Meio
Well-Known Member
I find the overall degree of national loyalty interesting, even where it's just loyalty to a badge. We only have Vauxhall, and GMs seem to sell well enough all over, no matter what badge they're sporting.
I find the overall degree of national loyalty interesting, even where it's just loyalty to a badge. We only have Vauxhall, and GMs seem to sell well enough all over, no matter what badge they're sporting.
I think the reason why (at least in Australia) a locally engineered car is preferred is because they seem better suited to local conditions, eg the suspension in Commodore's and Falcon's deal with the local roads better than most cars etc.
We all pretty much have similar roads and there won't really be much price difference between local and other regional brands.
What amuses me is Britain's fascination with truly tiny and useless cars like the G-Wiz.
Not really. Please tell us what other vehicle you can back OR top load with farming supplies, dirt, an engine on a pallet, home appliances, half that stupid antiques store your spouse made you stop in at, motorcycles, or 4' x 8' pieces of plywood WITHOUT having stuff hanging out the back.
Also, are you aware that pickups can be had desperately cheap (and that this was the case even in economic boom times)? You can get a full sized US pickup in the US for $9995 NEW if you time it right and are an enlightened and careful shopper. That's cheaper than pretty much any car from the same maker.
What amuses me is Britain's fascination with truly tiny and useless cars like the G-Wiz.
NooDle:
What you need to understand is that most Americans live in a house with some attached land (I believe it's currently a little more than half the population) and not in a flat or apartment. This means that they must maintain the house and land, and this means many many trips to the home improvement store or nursery for the supplies and things needed for maintaining the place. This also means that a trailer rapidly becomes more trouble than it's worth, and people resort to trucks and SUVs instead.
Also, due to this residential arrangement, people tend to have more hobbies that occur outdoors and they use a truck to move the supplies for those hobbies around. In addition, because we have space, we often take up hobbies like carpentry, furniture making, car restoration.... all things that work better with a truck in support.
I saw one of the first ForTwos that was imported to America a couple of years back. It'd met an F-350 on the freeway and I believe all the occupants of the ForTwo died.
Actually, a taxi doesn't make sense in most US cities. We built out, not up. Dallas is one of America's largest cities, and a taxi would cost several times as much as owning and maintaining a car does.
This has to do with why public transport in the US is also a failure in general unless very well planned. We simply do not have the population density outside of a few coastal cities to support mass transit.
Maybe I'm wrong but in addition to that I think the Australians are more down-to-earth people, than we Europeans, and consider a car more a tool, than a status symbol. And Japanese cars have gotten an aura of indestructibility over the last decade or so.
I have some Australian friends (From Northern Territory and Queensland) and when it comes to buying a car, the question is normally "What is the best vehicle for the job?" and not "Which car is the fancier one, has the better performance figures and the higher prestige?"
The other very prevalent situation is that parts for European cars are significantly more expensive than those for Japanese cars.
That and the higher prices (where even brands like Renault are considered 'prestige'), means that Euro cars often sell mainly to people who are buying them to be different. The only Euro brand in the top 10 brands is Volkswagen, and they're usually #10 (brands like Subaru outsell them).
Locally made big cars have lost a LOT of sales in the last five years (5 years ago the Commodore would get 7000-8000 sales a month, now about 5000, even though the market has grown).