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Why does the distance you drive affect the size of car you need.
In the US there are no European brands of car except German ones and now the Fiat 500, barring the luxury Italian ones. Wonder how they can get in but Seat etc can't?
Seat is VW, and VW probably owns makes manufactured in the US, or special makes for the American market. Renault was popular once, Lecar, also FIAT has dealerships but cars do not endure American conditions, etc. I have seem some stray Citroens (shark model), there are Peugeots (I have seen them). I once saw a Citroen 4L, Yugos, etc.
We get the high-end English marques here too (Jag, Land Rover, Aston-Martin, Bentley, Rolls), plus the Mini, and of course Bugatti from France (technically from France anyway, but VW doesn't even try to disguise its hand in the marque).
But as for standard consumer-grade Euro marques, they just couldn't cut it here. We used to get everyday passenger cars from Renault, Peugeot, Alfa Romeo, plus entry-level sports cars from Fiat. But their quality was downright abysmal especially compared to their Japanese competitors who eventually replaced the Euro marques among import brands in the U.S. It'll be hard for brands like Renault and Peugeot to overcome their soiled reputation here; plus they're too busy fighting for their own survival to try cracking the U.S. market again any time soon. And with Seat being basically rebadged Volkwagens, VW would rather concentrate on gaining market share in the U.S. with a brand we're already familiar with.
I once bought a Fiat in Florida and the car fixtures melted, no kidding. Next I bought a Ford Capri, European but iffy European. Yes, I don't see VW commercializing Seat or Skoda, I don't know if Audis are popular there now.
Peugeots are good cars, tough, but can't compete there. What happened with Renault 5 "Le car"?
I once bought a Fiat in Florida and the car fixtures melted, no kidding. Next I bought a Ford Capri, European but iffy European. Yes, I don't see VW commercializing Seat or Skoda, I don't know if Audis are popular there now.
Peugeots are good cars, tough, but can't compete there. What happened with Renault 5 "Le car"?
Audi has become a serious competitor here in the semi-luxury and luxury segments against BMW and Mercedes. Audi and VW are the only Volkswagen-owned mainstream/semi-mainstream marques sold here. There rest are high-end and/or exotic marques like Porsche, Lambo, Bentley, Bugatti, etc.
Renault held out in the U.S. market until the late 80's. I believe the last Renault-badged car sold here was in 1987, and then the Medallion (Renault 21) was sold here for another 2 years badged under Chrysler's now-defunct Eagle brand, then that was it.
As for Norway... There seems to be a pretty strong cult following of American "big iron" in the Scandinavian/Baltic countries. Lord knows why there of all places.
I think any real European would be shocked to se all the pick-up trucks, SUV's, Jeeps....
We all think they use way too much gas, pollute, and I have no idea were you would park them in any European capital.
we dont refer to GM cars as GM in europe , GM is a parent company of opel ( vauxhall in the uk ) and saab which was formerly sweedish , we dont get chevys or buiciks etc
ford is huge in europe but ford are 100% european designed and built over here , afaik , the ford focus was not designed in the u.s , ford has always been considered to be a british car in ireland , they were built in england until the mid nineties , i know this is incorrect but its not seen as an american car
ford is superior to the GM ( opel , vauxhall ) cars sold in europe but is not seen as being as good as toyota or volkswagon due to reduced resale value , personally speaking , i like ford , especially the focus and mondeo
Alot of the "american cars" seen here are ancient junkers living their second, third or fourth life for hobby purposes. I call them by the name of "pommikone".
Ford Mondeo and Ford Focus are not too bad.
Not exactly cars, Harley-Davidson has an unbelievably strong brand here. People are willing to sell their grandmothers for cash to get one. But i'm aware this might be the case most places elsewhere too.
we dont refer to GM cars as GM in europe , GM is a parent company of opel ( vauxhall in the uk ) and saab which was formerly sweedish , we dont get chevys or buiciks etc
ford is huge in europe but ford are 100% european designed and built over here , afaik , the ford focus was not designed in the u.s , ford has always been considered to be a british car in ireland , they were built in england until the mid nineties , i know this is incorrect but its not seen as an american car
ford is superior to the GM ( opel , vauxhall ) cars sold in europe but is not seen as being as good as toyota or volkswagon due to reduced resale value , personally speaking , i like ford , especially the focus and mondeo
Yes, I actually think many Europeans think of Ford as an European brand (German or British).
Opel used to be very popular in Norway (until the 90s). Still, in the rest of Europe it is quite big (top 4).
Top 5 2012 (until July) Norway:
1. VW - 14.8%
2. Toyota - 12.6% 3. Ford - 8.1%
4. Volvo - 7.8%
5. Audi - 6.3%
(Opel is not even in the top 10 but who cares about a small market anyway? )
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