And BIG SUVs. But so does BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, Porche etc. Although the Porche isn't huge and is very nice.

You cater to what the people want. If they want vanilla ice cream and all you have is chocolate, well you could try selling chocolate milk. But you'll go broke selling chocolate ice cream. People want large cars. They feel safe in them. They carry the family. They carry "things".

Japan pays the car companies healthcare costs for their employees in the U.S. That does give them a distinct advantage.

And Japan back in the early days (70's) subsidized the car companies and gave them an unfair advantage also. Let's at least play with a level field.

Still proud to have never owned japcrap.

[Blue]

I think you guys should be doing some travelling to Europe.
And while you use your camera's you'll notice that all those Mercedeses, BMW's, Honda's and other cars with 6 or 8 cilinders are not available in Europe, except as a special US import. And if they are, you will have a hard time finding any around.

There has been no US car maker succesful here over the last 25 years.
Not Ford or any other. Not with US models.
In many european countries you'll need efficient diesel engines, manual gears and low emissions to sell many of your models.

With very high fuel prices and road taxes, it has simply been unafforable for many years to drive cars like that over here.
While car sales have been down 35 to 50 % compared with 2008, the smaller Honda and Toyota hibrids have soared.
Honda doubled its market share here in the Netherlands over the last 6 months.

Still your gas prices are 1/3 of the european prices. Also car sales tax here makes car about twice the US prices.
I'm not complaining, however don't make the mistake that we drive (on average) the same cars as US citizens do.
Since this trend did start decades ago, you'll also notice that parking spaces, the width of driving lanes, the maximum length of truck etc, are all so much smaller...

- Bert

No one was really discussing Europe, but the U.S. The spatial distribution of our people is problematic due to the size AND geography of some of our states.

And Japan back in the early days (70's) subsidized the car companies and gave them an unfair advantage also. Let's at least play with a level field.

They never stopped. The playing field will be level when the U.S. gets a decent healthcare system (but that's a different discussion).

Still proud to have never owned japcrap.

That's the kind of comment that makes the rest of the world hate America.

They never stopped. The playing field will be level when the U.S. gets a decent healthcare system (but that's a different discussion).



That's the kind of comment that makes the rest of the world hate America.

Here's a better one. I don't care. There's a lot of freedom in that. Three little words. I don't care.

[Blue]

. . .

Still proud to have never owned japcrap.

Wait, I own ~ 20 camera bodies and about 16 of them are . . .

Wait, I own ~ 20 camera bodies and about 16 of them are . . .

Well I am only referring to vehicles here. Cameras don't count.

Your just a great big cuddly curmudgeon aren't you?

[kcmadr]

And Japan back in the early days (70's) subsidized the car companies and gave them an unfair advantage also. Let's at least play with a level field.

Still proud to have never owned japcrap.

Still proud that my "japcrap" has never ever let me down once in seven years. Not one time did it choke, or stall, or fail to start, or sputter, or grind, or anything. Not at 11000ft, or -150ft, or -18°C (0°F), or 35°C (95°F), or climbing out of Death Valley. My friend's GMC however stalled on the highway in rush hour traffic when it was about a week old. That was due to some "computer malfunction". Whatever...

I could always refrain from servicing and maintaining my "japcrap", and then I'd know what it feels like to drive a ...

[lithos]

Aye. If you're half-serious about any off-road work, or driving in extreme environments, you'll buy Japanese.

Yank cars aren't worth a pinch of sh*t. It's true. It's a completely different design philosophy. American cars are a status symbol. If you can't afford to pay $20 for fuel just by turning the key, the maintenance costs, or upgrading them every year (why they're so hard to service - you're meant to buy a new one every twelve months...otherwise you're worthless as a human being.) The consumerist philosophy. It's why they're all going mammary-glands up; people started realising hey, nothing is worth this.

The only people that drive them down here are misguide yuppie mums who use them as clit extensions, people with utterly no taste, bogans, and maybe the odd personal instructor with a Hummer for promotional purposes.

Do any of the American companies actually make four-wheel drives anymore? I mean that in the literal sense - vehicles where power is applied to, either full-time or selectively, to all four wheels. Not just vehicles that look vaguely similar, except twice as large as to be practical for driving around anywhere more rugged than a parking lot, use as much diesel a T-34 tank did in the first hour of the Battle of Kursk per minute, but only have two wheels being turned by the engine.

No. You find anyone who actually has to do any real work involving a ute or a 4WD, they'll be driving a Toyota Landcruiser or Nissan Patrol or something similarly Nipponese. Because they actually work. They don't break down, they don't cost the equivalent of PNG's GNP to run, and they're tough.

I'd say most everyone in Australia who works in the bush - really works, covers distances that wouldn't fit inside France without being bent, without having the luxury of roads - would use "Japcrap." And a lot of them would be driving Japcrap that's been around since the time Bon Scott was still breathing. No one rates Yank Tanks, as they're known, for anything, except for maybe rolling over, not fitting inside parking spaces, and not indicating when turning.

See, it's a different design philosophy. Tend to take things literally. Japanese say they'll make a vehicle that'll survive a run from Darwin to Cape York, they'll do it. They don't think, hey, all we really have to do is make people think that the car'll do that, and then price it like a luxury good so no one who buys it actually does, and therefore minimise the chances of being sued. You don't see Dodge Rams out there catching scrub bulls, or pulling out stumps. I have actually seen a few Dodge Rams, and a lot of Ford F150s...all of which had been converted to run off LPG.

And it's all coming out in the wash. The SUV craze has crippled the American manufacturers. GM's now pulling in Australian designers to do their next car, for one. People, not even out of patriotism, weren't willing pay above-average prices for sub-par cars, when a Toyota or a Mitsubishi or even a Kia or a Subaru would do the same job for cheaper. It's how it goes. It's called capitalism.

[Peter Zack]

No wonder I don't post much anymore. With offensive stuff like this:

Originally Posted by graphicgr8s
Still proud to have never owned japcrap.
Originally Posted by Damn Brit
That's the kind of comment that makes the rest of the world hate America.

I'm not Japanese but have family that is. I completely agree with DB. This type of comment is why the rest of the world has a low opinion of the USA. It's the voice of a small minority that speaks louder than the reasonable ones and is heard too often.

Oh and Btw I've tried hard to buy North American cars and since I used to drive 70-80,000 miles a year I would go through cars fast. Bought one new Chrysler and that was total junk (never ever again) Had a Ford that wasn't much better. Then tried several GM's better but not much. My wife owns a Honda and that thing is better built and trouble free. She reminds me of that every time I have to bug her to pick me up at the service center. So if the North American brands built something that A) wasn't designed to fall apart (remember that GM started the whole "designed obsolescence" thing in the early years of that company. and B) got better gas mileage, I'd then consider one but right now unless Ford has something decent, it will definitely* be a Japanese car when the current Chev finally self destructs.

Oh and back to the OP's topic?

Litre to USA gallon=3.785
CAD to USD $1 = $0.8805
PEI Price $1.04/L CAD
Thus the per gallon price here is: $3.46606 USD/gallon
(1.04 x 3.785 x 0.8805)

Maybe because we pronounce it "Deaf-Fan-it-lee" that we can't spell the word. So it come out defanitely in many places I've noticed.

[Blue]

Aye. If you're half-serious about any off-road work, or driving in extreme environments, you'll buy Japanese.

Yank cars aren't worth a pinch of sh*t. It's true. . .

Actually, you have that backwards. I have a Bronco with 215,000 miles on it in yard along with its Jeep successor. The engine nor the tranny has never been opened. I pulled a 6000 pound trailer through the desert with in the day in July. Did a similar thing 2 weeks later with my F350 Crewcab only with more weight. Across I-10 from Riverside, CA to Tallahassee. These machines routinely run in places like Moab, Rubicon Trail (California), Tellico (Tennessee and North California). Vehicles are mild to wild.

Everyone can get pissy about autos from a certain place. But I have news for all of you. There a lot the suck from everywhere. A lot of the problem with vehicles that is hard to factor in is the owner and maintenance.

As far as the "Yank" comment goes, I don't like my wife's Saturn all that much but it was made south of the Dixie line so I can't even call it a Yank car. My wife's Isuzu has 166,000 on it.

Moab, Utah, 4WD Trails

Pirate4x4.Com - The largest off roading website in the world.

[Blue]

No wonder I don't post much anymore. With offensive stuff like this:

Add "Yank" to that list. It don' insult me particularly but it does show the ignorance of anyone that uses it on 75% of my people.

[Peter Zack]

Blue, agreed, terms like that have an historical significance and need to be left in the past. Canuck on the other hand is us just poking fun at ourselves.

[lithos]

Actually, you have that backwards. I have a Bronco with 215,000 miles on it in yard along with its Jeep successor. The engine nor the tranny has never been opened. I pulled a 6000 pound trailer through the desert with in the day in July. Did a similar thing 2 weeks later with my F350 Crewcab only with more weight. Across I-10 from Riverside, CA to Tallahassee. These machines routinely run in places like Moab, Rubicon Trail (California), Tellico (Tennessee and North California). Vehicles are mild to wild.

Trail? And only 215,000 miles (344,000km)? There's stockies and cockies and jackaroos who rack up that distance in six months. Hell, my dad had a Toyota Grinner ("Name's probably a literal translation from the Japanese...") third hand that had more than that on the clock.

Maybe it's true. Academic (at least from where I'm standing) as I'll probably never drive any of the big US 4WDs or SUVs, although the local dealer three blocks away is advertising awfully discounted prices for its Jeeps and Dodges.

Ford does do all right in the passenger car market against Holden (local GM subsidiary - do not put a Ford fan and a Holden fan in the same room; will make Chernobyl look like a picnic.)

But out here, in the sticks, it's all Cruisers, Patrols, Pajeros and the odd Outback or Liberty. None of the farmer's have the cash for American. Japanese is just seen as more reliable, with easier access to spares.

Tell you what, if you still have that F-350 or Bronco in thirty years, I'll buy you a beer.