster than you could legally drive in any other country than Germany.
We tend to like torque over horsepower, so we go for larger displacement slower turning engines. This gives us acceleration, longevity and low rpm at highway speed (buzzy engines increase driver fatigue).
Us speed limit 70 mph on 99 percent of interstate 80 in some midwest rural areas. No one needs 200mph car or bike but we still want them. If like me I sometimes break the law and go faster than limit.
@@BICIeCOMPUTERconGabriele True, although not as much as they used to. What a lot of automatics do when attached to high revving engines is shift before the engine hits the power band.
I would not buy small European car. I have been living in Germany for the past four years (finally going back to US). It is true that majority of vehicles sold here are smaller than those in America but it is due mostly to gas prices, not parking spaces. There are actually quite a few Durangos, Grand Cherokees, Rams, Edges and few other ones driven here on German Autobahns. Some are sold with European specs (mostly diesel engines) but some are imported to EU with US specs. What they do with these vehicles is they convert them to LPG. That cuts the costs of fueling by about 40-50%. The only European vehicles that could potentially make sense to sell in North America would be the wagons as not everyone likes big SUVs. Almost every European manufacturer sells one in Europe. I particularly happen to like Mazda6 wagon that is being sold in Europe but is not available in USA.
@@AAutoBuyersGuide I don't know what percentage Alex but they are here. Not a lot of them but here. For example Ford Kuga (Escape) is selling in Germany well. The problem with "US made" cars sold in Germany (and EU in general) is also VAT and duty. Any vehicle imported from USA to Germany gets hit with 19% VAT (tax) and I think 20% Customs duty. In Poland for example it is 22% VAT and 20% duty plus 5% import tax.
Finally someone is showing Americans what we drive here. An American lawnmower has a more powerful engine than some of the crossovers in Europe. Edit: Probably not but the cars here aren't powerful at all is what I'm saying.
@@fcex558 Quite true my 2003 Jaguar XJ Super V8 has 400hp, when you look at what America had in the same class they had the Cadillac DTS which would make 300hp or the Lincoln Town Car which made 235hp.
Yep, that is why VW got discovered for their intentional fraud about emissions in the USA, right? And this is why Tesla, an American company, is now revolutionizing the world by creating emission free car that sell better than any other electric car in the world? www.statista.com/statistics/960121/sales-of-all-electric-vehicles-worldwide-by-model/ (no competitor comes even close)
I love your videos! A lot of the generalizations about Europe are fair, although talking about height and physical size of an average "European" is quite silly. As you said, the Dutch as an example are the tallest people in the world on average. You can't compare that to other countries in Europe or frankly the world. The overall point is that of course the USA is physically a larger country, but gasoline is subsidized by the government to keep it inexpensive. This is to help the fossil fuel and oil industry/companies who practically control the US government in many ways.
I would like to say that, at least in nl but also many other european countries the road taxes are very expensive and based on the weight of the car. For example a 1300 kg Petrol car costs 56 euro per month for road taxes, an 800 kg car about 25 euro per month. In other european countries its based on cylinder capacity or CO2 emissions. Also insurance costs are based on new price and a large car usually has a higher new price Than a small one. This, together with the high petrol price makes it very expensive to maintain a big car, its not really worth it. You can see this effect clearly in the prices of second hand cars since large second hand cars are usually dirt cheap compared to small ones comparable in Milage and age because noone wants the large ones because of the costs. So this makes the depreciation also considerably more with an large car. Also, i have owned several cars with 50 hp or less, and i can tell you that driving 80 mph is not really a problem. I drove 150 km/h all the time in my polo 1liter 44 hp . Point is they have less drag because they are so small and light and therefore the top speed is not really an issue. Overtaking at high speed and wind can be more of an issue though.
@@bighands69 While it is one effect of them i don't think it is the sole purpose. In most cases the "original intention" once was that whoever can afford an expensive car or uses more fuel can afford to pay more tax. Expensive cars always were bigger cars with more hp and mor displacement, not just american cars. (And in most places in europe these taxes started whith the first oil crisis) The AMC Pacer was a european sized car and still there were none over here. The Chrysler Voyager on the other hand was pretty common on our streets. The heights our taxes for cars have arrived at nowadays are because the manufacturers adapted their cars to the taxes and so the countries Budgets were getting less tax money they relied on, so they adjusted the taxes.
As a small European OEM engineer, the American culture is considered very litigations by our standards. Dealing with US customers (or rather their money chasing lawyers) requires an expensive US local legal department and can in the worst case bankrupt a small company. Related to that is the certification system in US (self certification), completely alien to European (and Chinese). Europe has a system of witness testing, where regularly compliance is demonstrated by an OEM in front of a government appointed inspectors and results in official certification, issued by government agencies. In US an OEM has an obligation to interpret the (non emission related) regulations and conduct all tests to prove compliance on their own. The results and evidence does not have to be presented to the US government, until something like “unintended acceleration” happens and lawyers start asking questions. It’s a big risk and turn off for small car companies
What small companies are we talking about? If foreigners like Toyota and Hyundai can hack it then so can the German and the French. I think the bigger issue is that there is no entrepreneurial spirit in Europe and generally the continent is full of itself. It has become a self fulfilling prophecy where EU has no google, apple, Cisco, Microsoft, Qualcomm or even Facebook
@@JTR253 Hyundai and Toyota do not sell many of the cars they sell in Europe to the US. European cars always feel more upmarket. Toyota doesn't sell the Aygo there, or the Avanza, or the Innova, or the Hilux. Hyundai doesn't sell the i10, the i20 the Atos etc. Toyota and Hyundai have alternatives to sell there like massive Land Cruisers and Pallisades etc. Peugeot and Renault and Citroen do not have cars any bigger than a VW Tiguan. So why would they even spend time developing such large vehicles when you don't even need something that large.
@@JTR253 it's always funny reading these comments of americans saying every other place and everything made outside the us is bad, if a small manufacturer doesn't want to take the risk of an already saturated market of japanese and american trucks and can't afford to retest and potentially modify their cars they won't take the risk
As a German I think it's funny that a speedy car in the US can be a super slow truck , just because of the accelleration... While in Germany a speedy car drives at high speeds! So if you compare that, the old trashy (Brazilian design) VW Fox of my son, with a 1,2 litres Motor, is able to travel 100mph to get to University everyday, while allmost no American car will be able to ever reach that speed. We even have a US car club in the city where I lived 13 years ago.... They have realy eye-opening advices in their forums....like: If you buy a Dodge Viper new from the factory imported from the USA to Germany, you better change tires right away, as the tires might not live up to their rating and delaminate if you make over 200 km on 170 km/h . As Americans will never drive 105 mph for more than two hours the factory wheels don't acctually need to be able to allow high speeds....So they are super soft, as perceived speed in the USA is actually accelleration. So an American car might actually kill you in Europe if you trust the manufacturer.
Nice coverage of the topic. The power numbers you mentioned are for the peak of the curve. Europeans tend to drive closer to maximum power maybe more often than North Americans. But that being said, in US on highway or wide roads, people tend to drive in bursts of acceleration and breaking, especially at rush hours. I live in Canada and do have a rather low power car, a Nissan Versa Note with max power of ~ 109 HP I think. I took my car for a trip to Long Island where I stayed for a couple of days for work and I had to commute a few times. There is no way my car could ever keep with the bursts of power most people practice when driving in traffic! And that includes many of the trucks and SUV on the road. Also, in Europe there are high power cars (especially luxury models) and it is those which really can take advantage of high (or no) speed limits. I can also go easily 130/140 km/h on the highway, is just that, if traffic slows down to lets say 70/80 km/h, and then picks up speed rapidly, I'm doomed. The lack of power in cars is the most painfully evident when trying to accelerate from 70/80 to 130/140 km/h as at low speed the transmission is usually geared such that one gets reasonable-ish acceleration.
its a paradox in america: If the lanes are wider, and the parkingspaces are large, so everything needs more space, everything is farther away. so you gonna need a car
I have a car that gets to 100km/h in around 10 seconds, and I've found that the only place where you actually need fast acceleration is an on ramp to a motorway and correct me if I'm wrong, those are typically a *lot* shorter in North America compared to modern motorways in Europe. If I'm getting off lights, etc. I'm not gonna put my foot to the floor in any case, so the motorway is the only scenario where I find a sub 10 second 0-100 even desirable.
What do you mean 80 mph (130 km/h) is going to be hard to maintain with "weak" European cars? A 1.0 VW Polo with 60ish European HP has absolutely no problem doing that
Yall missing out on the best small hatches... The VW Polo, the Peugeot 208 and the Renault Clio. Plus the VW T Cross small SUV is really good. Citroen has by far the most captivating and unique vehicles.
When many of those brands were sold in the USA they turned out to be unreliable pieces of shit. Just could not stand up to the high number of annual miles we put on them. Long stretches of high speeds burnt them out. we gave up on them quickly.
@@scrambler69-xk3kv They aren't now though. In my country people drive their 208s, Corsa, Polos, Clios long distances multiple times a year at least 1200kms in one sitting. Easy.
Very informative video. Here’s a question...why do we in America, don’t get some models that are available in Canada? Both countries are in the North America region...I always wondered about that.
at the end the "how you use your car" is just not the same at all. the average "km per year for cars" in France is around 12000km (8000 miles) which usually includes (if any) only one "big" road trip of 1000 km (and return) to go in holidays in summer. if you distinguish between gasoline and diesel, it's 8000km (5000 miles) for gasoline and 15000km (9500 miles) for diesel. The renault captur in this video with the 0.9 (with asthma) would be typically the go to choice for someone which makes roughly 5000km per year mostly in cities with a little to no roads or highways. someone on the gasoline average would go for a bigger motor if this person would do a good amount of highways. and someone who go around 15000km and more would have a diesel for reliability and long distance efficiency also an important point. the average buyer of the captur in the video would consider the car "old and needed to be changed" around 100.000 km because for a lot of people, it would just be a 10 year old car. not a lot of people uses cars with more than 200.000km and it's also because our cars are just not designed to make that mileage.
agreed, but the 200 000 km if driven like the americans drivers do, (mostly cruising at the same speed straight on,) even those small european cars would be able to hold up. It's more the many cold starts and short distance drives, gear changes ect. that get the cars worn out over time in europe. (there was a smart who's owner had it for over 520 000km. He brought it in for the maint as he should, and it still had the first engine and gearbox without problems. He didn't to short distances much, with 100k km per year... and in another article i read about the peolpe with over 300k km with their smarts. I jsut picked the smart because of the extremely small car, engine ect. which should mean it to give up way earlier. It just depends on how you use it ;-) )
@@nirfz you're right, km here and km in here are not the same (units apart ;) ) the cold starts are the killers. that's also the reason the car sizes are not the same. long trips in small cars are not the more confortable things to do
Renault, Citroën, Skoda, Seat, Peugeot, brands that don’t sell in USA. He basically only cried all video long for not having the weak, uncomfortable Polo, and the T-Cross and T-Roc don’t sell well even in Europe (except for Germany of course) Plus, you lost everyone who’s not American when started using inches, feet.
In Sweden more cars have automatic transmission sold than manuals. The dual clutch transmissions now give you more milage than a manual can achieve in the long run. This has lead to more and more automatic transmission cars being sold to save fuel. I still have two manual gearshift cars out of my three but they are getting more unusual. RoadTax is payed on emission and weight and this is one more incentive to get a automatic.
Excellent explanations!! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 In India the cars are even smaller (no space, fuel prices are astronomical (esp. relative to incomes) & taxes are high), so the Captur in India (though with a 1.5 L 110 hp diesel) is considered an up-market vehicle (if it is the same vehicle as in Europe, which it looks like...) 😜! PS: lived in the US for 7+ years, last 2.5 years there owned the Mark 5 VW GTI.
Interesting comparison, from the US perspective - thanks! I regularily drive my Skoda Octavia diesel on 52-58 miles per US gallon. I have done even better in the summertime with a lot of driving outside cities. On the Autobahn, average 130 km/h with some stretches of 160 km/h to catch a ferry, it crept down to about 50 miles/US gallon. (AC is always on) With the fuel prices we have, you just cannot drive a gas guzzler. Mu cupholder is between the shift stick and the hand brake. I do have a cruise control, but I never use it.
Remember the USA gallon is small than the gallon in Europe. Also,diesel is much more expensive than regular petrol in the USA, so not many diesel cars at all You will see heavy duty diesel pickup trucks in the USA most are used for towing and plowing snow from car parks.
Nice video. I still don´t get the 0-60 obsesion in the US, but guess you are dragracing at all red lights, and need to win to feel good ;) The biggest reason for the difference is in the enviroment. America still don´t belive, that Co2 emisions is something we need to take serious, thus not providing the regulation goverments in Europe does. Many of the US cars would not be allowed in many German city, due to that fact. Power and size means more polluting, and we are not allowed to pollute here in europe, or if we want to, the prize is high :)
I guess yanks are in a hurry to get to the next traffic lights. Doesn't matter if your car takes 3 or 13 seconds to 100 in town. Well it matters in your gas bill.
Nothing strange about that you saw a lot of pickups here in Sweden. And they will not have a problem finding parking because of size. We have always preferred larger cars in Scandinavia. The best selling car for decades has been Volvos top models. And yes, we love pickups too. And apart from some really old parts of the cities, we have no issue with small roads and streets. And i have never seen a parking space that will not fit a large car. We do however have stupid politicians who think that a war on normal motorists is going to save the world. Not so good if you consider the size of Sweden. We are not the US of course, but you can drive for days without running out of country. Regards from a Swede who has a 40-foot motorhome and live in a very small village. But if you look around here, you will find everything from 60's Cadillacs, Ford F350's and other full-size US pick-ups. Most of my friends drive BMW X5/5-series or Mercedes or Volvo SUV's. And a couple of days ago i even saw a Humvee. In my garage i have Chrysler Voyager, Isuzu Trooper, Volvo 240 and 940 and a Mercedes S-class. Oh, i forgot... Regardless of direction, if i go for half an hour i will see a company that works with restoring or selling classic US cars.
Never saw a big ass ford here in finland. The hillux is the main pick up here. Nordic countries in Europe are known from wagons (~20% share). Example notice Volvo models v 90/60.
@@nicolaspeart3910 Finland has an unusually high Toyota presence tho, much more popular than in Sweden. Altho I have seen one or two Toyota Tundras here. They're big.
One key thing you have left out, which is a major part of our buying preferences, more so than fuel! is insurance, insurance in Europe is some of the highest around the world, and me being in the UK gets slightly more shafted than the rest of Europe too... With prices for new drivers being astronomical. For example, my 1.2l 2008 Vauxhall Corsa cost me £1620 to insure and tax, so basically now I can drive it, but it cost me £1700 to buy! (This is with a black box, a device that monitors your driving and goes to the insurance company to evaluate if your a safe driver or not, otherwise my insurance would've cost £2000+) now keep this price in mind, I qouted many bigger engine cars when I was first looking 1.6l engines would cost me around £2-2.5k with a box, and for a 2.0l I'm looking at about £3k with a box. Now compare to my friend in New Jersey, he just got a 2.5l Nissan Xterra and paid $1000 to insure it, and he's good to go, he got the car from his uncle so price I'll say very similar, but the insurance is near half what I paid and doesn't pay for as much fuel either. But I'd say I like the smaller engines, one thing you no one seems to mention is how fast some of our sub 2.0l cars can go, with us having smaller engines for so long, the performances of there engines can be the same as the bigger displacement American cars, for example the 1.6l turbo version of my car can do 0-60 in 6.8 seconds, with only 180hp, and other cars being able to better or very similar all within the 2.0l engine range.
A very informative and entertaining video. You’ve clearly identified and comprehensively explained many of the key differences in the European Vs US car markets...different needs for different cultures. 🏴
Generally speaking, when the price of fuel rises sales of small cars rise along with it. Right now fuel is ridiculously cheap in the USA so gas guzzlers are popular. Having said that, in 2019 Hybrid sales increased substantially and some electric vehicles sold in high numbers. Regulatory standards and business tax policies are bent to provide perverse incentives to drive oversized vehicles.
Obviously there are places in USA people are not collectively brainwashed and loving it! Sadly the oil production industry is huge provider of jobs and they spout propaganda as well.
Being British and having lived in Canada with exposure to US market cars I would say while this does accurately sum up the technical differences it seams to miss another key aspect of consumer demand. This is evident when looking at the cars on the best seller lists. In the EU (or at least UK market) it is common to find high specification cars at all size points, with typical average specification being, automatic AC, auto breaking, cruise control, voice command, navigation, alloy wheels, other styling upgrades like contrast roofs or body kits, heated seats and on some makers LED headlights (dacia sandaro, currently the cheapest car on sale has standard LED headlights) right from the start, with that often being close to base specification on well loaded brands like Nissan or Kia regardless of vehicle size. They are not as common on vehicles in the North American market cars and in some cases not available at all on smaller vehicles for no real reason, looking at 2 models on sale at some point in both markets the Ford fusion/mondeo, and the Nissan versa note, the standard and avaliable equipment was much greater in the EU market, with the mondeo offering the vignal trim and the Note being offered with part leather, auto AC, heated seats, etc. This forces buyers into larger cars simply to get desirable features making it harder to make a case for the smaller vehicle other than cost, which in a such a capitalist country is the last message someone wants to send. Also I am hoping someone can answer why Americans expect such power outputs and acceleration as in my experience I have never seen them used by a normal driver and when driving myself never felt it was needed due to the lower speed limits on average and long on ramps, it just makes no sense to me, when Europe really could do with that performance and often make a point of getting it where we can and really do use it all quite often.
From my impression having lived in both the EU and US, cars are something you need in the US whereas in Europe, they are something most have but are not really needed as public transports is a lot better in Europe and overall, a lot of the services that the people need is in closer reach. Also, I get the impression that Europeans prefer smaller to medium size cars whereas the US seems to prefer big cars, two different markets with different ways of thinking.
@@r.chavez5513 It's more expensive but I wouldn't say it's expensive if you put it in the context of life, I've lived in both the US and EU and quality of life is high in them both, just the way money is distributed around the economy is different where in Europe we are fine with paying higher taxes to gain a lot of benefits from them whereas the US want to pay lower taxes but they tend to pay through the nose for basic things that we in Europe get for free or dirt cheap. This is why overall the quality of living and purchasing power isn't that different over the two but I do think the European system is better because it looks after the poorer and middle classes a lot better whereas the US system feels like your all on your own with little help from the system.
I own a Peugeot 107, it takes 35L of fuel which cost me about 57$ to fill up. I easily get 550km on a tank. With raising fuel prices in the US, smaller cars will eventually become more interesting.
If the price of petrol/gas skyrockets like it did during the financial crisis, don’t worry, small cars will hit the North American market in no time. I remember the SUV crazy in the early to mid 2000s and then the crash happened. Everyone was buying small, economical cars. Newer trucks/SUVs are definitely more fuel efficient then those days but gravity and physics comes into play no matter how you look at it. A smaller, more aerodynamic car/hatch will always be more economical then a truck or crossover. As a fan of small cars and an owner of a Mark 7 Golf, I can’t say that I’d be upset with seeing more small cars on NA roads but probably not at the cost of a recession. 😉
Regarding size of vehicles in the usa vs europe....there is a difference between “want” and “need”. Do americans need large vehicles? No, but we want them. We should keep that in mind
Maybe you don't need a larger vehicle, but plenty of Americans do. Lifestyle is one determinant influencing choice for many people and American's don't live like Europeans. I live in Texas and lifestyle is only one reason I don't have a small car (I own a Ford Edge). I have to drive long distances to visit my family, buy groceries, and go to work (necessitating a comfortable vehicle). And I live in a large city, not in a rural area. Also, do Americans really need a tiny car? I wish laws would push Americans to buy newer more efficient vehicles (through taxes, registration fees, etc...) but as it stands, there is no reason for most Americans to choose to go small.
We all want them. Europeans get hard-ons every time they see an American pick-up or a Durango. They want big cars too. The difference is that in the US, we can afford to buy and own them, while the cast majority of Europeans cannot. Cars are MUCH more expensive there. The rich Europeans drive Range Rovers, G500s, etc. Not small by any means.
@@afcgeo882 i see them more driving large mercedes SUV’s or other large german cars then rather range rovers here in the netherlands but do people really want a car that cant barely park anywhere or needs a special large parking spot to park, also we do want them but why really they only good at the open country side not in big cities where you can barely move
![HIWWHEE | OHM [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/OJJLtTLqLag/mqdefault.jpg)
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.
Only in prairie states. Roads in mountains or hilly areas are windy, broken up (potholes), limited shoulders, low to medium for visibility. In other words, they were built upon a horse trail. The interstate system corrected much of that and made dedication to large radial turns, passing lanes, and limited access.
We also have lots of buses, vans (in high demand when they do arrive in Europe), large commercial trucks that those in compact cars aren't thrilled about riding next to on crowded highways.
compact cars suffer when they get on highways. milage drops a lot compared to a slightly bigger car with a little larger engine.
@@2explorevideos Look! An American who thinks we do not have buses, big trailers and lots of motorways packed with them in Europe.
Could you technically import a car like a Renault Captur? I've heard that it's illegal and these cars would get destroyed immediately..
@@2explorevideos Mileage in most cars drop when one is doing over the speed limit... Tell me another story
gas is sometimes cheaper than bottled water
"European cars are smaller because european roads are smaller" And european people and thiner too
Sad but true
@@AAutoBuyersGuide Look at Asians - smaller than EU people so they have even smaller cars.
@Why Why Why Why Joe 'Groper' Biden you know smaller car its a normal car, if its not 6Meters long its a small car for an american
Actually 6 of the European countries in the EU as well as Great Britain have fatter populations than the USA does by 2020.
@@jkutyna not really, you saw the overweight ratings, wich is normal its considered chubby, now in the USA they are obese asf!
People get so hung up with 0-60 times and then spend most of their time in slow moving city traffic.
*Americans
Just a bit north of Abbottsford there's a highway entrance that has a yield sign, then only a little more than 100 metres for you to accelerate from 0~120kph before the lane merges into the highway. It's fine in regular times cuz I don't have to stop, but during rush hour it's a PAIN IN THE ASS to try to merge in as I guarantee you there will be lots of cars - at around 120kph cuz this is still in the exurbs and the gridlock that starts at the suburbs is still a dozen km ahead - I must completely stop and wait for a gap. If I floor it, my Volvo can make it pretty close to 120kph in that short distance but only just, lucky I no longer live there and don't have to experience the adrenaline from worrying if the gap in traffic is wide enough for me to merge in.
So for suckers like me, who has to use that short onramp to get on to the hwy. If the car's 0-60 is significantly longer than 7sec then it could be a problem. I am more nervous take that onramp with the ford explorer cuz that thing takes around 8sec to get to 100kph.
Not if you live in a more rural area.
@@rickfeng4466 that’s why on European motorways drivers change to the left lane to allow cars to merge when approaching and passing a slip road. Just common courtesy and driving etiquette when you have slower accelerating cars. If there is a lot of traffic on the motorway then people let you in when trying to merge. Don’t see how this is a strange concept.
@@drzej3k794 Two problems: First is the angle of that entrance, it's not a parallel entrance but a slight turn, obstructing vision. Second and more importantly, not all drivers do that. Yes, some still do so I can get in after only a short wait.
What I felt is that in the 9 years since I got my driver's license, fewer and fewer drivers do that. Some don't move over when people trying to merge onto the highway, some don't even accelerate when merging onto the highway, a lot will pass a car with the lane change turn signal on even if they aren't very close. Some don't even use their turn signal at all! Hey, this is Vancouver, the city with THE WORST traffic in all of Canada. It's awful and your "common courtesy" is mostly just a memory from a few years back.
European cars aren't rated to carry americans, that's why we don't need 200 HP in every car.
EPA and shit....bumper for example... American just like to buy car like fastbfood... they don't buy car without tv adverts and local dealer take too much cut...
I’m am American and I weigh less than 80kg. I’ve been to quite a few European countries and have driven plenty of European cars in Europe.
How about driving a Dacia Duster on the German Autobahn? 110hp pushing 2 tons? Yeah, no.
@@benupde1979 well the duster is a shit car
@@benupde1979 take a nissan navara 2.5l diesel, it pushing +2 tons
@@benupde1979 a duster weights about 1.300 kg not 2000 kg ...
please every car can run 120kmh if driven properly (my 1.0 Up! can do at least 150 without any issues)
Even my old 2002 Skoda Fabia with 75hp goes to 140 easily and is still happy to go faster...
Edit: I managed to reach 167km/h (about 104mph, the rated top speed) in that 18 year old car! When going downhill, even more than 180km/h (112mph) is possible.
Maxed out my 1.0mpi 60hp Up! at around 160km/h. They may be low powered but not that slow.
heck i got to 140 kmh in my 50 hp citroen ax ...granted if i were to crash i would have been dead and to be collected with a spoon, ah and and the steering wheel felt like some sort of reciprocating industrial machine, but it can be done
my 1.0 aygo (68bhp) can sit at 90mph easy
Yeah, it takes a gazillion years to get there.
Nothing more annoying than cruising around 160 km/h and some small city car moved over to the left...
"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+
I'm pretty sure that Fiats have some fairies in engines, cause I've seen them going so fast my old e36 had to struggle a bit to pass them.
or passing a tesla in a hyundai atos 1.1 55hp
or by a Panda that's even better....
the unfortunately cancelled Loremo LS had a 50hp engine and was going just over 200km\h... the GT had like 65hp and was doing 230...
hell, even the Skoda Octavia wagon with the 1.6TDI loves cruising at 160km\h
helps when you actually think a bit on aerodynamics and not designing you cars like bricks.
Some cars should not be allowed on auto-stradas. Unfortunately, all cars are the same in this regards.
This video should be named, why we don't have American cars in Europe.
@M Bacon i think you missed a big portion of this video.
Reference to the part he states gas cost $6.8 per gallon and many are way too big. In many countries, like Germany, tax yearly on the size of the engine. So a 6l engine is going to get pretty F'n expensive.
You mean "why don't europe got 3500kg V8 SUV that does 14 mpg and 0 to 60 in 12 seconds ?" No thanks, my 2L Renault Megane with 3 times less power than the average car in the USA would outrun it and consume 3 times less fuel. We don't need those useless cars
Because Europeans have "taste".
DigitalYojimbo No one could afford driving them regularly only because of the price of gasoline in Europe...
"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.
@Kathleen Henson
No. USA is more fat than England. Europe is much prettier than the USA thanks to those old roads etc, it's their history. And whats wrong with Europe liking Manuals? That shows they are actually more engaged with their driving.
moneyinc.com/most-obese-countries-in-the-world/
worldpopulationreview.com/countries/most-obese-countries/
www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/maps-and-graphics/the-most-obese-fattest-countries-in-the-world/
@Kathleen Henson Big and roomy is not only a question of preferences, it comes as a cost. The Renault in this video is not small by any European standard, and at 41 mpg, it is not a fuel sipper either. European compacts, 10-11 ft long get close to 60 mpg.
@@Tore_Lund If you need a space to park your 11 ft long compact, let me know, you can park inside the back of my GMC Acadia .....
@@kenoday7562 I would like to., street parking where I live is not free!
@@Tore_Lund I OWN four parking spots, 2 in my garage, 2 in the driveway. And there's also free parking on the street in front and alongside my house. Amazing what you can do when 60-80% of your money isn't going to the government ...
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 :)
Mate, i'm italian and It's good to know that the "big car, small d*ck" thinking was a thing in other eu states too HAHAHA
In the US, most of the German brands except for VW are high end luxury brands (Mercedez, BMW, Audi, Porsche, etc.) so people tend to think that the folks driving around in a German car are jerks. =) I write this with no disprespect to Germany and the great cars that the German automakers build.
I refuse to belive the "oh hes got a big massive car he is a jerk" when Europeans have brands like BMW, Audi, MB, Rolls Royce, Bentley and all the other typical "privileged brands" like some of those cars are huge. And continue ue to get huge every generation they have
it's a waste of time to translate this video is for stupid people from the USA who don't even have a passport, it's American propaganda🤣🤣🤣 Reno citi car for old people and Hona Jazz Fiat 500 🤣🤣🤣
@@R4donX Yeah, here in the U.S. you get these people that drive these massive over-sized SUV's like the Suburban or Cadillac Escalade, and much of the time there's only one person in the vehicle - the driver. The guys with the oversized pickup trucks and SUV's are definitely trying to compensate for something.
There are also taxes that scale with power or emissions which are also a deterrent to buying a powerful vehicle.
Yep, that's mentioned in the video
@@AAutoBuyersGuide Really? Then I must not have been paying attention because I only remember the higher fuel prices or my English isn't good enough.
@@imnotusingmyrealname4566 NP, I kept waiting for him to mention it too... but ofc that was after the higher petrol prices...
BTW welcome to the land that brought Europe the SUV, the Big Mac and the best tobacco in the world.... lol.... Well at least the Americas can be proud of bringing, Chocolate to the world :)
@@imnotusingmyrealname4566 He mentions it multiple times, but more in detail toward the end
@@nc3826
Apparently you don't watch Trevor Noah? The 2 biggest cultivators of cocoa for chocolate are in AFRICA. In fact, those 2 countries account for 70% of the known cocoa and have decided to join together and form a cartel....the OPEC of chocolate.
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.
Na
Spot on.
Also young women prefer small cars like the fiat 500 in Europe
500 as a rental or cheap car? Hell no. 500 is a fancy city car. It's for a people who have more money, and they want to have good quality small car. For rental and first time buyers (if ever) there is Fiat Panda.
Just like from Seat lineup, Leon, normal compact car is cheaper than same configuration Ibiza, that is smaller car.
@Juden Arier Behind in what? lol Oh please take the bait and reply so I can pick your logic apart.
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.
That mean you were struggling. American cars could do that in their sleep. Most American cars feel like driving a Mercedes.
I live in America and it never appealed to me so I drove European cars in America. How wrong I was until I tried driving an American car.
They smooth to drive, powerful, spacious and can take lots of driving abuse. When I came back to Europe when I was driving european cars I was shocked at how flimsy the cars feel. The gear stick in European Cars feel like a toy.
@@bighands69 I dont know where they feel like driving a mercedes. I've driven mostly GMC and Ford. Also had the pleasure of riding around in some more expensive models like the Cadillac Escalade, and I gotta say they're handling is kinda shit. The biggest problem I have with American cars is it seems like no one figured out how to make a good suspension system yet. Going over a speed bump especially with a gmc feels like you're about to start flying. And while yes American cars are usually quite larger and more powerful we only tolerate it because the gas here is so cheap. While I had some fun with a 400 hp f series ford that thing drank fuel like a motherfucker. In germany where a liter can be up to 1.40 euros if not more I'd definitely prefer a smaller vehicle even with size restrictions. Most American's I see behind the wheel of trucks are either aged moms who god only knows why they need a f150 4x4 EcoBoost or some fatass who can barely fit in it already.
@@danielurecheanu
Handling?
That sounds like something a motor journalist would say when driving around a track. Cadillac are like driving a Mercedes as Are Lexus. We are not talking about over steer or understeer which is not relevant on a road.
A Mercedes will have dreadful handling compared to a 1970s lightweight Porsche on a track.
@@bighands69 ok
@@bighands69 I have driven a Chrysler, with a gear stick that felt like the transmission is made out of gelatine pudding. I could move the stick an Inch in every direction without shifting. If it feels that wobbly i do not care how big the stick is. German or Japanese transimissions feel much better. American cars are better now than maybe 15 years ago, but still not really that great.
Most european cars can go way above the speed limit. The difficult part is to pass slow vehicleson the narrow road
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.
-Well American Cities were built up a little over 100 years ago vs over half a millennium ago. So our infrastructure was designed with cars (model T's) in mind. This meant there was plenty of space for cars even in the cities, so vehicles like the gulf are as small as we need. Also with highway fuel economy being so important to auto manufacturers because of the dedicated epa rating, we got very tall overdrive gears for highway cruising, even on vehicles that realistically will never leave the city. But yea we don't have the same type of emissions regulations, but they get the same job done, but in a very different fashion.
-Diesels in America and diesels in Europe serve 2 different purposes. Diesels in Europe are fuel economy champs, whereas in America they are workhorses. Fuel economy champs here go to hybrid petrol vehicles and quite honestly the hybrid petrol method of super high fuel economy seems to be the smarter way. Diesel here is usually tied to 5.9L+ inline 6 and V8 engines in large trucks designed to tow your house. No European would be crazy enough to buy a 15 mpg diesel torque monster
-With the parking spot thing, in America there are regularly sold trucks that are 22 feet long and 7-8.5 feet wide. So while those parking spots seem colossal to a European, they might still be too small for some vehicles. Also Considering the size of said trucks engines, the hoods are usually bigger than some european compacts alone. So seeing over them is quite literally impossible so the new 360 cameras are a godsend.
-Considering the distance most would have to fly here, especially coast to coast, a 20mpg vehicle (average highway fuel economy for the 3 most popular pickups) at 2.50 a US gallon would result in 125 dollars per 1000 miles, so double that for round trip. Tickets for a flight about the same distance would be about 800 round trip minimum so its wildly more cost efficient to drive. And since very few people will drive for almost 20 hours straight, a cheap hotel room for one night would still come no where close to a flight + rental car.
@@james2042 Don't get me wrong, most of our cars are perfectly fine on highways. I think the 0.9 engine in the video isn't a very good example because it's not what most of us drive. That engine really is meant for city use and nothing more.
But yeah your EPA cycle makes much more sense than ours. It's ridiculous that larger engines are killed by fuel economy tests when in real life their fuel economy is often better than the tiny 3 cylinders.
I do agree that hybrids are a smarter choice for fuel economy. But sometimes people want something rather than need something. Diesels are better to drive. At least when you're not stuck in traffic. They do get quite expensive when stuff breaks though.
I don't know about the US but for us parallel parking spots don't really exist. You just have a line between 2 streets and park as many cars as you want. If you can fit your car, you park regardless of how long someone intended the space to be. I also don't think it's realistic to bring those huge trucks into cities. At least it's a rare problem from what I've seen. You can still park something the size of an F150 and most people don't have anything bigger than that.
Cameras are surely nice but believe me, with the amount of space you have, it's way easier to park a truck without a camera than to park a small hatchback without parking sensors in most European cities.
I spent 3 months driving around the US, mostly in California. I think I got an ok picture of what parking is like over there. I also realized most Americans have no idea how to parallel park properly.
@@ast5515 I personally drive an older grand cherokee and visibility to the ground is shit. My skid plates are always hitting curbs and can never see lines without opening my doors, and there are much taller and bigger vehicles than mine, so trust me when I say cameras are a godsend
@@james2042 They are a godsend but they are not necessary. I don't see the ground either. I just know where the lines are.
Help with curbs: Just look to the vehicle next to you and position your vehicle according to what you see from them. This goes for not hitting curbs in perpendicular parking situations.
With parallel parking you just have to feel it. I guess you can lower your passenger side mirror to help but I reverse parallel parked a car and a horse trailer into a spot about 25 feet longer than the thing.
Just feel it.
As for lines, you can look in your mirror and look at the lines behind you. In most parking lots they line up across multiple rows so it's easy to orient yourself. Otherwise it's just feel or position yourself so that you are in the middle compared to the car on your left and right. That's if you see that they are within the lines before you start parking. Parking in reverse also helps because once again you see the lines in your mirrors.
Don’t forget high speed rails. American only has slowtrak.
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
I did with Dacia Dokker, 1.5L diesel 95hp, 192km/h in Italy on the freeway.
@@Fury-lx6pc thats impressive
Top speed is fine. the problem with them in the USA is they must acccelerate very quickly to enter an interstate highway because many times people are unable to merge over to allow you to enter and the last thing you want to do is stop at the end of the merging ramp because merging on from a dead stop could be life ending for you.
@@scrambler69-xk3kv Trust me, even low HP cars can accelerate quickly enough haha, in France on the Autoroutes 🛣️ (= interstate in the US) I will usually go from 50km/h to 130km/h in a few seconds and still have plenty of time to merge ^^
in Europe e just have pulic transport that works and cities that are walkable, it's not a matter of horsepower or how big we like our cars. We use our cars to go on with our lives, otherwise in the US your life is completely influenced by your car
Yes lets make American to pay the polluting!!
Public transportation is disgusting with trash everywhere and crack heads asking for money. Nobody wants to sit next to someone in a crowded train, we just want to have our own space.
@@bloopbloop2019 in Europe public transport is noting like that. Busses in my part of the UK have leather seats and air con.
@@darrens3 Wow, that's luxury. I think ours is different because it's old.
@@darrens3 public Transit in the US sucks
9:00 WRONG, 13 14 15 seconds for 0-60 is very slow in Europe
cries in 11.6sec
@rogue I've driven punto naturalpower in work delivering food - when new, 0-60 was 19 sec, and this car was so tired after years of abuse... anything below 15 feels like rocketship to me right now
Most American cars can do 0-60 in 5-6 secs. And then the more powerful ones, can do it between 3 and 5 seconds.
My 3.5L V6 Twin Turbo EcoBoost in my Supercab F150 can do it in the sub 5 sec range. Haven't tested it exactly, but a tuned version did it 4.3 secs, so I'd imagine that my stock version could do it at least around 5 seconds.
Yes it‘s very slow but yet very common here. Because faster cars get very expensive.
i can't get over 60 kph, so ...
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
There aren't many cars at all. Cars account for only 20% of all vehicle sales.
19:07 Kia Soul is not a European car. It may be sold in Europe but it's a Korean brand. Thanks.
Yeah, obvious error. Kia (soul) is Korean junk. This guy knows nothing about cars.
@@betterbeavailable Kia makes great cars, what are you talking about?
It’s Asian but it was thought for European market
gas-powered-crusader yeah, because the Polo is a perfect car lol
That's why he said "sort of European" (and used air quotes), meaning that it's not an European company, but it's an "European-style" car.
One thing you didn’t mention was that in Europe we road trip less and fly instead. I can drive the 1500km from London to Barcelona in Spain or I can fly for about £40.
The United States is the size of Euorpe (NOT INCLUDING ALL OF RUSSIA).
Enjoy skippas. Europe (not including Russia) is slightly larger than the U.S and also has a much larger population.
Also we can use TGV, LGV or any high-speed train, wich is by far faster than any US high-speed train.
@@bordersw1239
Western Europe is not bigger than the US.
@@Jake-hb4bd He does have a point thought, flying is dirt cheap in Europe so cars are not as needed for long trips.
Enormous difference in how fuel is priced makes for very different choices
yup. But even before fuel was as expensive as gold in Europe we drove smaller cars because our roads are more narrow and curved.
Historical reasons for that, most of our roads have been there for hundreds of years and started designed for horses and hand drawn carts back in the middle ages. There's simply no room for a large US style car in many places in Europe.
My dad had several and it was always a problem getting around older parts of cities, and getting into and out of parking garages. More than once he had to back out of a parking garage or road because the turns were so tight he simply couldn't make them in his Thunderbird, and a few times he nearly got stuck under an overpass with his Cherokee.
Don't have that problem with a Golf or Focus.
Yeah, as a european I can't imagine buying some 4 cyl when I could get a V8 or something fun and barely cost me any more
@@jwenting a Thunderbird is a massive car.
That's were LPG comes in
"0-60 in 11 second is slow" Dude, my 69hp Yaris does 0-60 in 18 seconds (and i am optimistic).
Enough for you to get a ticket
It is still fast enough to lose your driving license.
But why would you want to speed crazy? Think, plan ahaed, leave in time, and you will get there anyway. And theres so much things to see while on the road.. :)
Y'all do realize 60mph is *slow* for a european autobahn, right? People 'round here are interested in 0-60 time (ok, 0-100km/h) since it is a decent indicator of what merging onto a motorway will feel like.
The thing is many kei cars get a 8 second 0-60 with 5 horsepower less
Because it's actaully built for affordably
The Kia Soul isn't European, Kia's are from South Korea.
Last time I checked, South Korea isn't in Europe...
@Pufferfish eating a carrot ?? What?! No way
The Soul in Europe is smaller than the US version
@@lorezn9416 no it really isn't. It's the same size.
Lore Zn you mean Kia stonic
I dream about a world where I understand the units of measurements in all youtube videos. Right now it's ridiculous...
Inch, your middle knuckle on your index finger. A foot is about the size of your elbow to wrist. A yard is about one pace.
@@ga-america5030 what is a pace
F a As I have said before, I think Americans refuse to abandon the British Imperial system because deep down inside they regret the revolution and want to be subservient to Britain.
@@ga-america5030, ok, 1 cm is the width of your index finger, a decimeter is the lighth of your index finger, a meter is the hight of your waist.
The British use it too. Their speed limit signs are in miles.
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).
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.
Dito in American cities. But Americans like power even if it is useless.
As mentioned in the video, we have a fleet of small cars with 0.9 to 1.2 liter engines and 65-70 ps/hp.
What he doesn't mention is, that the same cars often are offered with same or a bit bigger engines with 100-160 ps/hp.
also that the 100-160 hp Diesel engines often offered have enough torque to not beeing an obstruction on the road.
nirfz very good point, the 1.4TDI 75bhp polo is pretty good. Felt just as capable as the larger and more powerful engines
Darth Wheezius yeah I would rather have a diesel personally.
Darth Wheezius Diesel models of small manual transmission cars are easier to drive. And they consume a lot less fuel compared to gasoline. Oh and gasoline is 1.5x the cost of diesel (in France).
Darth Wheezius maybe so. The only benefit I see is that manual petrol cars are slightly quieter. On larger cars though like the A4, 3 series etc there is very little difference. I would rather take the diesel in which case and get far better MPG. Also driving a manual diesel can be harder, in a petrol you can pretty much just be in whatever gear.
Alex: "European cars are smaller"
Rolls Royce Phantom EWB: "Am I a joke to you?"
a crew cab Silverado is half a meter longer, and far more common than any Rolls Royce
jve89 pretty sure he meant cars commonly sold in Europe, not European car manufacturers
Land rover/range rover: oh, come on.
Which is why the U.S. is the largest market for Rolls-Royce.
Really... Still that joke uh?
The reason why we don't have American cars: Too large for small resident roads and too wide to park. Fuel is too expensive.
Though I've seen some idiots driving a Dodge Ram, pure for thrills.
So basically you're emasculated
@@stn7172 the bigger the car the smaller the dick. Ever heard of compensation?
Don't all the US high earners drive Mercs, Bentley and BMW. seems your average American is told from birth that they should always buy American regardless...
Just look under that pickup and u see a LPG installation to reduce costs. Even sometimes they just throw bottle on tray/bed/whatthisiscalled
Bigger vehicle is for emasculated soyboys to compensate for the lack of manhood. A true man drives something like a VW Up
This video showcases good reasons for the US to finally really using the metric system and ISO Standards ;)
Metric doesn't work. The people in the USA are smart enough to know this. People who make airplanes and fly them are smart enough to know you don't use metric when lives are at stake. Don't believe me? Then tell me how far the moon is from the Earth in metric. I guarantee you will get it wrong and try to tell me the distance in an incorrect format such as kilometers. Why don't Europeans measure their time in metric? Oh yeah, they tried it for a few years in post revolutionary France, along with their calendar, then gave up and went back to the good old honest 24 hours to a day. So shut up about your stupid metric. It doesn't work.
For the record, any metric idiot will look it up and tell you it's about 360,000 - 405,000 kilometers and they are WRONG. Everywhere you see that listed on the web as the distance by metircards, but why aren't they doing it properly? I have yet to find ANYWHERE on the net where they state that the distance is 360 MEGAmeters to 405 MEGAmeters as would be correct in metric. Use your damn system CORRECTLY or don't, but until you do, stop harassing those who are smart enough to stay away from it. I can't find a single metric watch or clock easily on the internet either. Nobody I know of has ever gone by ten hour days, ten day weeks, ten month years, ten minutes to an hour, and ten seconds to a minute. All navigation on the planet uses the Coordinate system, not the metric system. We use latitude and longitude along with radians for the compass headings, NOT the metric method of navigation which I doubt any of you can even find a book on to tell you how to do it. No aircraft of any kind on the planet navigates with metric.
Jkutyna wrote books to troll and no one read more than the two first lines lmao
@@jkutyna I can't really tell if you're trolling or serious, but it seems like you have some misconceptions about the metric system. I could tell you the distance in centimeters and it would be equally correct. Time and Navigation are just straw man arguments. Tell me again what those 'klicks' are, your military likes to use...
@@Gunrunn3rTV we used nautical miles so i dont know wtf you are on about and the one and only reason to use metric in any argument is the decimilization so if you refer to the distance between the Earth and the moon in cm or km, then you are outright wrong.
"We're driving at higher speeds" :)). Really ? Where?
Yeah I didn't get that bit, most US freeways have a limit of 55 or 60 MPH which is much less than our 130/150 Km/h.
Dafuq
@@ilpatongi especially as in most countries exept Italy nobody cares about the speed limit
Quarknjaguar I wouldn’t consider this true at 100%.
Ever country has people who don’t know how to drive and don’t respect speed limits but the problem in Italy is that the same people think they’re better than everyone else.
It’s mostly due to the fact that a lot of people who drive come from ignorant parts of Italy, you know, the stereotypical regions with a lot of small groups of homes with old people...
@@ilpatongi I think it's the same problem that we have in Romania. we have a lot of idiot drivers on the road. I call them "professional suiciders". Anyway the point is that the Us has lower speed limits then the EU. And even if the roads are narower we go faster. I like a lot of things made in america but to compare gasolin prices from us to europe and not mention that european gasoline has a much higer octane rating an to forget that in europe there are a lot of really fast cars on the road(bmw, audi, porche are euroean brands right?) is somehow misleading. And by the way. in eu 1liter of 95 gas is about 1.23$, in the us is about 0.77(theyr 80 to 90 octane rating). the average car in eu can go 100km with about 5.5l of gas and the american one uses at least 10. so in eu the price for 100km is about 6.7$/100km and in the us is about 7.7$/100km. Cheaper my ass.
@@morarmihai4881 I don't know about octane rating, I've always knew that American had higher rating because they use PON instead or RON but lol
In 2013, I went to the USA for a road trip. The rental company gave me a 2012 Jeep Liberty 3.7l V6 with 213hp and 235 lb-ft of torque. My own car here in Germany at that time was a 2010 Renault Grand Scenic 1.9l diesel with 130hp and 221 lb-ft of torque. Both vehicles were about the same size (same width, the Renault a few inches longer, the Jeep a little higher). Disappointingly, the Jeep offered much less space inside (the usual disadvantage in space economy a SUV has compared to a minivan). As expected, the jeep accelerated much better from a standing start, but the perceived difference at motorway speed was only slight. But my Renault was significantly quieter at highway speeds and hardly needed more than half of the gas the Jeep guzzled (I know, the comparison with a diesel is not fair, but ultimately the result counts). This comparison showed me quite clearly how different the priorities between American and European drivers are and why American cars sell so badly in Europe an vice versa.
Yeah, I heard a Japanese automaker executive say "Americans just want the biggest vehicle with the biggest engine and the most horsepower"
Most of european brands (Renault, Fiat, Seat, Peugeot, MG) are available in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina or Colombia, and those countries are AMERICA too...
He’s talking about the US here.
Headlamp levelling adjustment is a legal requirement in the EEA/EU as it takes into account vehicles towing trailers/caravans. Its usually deleted for other markets and the headlamp level fixed in place.
A rear fog lamp is also mandatory in the EEA/EU as an early visual warning in low visibility fog for cars at the rear... believe me, they really are a useful in safety device in poor visibility... but an absolute pain when some arsehole uses them in the rain.
No one uses gallons any more, just litres so it might be easier to include and apples to apples comparisons in future reviews.
thanks for the explanation. but you are wrong about the gallons. I am telling you as an European. Just respect each other.
The manual headlight adjustement is only used in "older" light forms (halogen bulbs) Xenon by law has to be self leveling, as do all the newer (LED) ones. Maybe due to the american models beeing higher trim they only sell the expesive light solutions there. Thumbs up for the mention of the foglight rain morons!
But i have to say considering my 22 years of driving, i think the rear foglights should be removed. I have met more (more is an extreme understatement) drivers misusing their rear foglights those using them like intended. (people switching them on when still beeing able to see 200m ahead, not switching them off when another car is behind them and they can clearly see the headlights of the car behind them, using them just because it's dark outside, using them in light rain...)
@@Telencephelon Nah... If we're gonna have to use gallons then use British gallons.. Rule Britannia! 🤣🤣🤣
@@EdgyNumber1 Right. Come to think of it. The ambiguity of national units like the ton, mile and gallon has led to a lot of engineering disasters with a big deathtoll over the decades. But then again abolishing it had the same effect. See wikipedia and documentaries here on youtube. Something's gotta give sooner or later.
Let's see where China is heading: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_units_of_measurement
@@Telencephelon SI units are the way to go... even American professional engineers have to use them these days.
The only other country I know that officially only uses the old measurements that don't make any sense is Liberia. A third world low index country.....
it's so frustrating to pause the video every 20 seconds and convert the lengths on google. i found out that my car is 14 ft long though, thx for that.
It's like saying a car is 37 burgers and 5 fries wide.
Alex, What happened to the #wagons? They make up around 20% of European sales.
Right Lane Hog Alex didn’t mention them but they are still strong and for some models they outsell other variants. A good example of this on this list is the Octavia. Also the Golf and Focus have Wagon variants that also sell well. For example Focus Wagon is a very popular fleet car for reps in Poland as are similarly sized Renault, Opel, Peugeot and Toyota models.
yeah I wish we would get those wagons here - plenty of room and efficient design.
@@mtumasz Precisely!
@@alaind831 Exactly!
@Pauline Weinberger The European wagons referred to are just better versions of hatchbacks not the 3 ton behemoths of yesteryear. BTW we have bloated, behemoth SUVs aplenty today.
I drive the #5 in Europe the Skoda Octavia TDI. Honestly loads of good cars that never reach north America.
Isaac Alonzo If Skoda was sold in the US, they’d be the same price as Volkswagens due to import costs from Europe. That would destroy Volkswagen as a brand. The same for Séat. It’s a major issue for European manufacturers. It’s also why the US won’t get the standard Golf Mk8. Its manufacture was just moved back to Germany from Mexico. Imports from Mexico have been tariff-free due to NAFTA.
@@afcgeo882 it's a shame since loads of great cars don't reach the north America market
Isaac Alonzo I agree, but that happens everywhere.
Isaac Alonzo Where do you live? Here in US some people are obsessed with speed and power, and so the nice, torquey diesels are not so popular. I drove 2015 Golf TDI and sadly someone else took it quickly because it really goes effortlessly and get good mileage. I was scared about service though on the particulate filter.
James Medina That’s not at all why Diesels aren’t popular. They’re not popular because their fuel costs more than premium gasoline, negating all fuel saving aspects and because Diesel was banned for passenger cars since the 1970s. The Diesel cars are also more expensive here than gasoline. In Europe, they’re cheaper and the fuel is cheaper than gasoline. Their added noise, vibration and refueling mess are trade-offs of them being cheaper to buy and own, but in North America, they’re just added inconveniences.
The headlight adjustment has been mandatory in some eu countries for well over 20 years now. The reason all new cars don't have a switch is because some lights (usually xenon and led) are required to have automatic adjustment.
Does anyone else find it suspicious that Alex on Autos, and Alec from Technology Connections are never seen in the same room together? Seriously I just realized you guys are like brothers, bordering on clones.
This is a very good video!!
I drive a diesel ford Mondeo (sold as a Fusion in the Us), it's a great car, quick, returns 56.9mpg on a run (47.37mpg US). it's 6-speed manual and on some of our roads, I wouldn't want to have an auto box on this car. A manual transmission means you have to be more aware of the vehicle, the road etc. as you also use the gearbox to help brake especially on mountain roads in southern Europe - a place where brake fade is all too easy to happen.
Now, when in the US, I prefer the bigger cruising SUVs. But while remote towns in places like Italy require a tiny car, around town and basic urban driving doesn't require speed and long-range comfort so most homes have both a small car and a larger car for comfort and distance driving. I did street mapping work across the southern Italian mountains in an automatic diesel Golf and while it handled the mountains fantastically, and the vehicle torque was astounding - the car was physically too big for several places.
But the whole thing is driven by economy - more miles for less money due to the fuel prices - which you touched on perfectly.
Italian towns were places that the poor lived in. Hence why they were so small.
Taxes is most important. The Tesla Model 3 was actually the best selling car in the Netherlands in 2019 because you don't have to pay rigorous road taxes and taxes for emissions.
Automatic transmissions also engine brake, unless they're bad.
@@UhOhUmm Yes the Golf I used in the Italian mountains was an Auto, with the "flappy paddle" style leavers. You had to learn to be quick and in "sport mode" for it to be effective, and in that case it was very good.
@10:07 This is total BS. these engines are smaller, because it makes them fuel efficient, and modern cars use their power more efficient. My 1.2 polo has a 75HP engine. No it is not a fast car, but 80mph is easy. Any of those cars with small engines he mentions can do 100mph without breaking a sweat.
And an ad for a Ford Expedition bragging about how ginormous it is interrupts this video about sensible vehicles...
It also looks terrible. I mean really dreadful.
TH-cam Red life
I had an ad for the electric Mustang. That’s as European as it gets. An electric SUV.
55.4 mpg (UK) = 46.13 mpg (USA)
Not what you said.
If you do the reverse comparison it's this you have to use 1 us mpg = 0.83 imperial but inverted it's 1 UK & Canada mpg = 1.2 US MPG.
"Why dont we have these small little efficiant cars to America"
Doing it the American way, instantly starts talking about HP :-) *facepalm*
A similar silly arguement would be "Everything in Europe is just scaled ½ of the US" , that would make just as much sence
One of the real reasons, is car taxes, in some EU countrys they are INSANE high, i think Denmark was the highest, clocking in at 180%.
Imagine that for a sec US people, paying allmost for 3 F-Series truck, everything you get one ?, but if you bought a VW Up, you would only have 50% tax or something, what would you then buy?
True! And really in Europe when you talk with friends 'Oh how good that car would be!' refering to a luxury car. For sure your friends will say 'Yeah you will need a gas station for that!'. The fuel consumption is the biggest part in buying a car in Europe.
Meanwhile in japan even the newest hatchback with a computer screen on the dash is lighter than the orignal mini cooper
I live in UK, you have hit all the main points but also forgot some others, our housing is generally a lot smaller, most have no parking specific to their house in semi-detached or terraced style in cities. With people owning 2/3 cars per house parking is a nightmare so smaller cars help.
I’d say the other main issue is people’s salary, I’d imagine we are on a LOT less than people in USA for doing the same job so smaller cars are a better option.
The average car buyer looks at MPG before anything else. This is due to smaller incomes, a V8 petrol as a daily driver could cost you a daily take home for a weeks worth of work.
We like our cars but due to the above we are forced into a huge compromise.
This is how I like it becuase it lowers the price of good cars on the used market becuase people are too scared of fuel guzzlers so they go and spend lots of money on some shit like a Vauxhall.
Speaking about height: american and italian have same height average.
So both midgets
Yeah, short.
Considering there are varying ethnic backgrounds from every country that live here .. Majority of which lower the avg height.
Laughing in Nordics (6.3)
@@ikuzoburandeon i know plenty tall italians (even taller than you). Old italian generation were short, especially from some regions, now all teenagers are at least 6 - 6.1 tall.
Never get used to americans saying "Neesan" rather than Nissan
That's the correct way
Nee-san, did you brush your teeth yet
Ara ara, maybe Americans love their older sisters more.
And NYYYkon!
And ZEEE as in ZEEE 6
I'm French and live in Houston so I'm acutely aware of the differences. I never even owned a car until I moved to Houston because you can't walk anywhere and there's no public transportation (or very little).
I keep hoping for Citroen sedans in the US though :P
UK - what is a sedan?
It's possible we in this or next year US get's more Citroens and Peugeots under Stelatis umbrella.
malheureusement Peugeot devait revenir aux US mais ils ont choisi Alfa romeo à la place, c'est des crétins.
@@stephen10. Je ne suis pas sur que j'ai vu une personne qui ont une voiture d'Alfa Romeo dans ma ville ici aux US.
For a city that drives so much, Houston has some terrible roads.
Back in my day, our Escorts in the USA had 88 horsepower brand new, and we were glad to have it. Only Cadillacs, Corvettes, and a few mustangs and Camaros tipped in at a robust 120 with their v8. You greedy kids and your turbo injected magical engines. Get off my lawn.
En France ou en règle générale dans l'Europe pas besoin d'un gros V8 pour 120cv! c'est ridicule, nous le faisons avec un 4 cylindres robuste plus économique et vu le poids de s voitures américaines 2 fois plus rapides ! alors je vois pas le besoin d'un tank américain qui bouffe 15 litres à 90 km/h alors que moi je consomme pour la même vitesse maxi 6 litres sur autoroute.
Nowadays every 1.0l engine of a minicar can reach 120 easily.
I have a European 1997 Ford Escort originally 1.8 115hp and then swapped for 2.0 150hp. It's my first car and I still have it and still use it. I have plenty of other cars, but how can I sell my little Escort if it is still making me smile when I drive it? I had it for 12 years and it is a never ending project car.
They didn't make a lot of horsepower because they turned pretty slow. The 1986 Ford Escort GT (1.6L) had a power curve that fell of a cliff at just over 5,000 rpm. Seeing that torque is multiplied by engine rpm and then divided by 5,252 rpm to calculate horsepower the max HP number was actually not that bad.
The newer small engines get their peak horsepower numbers by spinning the shit out of a low torque engine.
Stop saying inches, America is not the center of the world
In Europe this type of car (small city) exists in almost every family, either because it is a second car for the city, the first car of a young person or the only car of families with less resources. There are usually other cars in the families, usually from above segments (such as a Golf SW, a 3 Series, or an average SUV). These small cars are economical in European cities, are practical and cheap to maintain.
yea I call them shopping bags on wheels... I would rather take Polo than Superb for a quick run to get me a beer and pretzels :D especially during rush hours when parking lots fill to last spot
@@lamebubblesflysohigh
"shopping bags on wheels" Haha, I have the same attitude towards it.
We would never just own a big car. You always want a smaller one as well.
I'll take the X5 BMW with 300+ HP to go on holiday throughout South-Europe or move the boat around. But to get the big shopping done I'm taking the 206 Peugeot(daily shopping is on foot)
Nr 1.reason ... cars in Europe are much more expensive compared to US. Less space, narrow roads, taxes, low emission pressure all rarther artificial reasons.
Cities. Cities were planned centuries before cars were invented so it's really hard to make it work as an American city. All that that you mention, the road sizes, the gas, the taxes are deterrents. They don't want small cities filled with cars because it's nightmare
You are right. If you take the price of fuel, most of it is made up of taxes put in by insane left wing governments. If you removed all fuel taxes, it would come closer to $3 a gallon, instead of $7. Same goes for emissions. The roads are narrow but not everywhere. Countries like Germany, Sweden or parts of Eastern Europe have quite wide roads. It's just the old historic cities of France, Italy, etc. Still, there are plenty of places here where you could enjoy a large car. The problem is the insane taxes. A new Mustang V8 would cost you about 5000 Euro a year just in taxes in most place.
Cities in europe weren't planned, which is the main reason. Most of them grew from little settlements, villages... into cities. And the raods couldn't grow in the same rate as the city itself because of buildings.
@Protector of the Republic: easy to blame left wing governments, but if i take my country it's BS. Since WW2 we had a coalition of left and right for most of the time, and the taxes on fuel and cars in general were always put in place by both (and no not just tolerated by conservatives they actively wanted them). As for wide roads, it doesn't help you if you can drive a F150 on the highway or over land if you then have to park it ouside the village/city you wanted to go. A drive always has a begin and ending and those too are problematic if the vehicle is that big. Yes there are few places where it doesn't matter, but Italy and France aren't the exception, they are the norm. (even in Germany, Sweden and eastern Europe.)
@@nirfz yeah that's mlre accurate. Let's bsay that they were there long before the car arrived.
@@RafaelPernia absolutly.
I am a Brit who recently moved to the USA. I guess I must follow a stereotype because for my first car since moving here, I bought a Golf Wagon with manual transmission. I kinda like how it’s a little more unique over here vs the UK and how it stands out from the crowd of trucks and SUVs. The only engine available on the Golf Wagon in the USA (until recently) was the 1.8L turbo and by European standards that’s huge! When visiting family the UK we always rent the smallest and cheapest possible car and there is something to be said for them. Tiny engines with light clutches are a ton of fun to throw around the European roads and roundabouts. Thanks for the video. Really well put together!
Americans CO2 footprint are much higher
That's a good thing, since CO2 is plant food and is not causing global warming. The Sun controls the temperature.
@@656hookemhorns wow, I guess the European education is also much better...
@@prowiec
Europeans create Nazi's and Communists. Tell what is so great.
@@bighands69 You are correct, we created Americans too. Absolute shambles we are.
@@656hookemhorns Under what rock have you been living?
I’ve owned cars from almost every major Japanese manufacturer as well as a few European ie. Renault, VW and Volvo. IMO, European cars are sexier and more comfortable than Japanese cars. But Japanese cars are cheaper and more practical to operate. But I prefer both to American cars.
I never had one, but it always makes my day when I see one of these fast Renaults overtaking me, such a cool little cars.
Donax695 where do you live?
@@MG-yu6do Czech republic
I think old Renault cars from the 80's were sold as AMC in America.
Slow? Renault 21 2.0 turbo 😊✌️
th-cam.com/video/d67uT6b65x0/w-d-xo.html
The US 25-year import rule needs to be removed. Bring back the Freedom to buy whatever car we want again!!
Honestly $7 per gallon I think is the main reason
Sadly it isn't
The size of our cities and streets weighs equally. You just cannot use a full-size truck in a European city. You can barely use it in big American cities, actually.
@@TheUrbanEpicure okay but what about a mustang gt500? On premium fuel it gets 15mpg average, still smaller than that dodge journey in the vid
@@james2042 Well, 15 mpg is pretty horrible, but people mostly don't buy it because it's 40% more expensive here than in the US, which pits it against much more refined sports cars. The latest Mustang took a big step but it still doesn't corner very well, and it's too heavy - Europeans appreciate handling more than straight line grunt.
@@TheUrbanEpicure yea you people run around with the fiesta rs and focus rs. Here we get mustang's, explorer st's and Raptors. The only non suv crossovers ford sells stateside are the mustang and the fusion, everything else got axed.
And like said in the vid, most americans like trucks more than anything. I drive a grand cherokee with a 5.7 hemi. I plan on trading it in for a Sierra 2500hd with the diesel later this year. I'm going from one gas guzzler to another because quite frankly it doesn't cost that much and the usefulness outweighs the extra cost in fuel. The ability to hook a 7200lb trailer to my jeep is a massive convenience
You don't need 350hp+ and a 4 second 0-120km/h to drive 120km/h or 50km/h in the city's.
Also everything in america is bigger. Houses, vehicles, people
Nope. We don't base every life decision on what we need. I happen to have a 350hp vehicle that will not get even close to 120 km/h in 4 seconds, but it pulls a 14,000 lb trailer like it doesn't exist. It's all about what you want to be able to do.
If you have the means to have a big vehicle and/or house and that is what you want then who should tell you otherwise?
Living in Sweden, I would consider a 5 hour drive a rather long one.
And the police in UK would too if you didn't have a break and crashed, killing someone.
@@willswomble7274 Oops, wonder what they would think of me - regularly doing 16-18h drives from Baltics to Germany and back. I honestly never thought that the length of driving non-stop would affect the punishment in case of accident, how would they even know that?
@@willswomble7274 Five hours is just getting started. It's not that hard to cover 1,000 miles in a day if the traffic isn't too bad. Last October I drove from Boise ID to Maryland between Baltimore and DC over the course of 3 days.
and expensive !
@@ivankuzin8388 It's illegal to drive more than 11 hours or so, because it's dangerous
Really upset we aren't getting the new Focus ST. Seems like Ford has completely given up on selling Compact cars, and maybe even Sedans in general, in America.
they have officially announced that they have given up on cars.
It's due to you not buying them . The profits on the SUV and pickup market with a sprinkle of muscle car. I love my focus ST it's a good size, fast enough, good in the corners and not too bad on fuel/insurance
@@bobdylan9117 Cars only make up 20% of the US market and sales are dominated by the Japanese. Why would Ford bother competing?
American here, and I've been to Germany a few times. European cars might be slow, but the public transportation system is awesome. Why would you want to do a road trip by car, when you can take an amazing ride on the ICE train, which can go 150+ mph? Or why struggle to find parking in the city, when you can take a comfortable ride on a street car? Also, many roads date back to the middle ages, and were originally built for horses. I've been on a cobblestone road in rural Mecklenburg-Vorpommern that was built in the 1400's. You can only navigate old, narrow roads like that in a small car. If you had a Ford F-150 or a RAV4 or something in Germany, you'd be seriously limited in where you could go.
Same as the UK, though I would say our public transport isn't nowhere near as good as Germany. Our roads are very narrow too. I drive lorries for a living and some of the main roads I go down are barely wide enough for the truck. Especially in country lanes when you meet another truck coming the other way. You're practically driving in the dirt so your mirrors don't smash.
@@DarrenBoss1984 Oh yes, Germany's public transit is amazing. Though I am a car enthusiast, I feel bad for any American who chooses to rent a car when visiting there, instead of experiencing their public transit. Those ICE trains - whew! It's like flying, except you're on the ground. Who cares about the Autobahn, when you can experience a high-speed train that can go faster than any car? Oh, and everything's always exactly on time, never a minute too late. The German obsession with punctuality extends to their public transit system. I don't know if things have changed, but at least it used to be that trains in the UK were always late, and that arrival times were just suggestions.
"low" horse power European cars don't struggle with high speeds on the interstate network at all. My first car was a '99 VW Polo with 60HP, it had no trouble going down the Autobahn at 180km/h, that is about 115MPH, so way faster than you could legally drive in any other country than Germany.
Bruh in America that's called 12am on the freeway
Chase Unfried well that’s regular Tuesday in the Autobahn
Why do you even need so many hp if you can't even go over 130kph (over 80mph)? XD
We tend to like torque over horsepower, so we go for larger displacement slower turning engines. This gives us acceleration, longevity and low rpm at highway speed (buzzy engines increase driver fatigue).
Us speed limit 70 mph on 99 percent of interstate 80 in some midwest rural areas. No one needs 200mph car or bike but we still want them. If like me I sometimes break the law and go faster than limit.
@@rich7447 And also the automatic transmission sucks much power
@@BICIeCOMPUTERconGabriele True, although not as much as they used to. What a lot of automatics do when attached to high revving engines is shift before the engine hits the power band.
I would not buy small European car.
I have been living in Germany for the past four years (finally going back to US). It is true that majority of vehicles sold here are smaller than those in America but it is due mostly to gas prices, not parking spaces. There are actually quite a few Durangos, Grand Cherokees, Rams, Edges and few other ones driven here on German Autobahns. Some are sold with European specs (mostly diesel engines) but some are imported to EU with US specs. What they do with these vehicles is they convert them to LPG. That cuts the costs of fueling by about 40-50%.
The only European vehicles that could potentially make sense to sell in North America would be the wagons as not everyone likes big SUVs. Almost every European manufacturer sells one in Europe. I particularly happen to like Mazda6 wagon that is being sold in Europe but is not available in USA.
"quite a few" translates to so few that they represent less than 0.1% of cars on European roads.
If only my 18 Mazda 6, which I love, was a wagon!
@@AAutoBuyersGuide I don't know what percentage Alex but they are here. Not a lot of them but here. For example Ford Kuga (Escape) is selling in Germany well. The problem with "US made" cars sold in Germany (and EU in general) is also VAT and duty. Any vehicle imported from USA to Germany gets hit with 19% VAT (tax) and I think 20% Customs duty. In Poland for example it is 22% VAT and 20% duty plus 5% import tax.
So with these additional costs, how do you stay competitive? You can't.
Richard Szuban the Ford Kuga was designed in Europe and is based on the Ford Focus. There’s no import tariff it them because they are built in Europe
We do. FIAT and Volkswagen have always been very big players in the car market of Brazil, America.
Finally someone is showing Americans what we drive here. An American lawnmower has a more powerful engine than some of the crossovers in Europe.
Edit: Probably not but the cars here aren't powerful at all is what I'm saying.
That is why I will just drive a lawnmower across Europe.
@@fcex558 Quite true my 2003 Jaguar XJ Super V8 has 400hp, when you look at what America had in the same class they had the Cadillac DTS which would make 300hp or the Lincoln Town Car which made 235hp.
I am Swiss and I’m always surprised to see how many big SUV’s and luxury cars there are nowadays... even compact cars become much larger.
Hilarious. Even 50 HP will get up to 80mph easily.
0:24 "European cars are smaller because Europeans are less fat and wasteful than Americans"
There, fixed it for you.
In Europe, people do think about fuel/emissions and the environment, Americans do not !!
Yep, that is why VW got discovered for their intentional fraud about emissions in the USA, right? And this is why Tesla, an American company, is now revolutionizing the world by creating emission free car that sell better than any other electric car in the world? www.statista.com/statistics/960121/sales-of-all-electric-vehicles-worldwide-by-model/
(no competitor comes even close)
Yeah weird how we make Tesla
I love your videos! A lot of the generalizations about Europe are fair, although talking about height and physical size of an average "European" is quite silly. As you said, the Dutch as an example are the tallest people in the world on average. You can't compare that to other countries in Europe or frankly the world. The overall point is that of course the USA is physically a larger country, but gasoline is subsidized by the government to keep it inexpensive. This is to help the fossil fuel and oil industry/companies who practically control the US government in many ways.
I would like to say that, at least in nl but also many other european countries the road taxes are very expensive and based on the weight of the car. For example a 1300 kg Petrol car costs 56 euro per month for road taxes, an 800 kg car about 25 euro per month. In other european countries its based on cylinder capacity or CO2 emissions. Also insurance costs are based on new price and a large car usually has a higher new price Than a small one. This, together with the high petrol price makes it very expensive to maintain a big car, its not really worth it. You can see this effect clearly in the prices of second hand cars since large second hand cars are usually dirt cheap compared to small ones comparable in Milage and age because noone wants the large ones because of the costs. So this makes the depreciation also considerably more with an large car. Also, i have owned several cars with 50 hp or less, and i can tell you that driving 80 mph is not really a problem. I drove 150 km/h all the time in my polo 1liter 44 hp . Point is they have less drag because they are so small and light and therefore the top speed is not really an issue. Overtaking at high speed and wind can be more of an issue though.
Wow, your tax for weight sounds cheap to me! We pay depending on kW (hp) of the car. 170 hp are a tiny bit under 1000€, 525hp around 3300€ per year.
European taxes on cars are to stop American cars from entering the market. It has been this way for 60 years.
@@bighands69 While it is one effect of them i don't think it is the sole purpose. In most cases the "original intention" once was that whoever can afford an expensive car or uses more fuel can afford to pay more tax. Expensive cars always were bigger cars with more hp and mor displacement, not just american cars. (And in most places in europe these taxes started whith the first oil crisis) The AMC Pacer was a european sized car and still there were none over here. The Chrysler Voyager on the other hand was pretty common on our streets. The heights our taxes for cars have arrived at nowadays are because the manufacturers adapted their cars to the taxes and so the countries Budgets were getting less tax money they relied on, so they adjusted the taxes.
@@bighands69 Road wear and tear as a consequence of heavier vehicles also plays a big role.
@@nirfz we're paying back for it with the highest fuel prices in europe, €1,82 per liter
As a small European OEM engineer, the American culture is considered very litigations by our standards. Dealing with US customers (or rather their money chasing lawyers) requires an expensive US local legal department and can in the worst case bankrupt a small company.
Related to that is the certification system in US (self certification), completely alien to European (and Chinese).
Europe has a system of witness testing, where regularly compliance is demonstrated by an OEM in front of a government appointed inspectors and results in official certification, issued by government agencies.
In US an OEM has an obligation to interpret the (non emission related) regulations and conduct all tests to prove compliance on their own. The results and evidence does not have to be presented to the US government, until something like “unintended acceleration” happens and lawyers start asking questions.
It’s a big risk and turn off for small car companies
What small companies are we talking about? If foreigners like Toyota and Hyundai can hack it then so can the German and the French. I think the bigger issue is that there is no entrepreneurial spirit in Europe and generally the continent is full of itself. It has become a self fulfilling prophecy where EU has no google, apple, Cisco, Microsoft, Qualcomm or even Facebook
I don’t think anyone will trust American regulators now that they have the blood of 346 people (ET 302 and JT 610) on their hands.
@@JTR253 Hyundai and Toyota do not sell many of the cars they sell in Europe to the US. European cars always feel more upmarket. Toyota doesn't sell the Aygo there, or the Avanza, or the Innova, or the Hilux. Hyundai doesn't sell the i10, the i20 the Atos etc. Toyota and Hyundai have alternatives to sell there like massive Land Cruisers and Pallisades etc. Peugeot and Renault and Citroen do not have cars any bigger than a VW Tiguan. So why would they even spend time developing such large vehicles when you don't even need something that large.
@@JTR253 it's always funny reading these comments of americans saying every other place and everything made outside the us is bad, if a small manufacturer doesn't want to take the risk of an already saturated market of japanese and american trucks and can't afford to retest and potentially modify their cars they won't take the risk
As a German I think it's funny that a speedy car in the US can be a super slow truck , just because of the accelleration...
While in Germany a speedy car drives at high speeds!
So if you compare that, the old trashy (Brazilian design) VW Fox of my son, with a 1,2 litres Motor, is able to travel 100mph to get to University everyday, while allmost no American car will be able to ever reach that speed.
We even have a US car club in the city where I lived 13 years ago....
They have realy eye-opening advices in their forums....like: If you buy a Dodge Viper new from the factory imported from the USA to Germany, you better change tires right away, as the tires might not live up to their rating and delaminate if you make over 200 km on 170 km/h . As Americans will never drive 105 mph for more than two hours the factory wheels don't acctually need to be able to allow high speeds....So they are super soft, as perceived speed in the USA is actually accelleration.
So an American car might actually kill you in Europe if you trust the manufacturer.
Nice coverage of the topic. The power numbers you mentioned are for the peak of the curve. Europeans tend to drive closer to maximum power maybe more often than North Americans. But that being said, in US on highway or wide roads, people tend to drive in bursts of acceleration and breaking, especially at rush hours. I live in Canada and do have a rather low power car, a Nissan Versa Note with max power of ~ 109 HP I think. I took my car for a trip to Long Island where I stayed for a couple of days for work and I had to commute a few times. There is no way my car could ever keep with the bursts of power most people practice when driving in traffic! And that includes many of the trucks and SUV on the road. Also, in Europe there are high power cars (especially luxury models) and it is those which really can take advantage of high (or no) speed limits. I can also go easily 130/140 km/h on the highway, is just that, if traffic slows down to lets say 70/80 km/h, and then picks up speed rapidly, I'm doomed. The lack of power in cars is the most painfully evident when trying to accelerate from 70/80 to 130/140 km/h as at low speed the transmission is usually geared such that one gets reasonable-ish acceleration.
Problem is that youre laughing but if gasoline prizes go up, well you probably wont laugh anymore
its a paradox in america: If the lanes are wider, and the parkingspaces are large, so everything needs more space, everything is farther away. so you gonna need a car
I have a car that gets to 100km/h in around 10 seconds, and I've found that the only place where you actually need fast acceleration is an on ramp to a motorway and correct me if I'm wrong, those are typically a *lot* shorter in North America compared to modern motorways in Europe. If I'm getting off lights, etc. I'm not gonna put my foot to the floor in any case, so the motorway is the only scenario where I find a sub 10 second 0-100 even desirable.
I'll correct you: in the US the expressway entrance ramps are a hell of a lot longer than those in France
@@MrHarpette It depends on the location. Detroit on ramps are really short.
@@rich7447 Texas is what i know.
@@MrHarpette Texas is a dream. We lived in Frisco for a while and loved it. They just finished the DNT/121 interchange when we left.
15:15 That's because we have public transport. If I had to drive 14 hours i would just take a train and it would be much faster and cheaper.
What do you mean 80 mph (130 km/h) is going to be hard to maintain with "weak" European cars? A 1.0 VW Polo with 60ish European HP has absolutely no problem doing that
Yall missing out on the best small hatches... The VW Polo, the Peugeot 208 and the Renault Clio. Plus the VW T Cross small SUV is really good. Citroen has by far the most captivating and unique vehicles.
focus rs
@@maksymporokhnavets3608 Except that Focus RS is a thing of the past now
When many of those brands were sold in the USA they turned out to be unreliable pieces of shit. Just could not stand up to the high number of annual miles we put on them. Long stretches of high speeds burnt them out. we gave up on them quickly.
@@scrambler69-xk3kv They aren't now though. In my country people drive their 208s, Corsa, Polos, Clios long distances multiple times a year at least 1200kms in one sitting. Easy.
@@scrambler69-xk3kvyou forgot to mention that Americans can't drive.
C'mon I was just in France for the past week with Skoda 1.0 turbo it was DOPE....perfect car
He's a dope!
If you pronounce Volkswagen with a Ford F at the beginning you are absolutely on spot. Cool vid!
Very informative video. Here’s a question...why do we in America, don’t get some models that are available in Canada? Both countries are in the North America region...I always wondered about that.
at the end the "how you use your car" is just not the same at all.
the average "km per year for cars" in France is around 12000km (8000 miles)
which usually includes (if any) only one "big" road trip of 1000 km (and return) to go in holidays in summer.
if you distinguish between gasoline and diesel, it's 8000km (5000 miles) for gasoline and 15000km (9500 miles) for diesel.
The renault captur in this video with the 0.9 (with asthma) would be typically the go to choice for someone which makes roughly 5000km per year mostly in cities with a little to no roads or highways.
someone on the gasoline average would go for a bigger motor if this person would do a good amount of highways.
and someone who go around 15000km and more would have a diesel for reliability and long distance efficiency
also an important point.
the average buyer of the captur in the video would consider the car "old and needed to be changed" around 100.000 km because for a lot of people, it would just be a 10 year old car.
not a lot of people uses cars with more than 200.000km and it's also because our cars are just not designed to make that mileage.
agreed, but the 200 000 km if driven like the americans drivers do, (mostly cruising at the same speed straight on,) even those small european cars would be able to hold up. It's more the many cold starts and short distance drives, gear changes ect. that get the cars worn out over time in europe. (there was a smart who's owner had it for over 520 000km. He brought it in for the maint as he should, and it still had the first engine and gearbox without problems. He didn't to short distances much, with 100k km per year... and in another article i read about the peolpe with over 300k km with their smarts. I jsut picked the smart because of the extremely small car, engine ect. which should mean it to give up way earlier. It just depends on how you use it ;-) )
LOL, where do you think all 10 year old cars go, from germany, france, italy, and etc.? :D
@@kerstas10 Africa, Middle East, eastern Europe...
@@nirfz you're right, km here and km in here are not the same (units apart ;) )
the cold starts are the killers.
that's also the reason the car sizes are not the same.
long trips in small cars are not the more confortable things to do
Renault, Citroën, Skoda, Seat, Peugeot, brands that don’t sell in USA. He basically only cried all video long for not having the weak, uncomfortable Polo, and the T-Cross and T-Roc don’t sell well even in Europe (except for Germany of course)
Plus, you lost everyone who’s not American when started using inches, feet.
Thank you great alternative discussion. You only briefly touched on what I miss most is a huge option of manual transmission choices.
In Sweden more cars have automatic transmission sold than manuals. The dual clutch transmissions now give you more milage than a manual can achieve in the long run. This has lead to more and more automatic transmission cars being sold to save fuel. I still have two manual gearshift cars out of my three but they are getting more unusual. RoadTax is payed on emission and weight and this is one more incentive to get a automatic.
Excellent explanations!! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
In India the cars are even smaller (no space, fuel prices are astronomical (esp. relative to incomes) & taxes are high), so the Captur in India (though with a 1.5 L 110 hp diesel) is considered an up-market vehicle (if it is the same vehicle as in Europe, which it looks like...) 😜!
PS: lived in the US for 7+ years, last 2.5 years there owned the Mark 5 VW GTI.
Interesting comparison, from the US perspective - thanks!
I regularily drive my Skoda Octavia diesel on 52-58 miles per US gallon. I have done even better in the summertime with a lot of driving outside cities. On the Autobahn, average 130 km/h with some stretches of 160 km/h to catch a ferry, it crept down to about 50 miles/US gallon. (AC is always on)
With the fuel prices we have, you just cannot drive a gas guzzler.
Mu cupholder is between the shift stick and the hand brake. I do have a cruise control, but I never use it.
Remember the USA gallon is small than the gallon in Europe. Also,diesel is much more expensive than regular petrol in the USA, so not many diesel cars at all You will see heavy duty diesel pickup trucks in the USA most are used for towing and plowing snow from car parks.
Nice video. I still don´t get the 0-60 obsesion in the US, but guess you are dragracing at all red lights, and need to win to feel good ;) The biggest reason for the difference is in the enviroment. America still don´t belive, that Co2 emisions is something we need to take serious, thus not providing the regulation goverments in Europe does. Many of the US cars would not be allowed in many German city, due to that fact. Power and size means more polluting, and we are not allowed to pollute here in europe, or if we want to, the prize is high :)
I guess yanks are in a hurry to get to the next traffic lights. Doesn't matter if your car takes 3 or 13 seconds to 100 in town. Well it matters in your gas bill.
Nothing strange about that you saw a lot of pickups here in Sweden. And they will not have a problem finding parking because of size. We have always preferred larger cars in Scandinavia. The best selling car for decades has been Volvos top models. And yes, we love pickups too. And apart from some really old parts of the cities, we have no issue with small roads and streets. And i have never seen a parking space that will not fit a large car. We do however have stupid politicians who think that a war on normal motorists is going to save the world. Not so good if you consider the size of Sweden. We are not the US of course, but you can drive for days without running out of country. Regards from a Swede who has a 40-foot motorhome and live in a very small village. But if you look around here, you will find everything from 60's Cadillacs, Ford F350's and other full-size US pick-ups. Most of my friends drive BMW X5/5-series or Mercedes or Volvo SUV's. And a couple of days ago i even saw a Humvee. In my garage i have Chrysler Voyager, Isuzu Trooper, Volvo 240 and 940 and a Mercedes S-class. Oh, i forgot... Regardless of direction, if i go for half an hour i will see a company that works with restoring or selling classic US cars.
I think Sweden + Scandinavia has more 1959 Cadillacs that the USA....................🙂
Michael Heimbrand Yeah! I sold a classic 1972 Ford auto part to a guy in Norway year ago. It surprised me!
@Coni Glione ?
Never saw a big ass ford here in finland. The hillux is the main pick up here. Nordic countries in Europe are known from wagons (~20% share). Example notice Volvo models v 90/60.
@@nicolaspeart3910 Finland has an unusually high Toyota presence tho, much more popular than in Sweden. Altho I have seen one or two Toyota Tundras here. They're big.
One key thing you have left out, which is a major part of our buying preferences, more so than fuel! is insurance, insurance in Europe is some of the highest around the world, and me being in the UK gets slightly more shafted than the rest of Europe too... With prices for new drivers being astronomical. For example, my 1.2l 2008 Vauxhall Corsa cost me £1620 to insure and tax, so basically now I can drive it, but it cost me £1700 to buy! (This is with a black box, a device that monitors your driving and goes to the insurance company to evaluate if your a safe driver or not, otherwise my insurance would've cost £2000+) now keep this price in mind, I qouted many bigger engine cars when I was first looking 1.6l engines would cost me around £2-2.5k with a box, and for a 2.0l I'm looking at about £3k with a box.
Now compare to my friend in New Jersey, he just got a 2.5l Nissan Xterra and paid $1000 to insure it, and he's good to go, he got the car from his uncle so price I'll say very similar, but the insurance is near half what I paid and doesn't pay for as much fuel either.
But I'd say I like the smaller engines, one thing you no one seems to mention is how fast some of our sub 2.0l cars can go, with us having smaller engines for so long, the performances of there engines can be the same as the bigger displacement American cars, for example the 1.6l turbo version of my car can do 0-60 in 6.8 seconds, with only 180hp, and other cars being able to better or very similar all within the 2.0l engine range.
A very informative and entertaining video. You’ve clearly identified and comprehensively explained many of the key differences in the European Vs US car markets...different needs for different cultures. 🏴
I take it environmental concerns are not a big factor in the USA? That's sad for the planet :-(
Generally speaking, when the price of fuel rises sales of small cars rise along with it. Right now fuel is ridiculously cheap in the USA so gas guzzlers are popular. Having said that, in 2019 Hybrid sales increased substantially and some electric vehicles sold in high numbers. Regulatory standards and business tax policies are bent to provide perverse incentives to drive oversized vehicles.
Obviously there are places in USA people are not collectively brainwashed and loving it! Sadly the oil production industry is huge provider of jobs and they spout propaganda as well.
@@jamesmedina2062 They make large political donations and offer lucrative post-political career options.
Being British and having lived in Canada with exposure to US market cars I would say while this does accurately sum up the technical differences it seams to miss another key aspect of consumer demand. This is evident when looking at the cars on the best seller lists. In the EU (or at least UK market) it is common to find high specification cars at all size points, with typical average specification being, automatic AC, auto breaking, cruise control, voice command, navigation, alloy wheels, other styling upgrades like contrast roofs or body kits, heated seats and on some makers LED headlights (dacia sandaro, currently the cheapest car on sale has standard LED headlights) right from the start, with that often being close to base specification on well loaded brands like Nissan or Kia regardless of vehicle size.
They are not as common on vehicles in the North American market cars and in some cases not available at all on smaller vehicles for no real reason, looking at 2 models on sale at some point in both markets the Ford fusion/mondeo, and the Nissan versa note, the standard and avaliable equipment was much greater in the EU market, with the mondeo offering the vignal trim and the Note being offered with part leather, auto AC, heated seats, etc. This forces buyers into larger cars simply to get desirable features making it harder to make a case for the smaller vehicle other than cost, which in a such a capitalist country is the last message someone wants to send.
Also I am hoping someone can answer why Americans expect such power outputs and acceleration as in my experience I have never seen them used by a normal driver and when driving myself never felt it was needed due to the lower speed limits on average and long on ramps, it just makes no sense to me, when Europe really could do with that performance and often make a point of getting it where we can and really do use it all quite often.
Alex does great videos with great content. So basically cars are smaller in EU because gas is more expensive and parking spots are smaller.
From my impression having lived in both the EU and US, cars are something you need in the US whereas in Europe, they are something most have but are not really needed as public transports is a lot better in Europe and overall, a lot of the services that the people need is in closer reach.
Also, I get the impression that Europeans prefer smaller to medium size cars whereas the US seems to prefer big cars, two different markets with different ways of thinking.
Why is gas more expensive in europe
@@r.chavez5513 Probably taxes to pay for the social benefits Europeans get.
@@paul1979uk2000 yeah true
@@paul1979uk2000 so its tru EU gas is expensive
@@r.chavez5513 It's more expensive but I wouldn't say it's expensive if you put it in the context of life, I've lived in both the US and EU and quality of life is high in them both, just the way money is distributed around the economy is different where in Europe we are fine with paying higher taxes to gain a lot of benefits from them whereas the US want to pay lower taxes but they tend to pay through the nose for basic things that we in Europe get for free or dirt cheap.
This is why overall the quality of living and purchasing power isn't that different over the two but I do think the European system is better because it looks after the poorer and middle classes a lot better whereas the US system feels like your all on your own with little help from the system.
I own a Peugeot 107, it takes 35L of fuel which cost me about 57$ to fill up. I easily get 550km on a tank. With raising fuel prices in the US, smaller cars will eventually become more interesting.
If the price of petrol/gas skyrockets like it did during the financial crisis, don’t worry, small cars will hit the North American market in no time.
I remember the SUV crazy in the early to mid 2000s and then the crash happened. Everyone was buying small, economical cars. Newer trucks/SUVs are definitely more fuel efficient then those days but gravity and physics comes into play no matter how you look at it. A smaller, more aerodynamic car/hatch will always be more economical then a truck or crossover.
As a fan of small cars and an owner of a Mark 7 Golf, I can’t say that I’d be upset with seeing more small cars on NA roads but probably not at the cost of a recession. 😉
Regarding size of vehicles in the usa vs europe....there is a difference between “want” and “need”. Do americans need large vehicles? No, but we want them. We should keep that in mind
Maybe you don't need a larger vehicle, but plenty of Americans do. Lifestyle is one determinant influencing choice for many people and American's don't live like Europeans. I live in Texas and lifestyle is only one reason I don't have a small car (I own a Ford Edge). I have to drive long distances to visit my family, buy groceries, and go to work (necessitating a comfortable vehicle). And I live in a large city, not in a rural area. Also, do Americans really need a tiny car?
I wish laws would push Americans to buy newer more efficient vehicles (through taxes, registration fees, etc...) but as it stands, there is no reason for most Americans to choose to go small.
We all want them. Europeans get hard-ons every time they see an American pick-up or a Durango. They want big cars too. The difference is that in the US, we can afford to buy and own them, while the cast majority of Europeans cannot. Cars are MUCH more expensive there. The rich Europeans drive Range Rovers, G500s, etc. Not small by any means.
In the US, they are used for farming.
@@afcgeo882 i see them more driving large mercedes SUV’s or other large german cars then rather range rovers here in the netherlands but do people really want a car that cant barely park anywhere or needs a special large parking spot to park, also we do want them but why really they only good at the open country side not in big cities where you can barely move