Originally posted by Blue Nanok, there are plenty of Mercedes, BMW etc in Europe. Don't forget about some of the muscle cars in Italy as well.
i do know that, but i am unsure how that has to do with what i said. i'll have a blind stab at it though: european "muscle" cars are rather small actually (you would be surprised really..), and mercedes, bmw, etc range from medium sized to limousine class (which is rather normal, given their target), do not assume everybody in europe is driving a high end bmw or mercedes
, for the most part they cannot afford them anyway (or justify the price). the point was that the average joe in europe will buy a smaller car than the average joe in US, and i think that's hard to argue (although it may be that things have slowly changed there too..). average joe in europe will drive a hatch actually, some sedans, some stationwagons, but even the typical station wagon here is i think significantly smaller than the typical sedan in US. engines are also smaller (2l gasoline is a serious engine, 1.3-1.4 used to be standard, now it is going down towards 1.0, because of taxes and better technology, 3l and up, you are already making a statement, what the americans are jokingly calling a "four banger" is here standard (we even had 2 stroke engines, and we still do have some 3cyl. engines), a v6 is already a hell of a statement (in US it just means you do have an engine under the hood, anything smaller than a 5l v6 needs explanation and defending -- or so i heard
), a v8 is pure aristocracy
)
so yes, i think there is a difference, if that was your point