Vehicles of Guru3D

Basically they have cheap gas and much lower taxes on cars then in Europe.

This goes back to the 60's and 70's when the US had a lot of oil reserves and it seemed like it never ended so they just made huge, cheap and heavy gas guzzlers, to use that oil and have fun, also know as muscle cars.
Also, why 3 speed gearboxes if you have to travel a lot during long straight lines ? Going 70mph at 4000rpm in a V8 ?

Oil won't get any cheaper so that way of life won't work very well in the next years.

They seem to try to change but their mentality of big and heavy=comfort isn't very good for mileage.

Just want to say that cars like the Hummer and other giant SUVs are just plain retarded. The Hummer has less mileage then a 1000hp Bugatti Veyron!!

 

Most European cars are tiny two seaters with barely any room. Sure they're great on mileage, but people over here just plain don't like that small of vehicles. This is kind of like comparing apples to oranges, because the tiny diesel motor in those compact cars isn't going to properly power a large sedan or crossover (Let's not even mention SUV's, as they're not selling well anymore).

And with a heavier motor comes more power in most cases, so the extra weight is a null point. It's not going to affect handling to any noticeable degree.

 

my experience on small vs bigger vehicle in long trips:

1- With my old BMW 1.16i a long trip was FUN. mostly because of handling and its easy to control the car. it was more responsive for me.
2- months ago i did same trip with my Honda CRV 2011. and it was a PAIN. its a SUV and handling doesnt respond as its in BMW 1.16. it was bad at taking corners and hard to STOP the vehicle.

i know its a bit comparing DULL. not very logical. but FOR ME, SUVs r not good for long trips..or any maybe? it was boring and tired me like hell. This is why i sell it and bought a C180.

Small cars r easy to control and handling is more safe..thats my opinion.

 

nice car Mr.Bigtime.

 

Thank you very much my friend.

The disappointing thing is , it has nearly NO places to put stuff. i mean sunglass, phone etc. hard to put them around the driver seat

 

With a car like that you won't be needing those :banana:

I'm a huge fan of BMW, Mercedes and Audi cars!

 

I bet you think most people in here drive Smarts or Toyota IQs ... Is that what you are talking about? Then you couldn't be more wrong ...

Most cars in europe are normal hatchbacks with small, but powerful diesel engines ... Gasoline engines don't sell very much in new cars around here... It gets better mileage then the hybrids so many preach ...

 

and most european cars ain't tiny at all. sedans and station wagons are the biggest sellers here... those are good on long trips usually anyways. i got hatchback that is really nice to drive longer trips. and well the normal engine is up from 1.6 and it seems like trend nowdays is turbo engines for better mileage.

i got 2.0L and good mileage and it's just really good to drive and never ever does any hill do any bad to go up.

 

It is just the way things are my friend. Fuel and cars are cheap compared to most of the world. I can buy a C300 Benz here for about $32k...According to the .uk MB website, the c-class starts at 25k pounds (and this for the cheapest model which isn't even sold in the USA). That is around 40k UDS. A more comparable european model would cost almost $50k USD.

I am reading a book about energy independance and it said something like there are about 245 - 250 million registered vehicles in the USA, which is more cars than licensed drivers. There are probably an additional 30 - 50 million cars that are unregistered. We like cars and people like to drive. It isn't common for even a young person to drive 12k or 15k miles per year which is probably a lot more than the average European.

Cars were never traditionally very efficient because that is not what the average driver cared about. My 1978 Lincoln Continental has a 460 cubic inch engine (7.5L) and only gets about 9 - 13mpg. It measures 19 feet 4 inches long bumper to bumper, has a 133 inch wheelbase, and weighs close to 5200lbs. It has a 24 gallon fuel tank and it would be safe to install up to a class IV hitch. They were big for a reason, as that is what people wanted to buy. Companies were forced to make smaller, European style cars due to CAFE standards, but they did not sell that well in those days. Even when the OPEC crisis hit, these cars still sold well. They were building 10s of thousands of big Lincolns, Buicks, and Cadillacs each year.

Our fuel prices are high right now, but they are even higher in many other parts of the world. When I started driving, I could fill my 24 gallon tank for about $45, it now costs about $90. But it would probably cost close to $130 - $140 to fill up over in Europe.

 

The American vs European thing is also a social commentary on how we see our cars. We see them as an investment that is generally meant to be held on to for as long as we can, in that respect a lot of people will buy or look for cars that have specific features that will make them attractive when it comes to sell them on. In this climate that would be the general stuff such as low mileage, well looked after and is fuel efficient. Now I am no expert on this but to make a small car that conforms to these standards, i.e it will be reliable, have a small but perky engine that doesn't drink fuel but gives some go when you give it the beans, well it costs cash to develop engines like this. To develop cars like this costs cash which isn't really an issue when your market see the vehicle as something to be bought looked after and then sold on with as little lose on the ticket price in x years time.

On the other hand, Americans do not generally see cars as a long term investment, they are a tool to be bought as cheap as possible, to be driven from point a to point b and when they fall apart, which most of them did, they would go buy another one. If your market just sees the product as a tool to be used till it dies and doesn't care for resale or the investment then give them what they want in terms of spec and do it at as cheap a price as possible. I would imagine that building a massive inefficient 4l engine with 200Bhp costs a hell of a lot less than building something like the 120bhp 1.4l multi air engines in the new Fiats or the 1.4l tsi engines you see in the new vRS, Cupra and Polo GT.

Dunno how true that is but just a few thoughts, oh and add, fat Americans, long straight roads and cheap gas as you see fit to the post.

 

Another point is that in the US, there is simply more space than here in europe. Go drive around in there, and the cars don't seem oversize at all. Everything is much more spaced out. If you take one of them here, it seems huge.

 

It's not even really a matter of having the income to afford a massive vehicle, or hell, even the idea of actually NEEDING a massive vehicle. It's almost aggrivating how many times i'll see people in Hummers and other large SUV's, and large pickup trucks.... and probably 9 out of 10 of them that i see are only the driver. There's absolutely no reason to drive an Escalade as your work commute car unless your work commute involves hauling sh*t around.

Then again, people probably laugh at me driving around a Smart car. But the reason i do is because when i was driving a '99 Dodge Durango, putting probably $60 in the tank when gas was nearly a buck or more cheaper than it is now, i actually looked at my driving habits, and realised that just about the only time i go anywhere with more than one person is the very few times some friends and i would go to the drive-in theater. I realised that having space for 5-8 people was a waste. I bought a Smart because fuel mileage is great, for one.... and because i absolutely love the style of the car, and the fact that it has quite a few of the little extra comforts that you might not necessarily need, and all the safety features you'd really want. But people always.... ALWAYS... make the same comment every time. First i'll get questions about the car... simple curiosities... and then the things that are destined to be said.... "do you feel safe in it?", "You don't take that on the highway, do you?", or "I'd hate to get hit by a semi.".

That last one i can't help but laugh at. After i finish laughing, i usually ask them what kind of vehicle they'd love to be in and feel safe getting hit by a semi. Even said the same thing to my brother the other day, and he drives a big diesel Dodge pickup. He's like "Nothing would stand up against a semi."... to which i replied "exactly... so what does it matter?" People just have that simple mindset of "bigger = safer".... which, when a Smart can plow into a Jeep Grand Cherokee at 50mph without a chance of hitting the brakes, with the passenger's being completely unhurt except for maybe a bit of bruising here and there, and be able to open the doors..... i'd have to disagree with that mindset entirely. If a car is built safe... it's a safe car. A massive old Buick might have a lot of room between the bumper and the driver... but that doesn't necessarily mean it would take one hell of a hit to possibly seriously injure the driver.

 

Hatchbacks are what I'm talking about, and they're utterly small (Lol tiny is censored?) It's really not fair to compare a diesel engine with less than 2L of displacement and less than 200hp to a hybrid sedan over in the U.S. that is at least twice as big.

And once again, this argument is silly. Europe pays out the balls for gas, over here we barely pay half of what you do per gallon. It makes more sense to rely on efficient diesel engines because it works out to be cheaper for you. It's just a different system and culture.

 

True.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju6t-yyoU8s

 

I would never view a car as a long-term investment. The are nothing more than a depreciating asset. Some more than others. Classic vehicles might be an investment, but daily drivers are definitely not. You pay more for cars in Europe for many reasons...Even Canadians will generally pay more for new vehicles than Americans do. The same model in the USA on average, will cost less than it would anywhere else that it is sold. The USA is a massive market with way more buyers than in the individual countries of Europe...they have to stay competitive.

People don't buy the cheapest car possible, they buy what they can afford and often they buy what they cannot afford (financing). All you need for point A to point B is a steering wheel and a few tires, so there is obviously more to it than that.

All engines today are technological marvels and cost hundreds of millions of dollars to develop and test. Cost of an engine consists of its design complexity, materials, man hours needed for final assembly, etc.

 

sorry double post..:bang:

 

my baby....



http://postimage.org/image/1n0g3jqh0/

http://postimage.org/image/1n0hr32ys/

http://postimage.org/image/1n0jemfgk/

http://postimage.org/image/1n0l25ryc/

 

I think of it as an investment in which you're trying to earn the amount you paid for the car with the car before it's gotten to the point where it needs a $1k repair every day or a complete overhaul to stay drivable.

Say you spend $20k on a car. When you have earned that 20K back (Which can take a long time with gas and repairs dropping the "earned value" constantly, then you've gotten your moneys worth from the car and you can buy a new one.

 

I love the swift sport, very cool car!