Looking at the Suzuki thread made me wonder as to what vehicles that we here in North America take for granted? Did Aussies think Saturn's were cool when we wanted their utes? What did the Japanese want when we wanted Skylines?
I wonder.
Looking at the Suzuki thread made me wonder as to what vehicles that we here in North America take for granted? Did Aussies think Saturn's were cool when we wanted their utes? What did the Japanese want when we wanted Skylines?
I wonder.
I know there is a large contingent of swedes who like "yank tanks" from the late 60s and early 70s. The bigger and the more luxurious, the better
There has to be a sub culture in many places that really, really want an F350, if only to live in.
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
I've always wondered if places want our trucks. Specifically the big diesel ones. ImI fairly confident people in the uk view mustangs the same way lots of people in the states view skylines.
Mustang, camaro, Corvette, etc. is my guess.
American excess like V8s, large lux barges and full size trucks.
I have several Canadian friends who wanted Scions when I wanted an Echo Hatch.
I had a bunch of European plant managers come to Michigan for an annual meeting. Took them to dinner in a Ford Excursion. They were impressed, but I'm not sure it was favourable. They found my fascination with small Euro hatches odd though, too.
Northern Europe has a small but pretty thriving US car scene - mostly muscle cars, 'vettes, land yachts and some (especially older) SUVs. Mustangs are pretty popular as they're more Euro sized.
Japan seems to have a low rider scene as well.
Has to be the massive 3/4 ton and 1 trucks. Heck, the 1/2 tons too. I’m fairly certain that they don’t have a Yukon XL 6.0 AWD equivalent. Mine were awesome!
I’d be surprised if they didn’t want our 30’s and 40’s coupes and sedans too.
Well, the UK (due to fairly lenient legislation) has a hot rod scene as well, but they're not really importing 30s/40s vehicles.
Some people do like the trucks, but the main issue with them in Europe is that they're essentially too big for a lot of places and tend to be very expensive to register due to the annual road taxes (which for the newer stuff are often based on emissions and for the older stuff, a lot places use displacement to calculate taxes).
Casual YouTube viewing suggests that late model Corvettes are huge in Germany.
I do recall reading that at one point, the top selling coupe in Germany was the new Ford Mustang.
I'll add that I'm in Munich right now and a new mustang and new challenger revving at a stop light to each other back and forth totally got the stink eye today. Both may have been rentals.
I used to converse with some Australians from another forum frequently. One of them that had a turbo diesel Isuzu 4wd at the time openly expressed jealousy of my Cummins D350. Another who I still keep in touch with who plays with Mitsubishis (current project is transferring the guts of a wrecked Evo X into his Outlander) has a thing for DSMs, specifically Eagle Talons.
mad_machine said:I know there is a large contingent of swedes who like "yank tanks" from the late 60s and early 70s. The bigger and the more luxurious, the better
Yup. A lot of old Cadillacs get shipped overseas. There's nothing like good ol' American excess and chrome.
A guy I work with from Japan is huge into the American V8s. He has a Hummer H2, 5g Camaro Z/28, and a new corvette Z51.
Used to know a guy from New Zealand who would come here on vacation once a year and head back with a container full of 2nd gen F-body cars.
I know american trucks were huge in south america right during the last gas crunch, especially Venezuela.
South Africa is apparently big on toyota, as a Corolla carries more cachet than a BMW there, or at least it did. Mexico is big on american trucks, but I think we all knew that.
Perhaps most interesting to me is the USDM movement in japan, where they're doing american stuff to their cars. Meanwhile, Eric an kids are doing jdm stuff- which is really bastardized american stuff.......
When I worked in Tuscany several years ago I became acquainted with a very hip and fashion conscious young engineer. We got to talking cars one day and I was surprised to learn that his dream car was a ‘68 - ‘70 Charger R/T. Black. He’d seen one at a show in Milan and said it was the most beautifully executed design he’d ever seen. I explained that it’s sheer size would make it a handful on Italian roads.
BoxheadTim said:Northern Europe has a small but pretty thriving US car scene - mostly muscle cars, 'vettes, land yachts and some (especially older) SUVs. Mustangs are pretty popular as they're more Euro sized.
Japan seems to have a low rider scene as well.
This summer I saw a wicked ‘73 Vette replete with side pipes, flares, and E/T mags running around Belfort, France.
A couple years ago I was over in Germany for work. I felt compelled to ask all of my German associates what they drove, and oddly enough most of them drove Ford Mondeos, not BMWs or VWs or Audis. Doesn't really answer this question, but seemed like a semi-relevant data point...
I remember a speedhunters article a few years back about people in Japan building USDM versions of Japanese cars. One that sticks out was a LHD S13 240SX with a KA24DE.
My family is from eastern Europe. I have a super-wealthy branch of the family tree in Istanbul, Turkey.
My multimillionaire uncle was incredibly proud of his 3rd generation Corvette. It was black with the flying buttress rear and two mini bumpers up front. I found it ridiculous, but he adored that thing and got tons of attention in it. He was devastated when a tree crushed it during a storm one night.
Another uncle was in love with his Caprice Classic. We’re talking boxy ‘80s version. It was navy blue and he spent a fortune in duties and taxes to have it imported from California. He used at as his daily driver for many years, even with fuel prices in the $9/gallon range.
These days, all the rich guys are after vintage muscle cars, especially ‘60s Mustangs.
In reply to irish44j :
As far as I know, Mondeos were designed and built in Germany. Pretty much a German car, even though it says Ford on the grille.
LanEvo said:In reply to irish44j :
As far as I know, Mondeos were designed and built in Germany. Pretty much a German car, even though it says Ford on the grille.
Ford basically has two design/engineering centers in Europe - Cologne in Germany and Dagenham in the UK.
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