i live in the U.K.and petrol is ?1 a liter(thats about $7.per U.S. gallon)so you have very cheap petrol dont you!but then a europeian car is much better than an amirican car so i dont mind paying more for petrol,and my car does 45M.P.G.!!!
I’m sure that there is a question in your posting somewhere, even though I can’t seem to find it.
Incidentally, in case you are interested, the cars to which you refer are EUROPEAN cars and AMERICAN cars, and by all accounts, European cars lag significantly behind Japanese cars and American cars in both initial quality and in long-term reliability. You can find this information on the internet if you spell your search terms correctly.
;-))
It’s really comparing apples and oranges. Our economic structure is far different, and the distances we typically drive are far greater. So yes, we pay less for gas, but in the end the average worker dies poor anyway. And works even after retirement.
I love the U.K., by the way. I spent time there some years back, and I absolutely loved it. It’s far more relaxed, more community and family oriented, more homogeneous, and less materialistic than the U.S. And the food is much less processed and more “real”. Made with real butter, real eggs, etc. Much better.
Isn’t the Petrol a version of the Pathfinder??? I’d be very surprised if it got anywhere NEAR 45mpg.
Outside Canada and the USA “petrol” means gasoline. You are thinking about the “Patrol”, which was a Nissan model. Brianb misses a few important points, comparing Europe with the US. Cars in the US and Canada go through 4 owners typically, and are “used up”. They either wear out or rust out. In Western Europe, this is not allowed to happen. The numerous inspections and tests as well as the SHORTER DESIGN LIFE cause European cars with 100,000 miles or so the be sold off to Africa, and other poor areas of the world. So to Europeans, durability and reliability do not seem to matter so much. The average Frenchman only drives 7500 miles per year, about half of the US, and the car disappears overseas after the second owner.
Reading a typical European car magazine, the emphasis is always on handling, packaging, visibility, and never a word about reliability and repair costs. The Lotus Elise, a car with an exremely poor reliability was praised to heaven by a British car mag. Jeremy Clark, a comedian/car tester never breathes the word durability or relaibility. So, Americans are lucky to be able to drive a car 25 or more years and be assured of spares from the after-market. The European cost of driving is very high, and not just because of the $7/gallon petrol.
So, brianb, you simply have no idea what you are talking about when you say that European cars are better than Amarican cars. The least reliable luxury car is Jaguar, the least reliable SUV is Land Rover, the least reliable sports car is Lotus. British Fords and Vauxhalls used to be exported to North American where they had very short lives indeed. brianb, as pointed out, there are numerous websites that deal with how good cars are in term of handling, safety, quality, reliability, long life, and other factors. North Amerian driving conditions are the toughest in the world, and American cars, although not the best have a good chance of lasting 20 years.
So, being totally impartial,(I still have European citizenship as well), here is my opinion of world cars:
1 Best economy car: Toyota Yaris/Honda Fit
2 Best compact car: Mazda 3
3.Best full size car: Honda Accord/Ford Fusion (built in Mexico)
4. Best Jeep SUV: Toyota 4Runner
5 Best Minivan: Honda Odessy
6. Best Large car, non luxury: Lexus 350
7. Best sports sedan: BMW 3 Series
8. Best luxury sedan: Lexus 400 series
9. Best every day SUV: Toyota Highlander
10. Best small sports car: Mazda MX5 Miata
11. Best large spors car: Chevrolet Corvette
12. Best small pickup: Ford Ranger/Toyota Hilux
13. Best Full size pickup: Toyota Tundra
14. Best large luxury SUV: Toyota Land Cruiser
Please note, only one is European and none are British.
Doc, the Elise isn’t a car. It’s a go cart on steroids. It’s a track racer just barely street leagl. I LOVE the Elise!
And it has a Toyota engine! Of course, they put THAT on steroids too!
is that 45MPG standard or imperial measurements?
I disagree with everything on your list. The Accord is a midsize car, and I think it’s great. I don’t care for any full size cars, unless they are in the luxury category. I will ignore them :^) I also agree with the Corvette. So much so that I take back half the bad things I said about you! ;^)
And, if we add super-luxury sedans to docnick’s list, we might wind up with Rolls-Royce and/or Bentley on the list. However, both of these marques are now owned by German firms, with BMW owning Royce and VW owning Bentley (or is it the other way around?).
Anyway, anyone who REALLY knows anything about cars understands that British automotive engineering has not been worth much over the past 30 years or so (Lotus being a possible exception, due to their recent use of Toyota engines). Even the most expensive of British marques now has to rely on German ownership and engineering in order to be competitive.
However, Japanese and American marques still excel in quality, as compared to European marques.
…with BMW owning Royce and…
Oh my. A generation of Spitfire pilots must be turning over in their graves! The Rolls-Royce Merlin engine: scourge of the skies!
Imperial, no doub… we could get better miles per gallon if we increased the size of the gallon!
Cool, a euro-troll.
I agree that fuel in the U.S. is much too cheap and we drive too much in very inefficient vehicles. They don’t call us ugly americans for nothing. Sorry.
Yeah, and isn’t liter spelled litre by the Brits? Maybe this guy ain’t Brittish. Oops, sorry for the “Amiricanism”. Anyway, high-five, GW!
Rolls Royce just sold off their car division, the jet engine and other indstrial products are still Rolls Royce and British owned. On of the few truly World Class products still made there. My wife would add Royal Doulten and Wedgewood china, Kenwood kitchen appliances, marmelades, and Harris Tweeds.
By full size cars, I really meant “family cars”. External size and interior useful space are not always related.
Yes, the imperial gallon is 20% larger than the US gallon, and it weighs 10 lbs if it’s water. So, 45 mpg Imperial divided by 1.2 is 37.5 mpg US.
Europeans have a love/hate relationship with Americans. They really envy the “take charge and let’s do it” attitude of Americans, but this has resulted in a very high MATERIAL STANDARD OF LIVING, which inevitably produces a wasteful lifestyle for some. I was staying at a French hotel some time ago, and the TV channel was showing re-runs of MANNIX!, with Mike Connors. Why would cultured Frenchmen watch such an old program? Mannix represented something the average Frenchman can only dream about: a self-employed, freewheeling detective, driving an exotic car (Ford Pantera,I believe, unafordable for all but French aristocrats), and fighting off female admirers. In addition, he got the bad guy about 5 times as quickly as the French Surete (FBI equiv.) would.
Wherever I go abroad, everyone likes Americans and the lifestyle they represent, and their products, but they may not like US foreign policy. On my lastest trips to Latin American and Africa all my clients preferred US made oil field equipment, if they could only get their hands on it.
“Europeans have a love/hate relationship with Americans…”
I know how they feel; half the time I pick up a newspaper, I’m tempted to move to europe and tell everyone I’m canadian.