How the American Car Failed in Europe

So, how much does a Mustang or Escalade cost in your part of the world? PS, when it comes to CLASSIC American cars, it's a completely different story. In The Netherlands, cars older than 40 years are considered classic cars where you don't pay any road tax and a special low price insurance. Maintenance and fuel are up to you of course. This actually makes The Netherlands, along with Sweden and Germany some of the countries where you'll find the most American classic cars in the whole of Europe!

Road taxes based on weight makes perfect sense because weight directly affects how much wear and tear a vehicle puts on the road.

My dad drove exclusively American cars, until he visited Europe in the late 1960s, rented a Peugeot 404, and was amazed at the responsive handling and solid construction. He continued driving American cars -- although not particularly large ones, like an AMC Rambler -- until he test-drove a VW Jetta in 1985 and said it was the best-driving car since that Peugeot. He bought the Jetta for my mom and a Golf for himself (which was actually American-made, in VW's Westmoreland, PA plant).

There is a surprisingly large amount of big US pickups and SUVs in Sweden - but Sweden is also quite hillbilly by European standards. It's some kind of "working class, newly rich"-symbol.

For example in Italy having a car bigger than 1.8/2.0 liter Is pricey not only for gas prices but also from taxes like for example the "superbollo" wich Is a tax that you pay for Cars that have more than 250hp

Hello Turkish guy here, 2022 Cadillac Escalade 6.2 V8 costs about ~20 million Turkish liras which equals to ~600 thousand dollars while 2021 Ford Mustang 2.3 EcoBoost costs about ~8 million Turkish liras which equals to ~240 thousand dollars. Oh and btw average income per year is 13.000 dollars so that is fun.

A friend of mines dad moved to Spain in the 80's for several years and brought his prized 1971 Ford Mustang Mach 1, he said the reaction in Spain from the locals was if a space ship showed up.

Vehicles were primarily designed for their home markets and American vehicles aren't suitable for European driving conditions. That's why American manufacturers either established European specific divisions like Ford or purchased European manufacturers like Opel/ Vauxhall or Rootes.

Funny thing that those "small American cars" were still huge next to European cars. Had bit of a giggle when I first saw AMC Pacer in a museum, with 3.8 litter engine, described as a response to energy crisis.

when my Dad was stationed in Germany in 1969 he shipped over a 1963 Chrysler Imperial Le Baron. We lived off base and found it was almost impossible to drive around in. He sold it to another GI and bought a Renault(I'm not sure which model).

Brazilian here. There are something like 27 different manufacturers building cars here, but almost all of them are "cheap" econoboxes, some more upscale than others. So, if you want anything fancier than a Fiat or a Jeep Renegade, you gotta go for imports. And the rule of thumb here is, you take the original sticker price, in dollars, euros or pounds.....and then you add another zero to it. That's it. So, a $50,000 Mustang will set you back at least 500 thousand BRL. A $400,000 Ferrari 296? That's a 4 million car right there. And the road tax is based on the car's sticker price, rather than it's weight or size. These can go from 2-4% of the sticker price (which includes several taxes on its own, by the way), depending on the state. There's a guy here who owns a Porsche 918, and he's paying 418,000 BRL PER YEAR of road taxes. That's 70,000 euros. Every. Single. Year. And, because the car is appreciating in value, so are the taxes that he is paying. That also applies for the common folk too, since we're in an endless economic crisis and our money loses value by the day. So yeah, it's quite fun.

After I moved to Denmark in 2005 one of the first cars I noticed parked on my street was a very clean 1985 Pontiac Grand Prix. An old man that lived across the street drove it. I tried to talk to him, but he didn't speak English and my Danish was pretty poor at the time. He understood a thumbs up and "nice car" so that was good enough!

German here. We only really pay the usual import fees and 19% of tax onto the base price. There is no extra emissions tax as far as I know because the normal tax is calculated with emissions and displacement in mind. So a base mustang is like 55 grand WITHOUT any deductions/rebate the dealer might give you. Add transport fees and such and you might end up at like 58 grand at MOST. Usually transport willl cost like 800-1000€, plus like 200€ of DMV fees to actually get it registered. Why is it this cheap here? Because Ford actually imports them themselves. We have some US-cars on their side but also a lot of EU market vehicles here.

I think the last iteration of the Ford Scorpio was meant for the American market but was accidentally sold in Europe, and then we all vomited to death.

As an American, …. You did a fantastic job. And great humor 🚗🤣

There's another category of American car buyers, some cars that have been totalled and deemed not roadworthy in the US het shipped to Eastern Europe, repaired just enough to make it seem drivable (even though they shouldn't be road legal since stuff like the chassis or the crumple zones still have damage), and then reimported to western Europe to be sold as just regular used cars for a bargain

Fun fact: Here in Europe, because of our very diverse car culture, learner drivers often get to learn to drive in something as fun and quirky as an Abarth 595 (I did lol). But even like at home, most people drive hatchbacks with a manual transmission: my family has a Ford Fiesta ST, not a lot of power on the paper but SO MUCH FUN (especially as a first car). I have to say I’m so grateful to live in Europe. People (especially Americans) have to get over the fact that big cars are more practical or more fun: they’re not. Though I kinda get you, after seeing everybody driving 20ft long trucks in the US I would be scared AF to drive anything smaller than that.

A mustang costs in Germany "only" 60.000 Euro!

I'm jealous of all the practical compact car options you guys have in europe. In north america, every jackass and their grandmother drives a fullsize pick up just to commute to the office.

Here in Greece, we had to import American cars as a compensation for the financial aid we received after WW2. They were usually used as taxis, but most prominently as hearses. To this day all American classics look like a hearse to older people. Station wagon =long hearse. Muscle car=fast hearse. Once you know this, you can't unsee it 😂