thats still a lot when you compare with a renault clio or toyota yaris. cars like chevrolet spark and sonic/aveo or ford fiesta are probably the only usa cars i would buy. but i have to admit, the other american cars are pretty badass tho
Fiesta was developed in europe not america, particularly Fords Dunton facility in England and their Cologne facility in Germany. The Chevrolet Spark is also not american. Its a rebadged Daewoo Matiz, a Korean car. The Chevrolet Aveo, also Daewoo. Actually uses an Opel platform (German, but Opel shits all over german engineering).
I happen to quite like this car. It puts up with tremendous amounts of abuse and it's got plenty of torque. Also, the steering wheel is upholstered in this lovely, squishy foam-rubber-vinyl (don't actually know what it is) stuff. Might not be "opulent" but it provides great grip and I'll gladly take it over the dry, rough leather in some newer GM cars. I guess I figured car enthusiasts should consider factors such as engine displacement, power/weight ratio, etc. more important than fuel economy and fancy interiors.
They do do that, then they sell their prized car a year later because it turns out the engine decimates petrol and it's not viable to keep it.
Gas is so cheap over here that you have to get well into the single digit MPGs before a car becomes unviable to own solely because of its fuel consumption. I think small displacement, highly tuned, fuel efficient engines have a place in the automotive world, but they don't belong everywhere.
Hi, Interesting topic I own 3 american cars for 5 years now. My daily driver is a 92 Buick Park Avenue, nothing crazy... I also own a 72 Chevy Monte Carlo (350) and a 84 Caprice Wagon. Most of the people here in France do not understand my choices. Here having big cars with big engine displacement looks stupid. People often think they do something like 10MPG which is totally wrong. In fact most people vision about american cars is based on myth that are wrong. When I tell them that my Monte is about 15MPG they think I'm lying !!! When people ride in my Caprice, and see that it makes nearly 20MPG (Ok it's a modest 305 ) they realize that they where wrong !
And meanwhile I managed to pull somewhere well over 50mpg in a BMW 320d last night.... I'd give a more precise number but the mileage gauge (its seriously an analogue instrument on the dash, its well cool) is only numbered to 50
I don't hate American cars, I love them. I just hate the people who hate American cars. Most of them don't even have a real reason for it. And I also hate the Americans that think their cars are superior to European cars. Most of the time it's just comparing a Dodge Challenger Hellcat to a Volkswagen Up! kind of stuff, you get the idea.
i really like american cars,i also like japanese and european ones too. i plan on getting a 1979 lincoln town car (continental sedan) as my first car. why you might ask? because i like big cars. and also this car will be a real headturner in town among all the chrystler sebrings and hyundai sonatas. oh and i forgot to mention... these have ENORMOUS trunk space too! (can carry a entire christmas tree!)
How cheap is it? 10 MPG is ~23l per 100km. That pretty much eats your wallet compared to a regular car. Not affordable? I wouldn't exactly word it like that, perhaps if you want to commute with those each day.
For how many litres? I filled up for £1.18 per litre, or $1.83 at current exchange rates, for a single litre. Just 1, not a gallon or anything, 1 litre.
My opinion is about old cars, as I generally don't like new cars, because of styling, which is ruined by 1001 safely regulations etc. As an european I love american car styling and big V8 engines, but they lack engineering and quality. For example interiors are made of cheap, noisy plastics. Engines are underpowered, suspension was soft like cheese and how the hell can you make powerful RWD car and not put LSD diff...?
I paid $2.59 for 3.7 liters of gas. 1.67 British Pounds for 3.7 liters of gas. .45 GBP per liter. I think that's right.
And this summarises why we've always had such an emphasis on efficiency. Although the way I see it. If you can make a 2 litre engine that puts out 200hp and achieves 30mpg or you can make a 2 litre engine that puts out 130hp and achieves 25mpg, why on earth would you make the latter?
Probably cost, that and when gas is cheaper it's not that much of an issue. For a long time, people here thought inline fours were cheap engines and if you wanted a better one, you should just get a bigger engine. Would that it were still so, as it's very difficult to make an I4 sound exciting and I just plain dislike small, low-pressure-turbo engines on principle.
Reliability and longevity. The ~250hp 4.6 liter engine in my car has almost 300,000 miles of wear on it and it still ticks along like a clock.
