Is there interest or demand for American cars in UK + Europe
Discussion
The Crack Fox said:
I think the pathetic sales of Dodge, Caddy and Chrysler stuff here tell you everything you need to know. Chevrolet just give us rehashed Korean cack sold cheap to unwitting pensioners.
The thing is, UK / EU buyers don't seem to 'get' traditional yank metal, and yank efforts at European stuff is usually pretty poor.
Wow, how can you miss such the obvious..... The thing is, UK / EU buyers don't seem to 'get' traditional yank metal, and yank efforts at European stuff is usually pretty poor.
PaulFontaine said:
I am curious if there is a high demand for American cars in either the UK or Europe and if so what particular models and years. Let me also eliminate Any pre 1985 cars as well so there's not a massive thread about vintage muscle.
There are several answers to this.On one hand American cars are hugely popular. Ford still sells many, many cars in the UK and is probably still one of the most common makes you'll see on the roads.
Ford models sold here sadly don't include things like the Mustang. We get the Ka, Fiesta, Focus and Mondeo and the F150 Ranger (different to the US variant).
GM has quite a presence too in the name of Vauxhall. Wikipedia says GM have owned Vauxhall since 1925
All Vuaxhalls for many years have been the same cars as also badged as Opel (in Europe), Holden (in Oz) and often Pontiac in the USA. A early 90's Pontiac lemans is what we had as a Vauxhall Astra for instance.More recently Daewoo's have been branded as Chevrolets, but these are still some what a rarity and aren't even as common as Suzuki cars.
Chrysler has been selling cars in the UK as UK spec RHD machines for some time. Neon's are still fairly common on the roads and lots of Jeeps, mostly Cherokee's and Grand Cherokees.
300c's and Crossfires, while rarer are still a normal sight on UK roads. Other Chrysler models sold here haven't fared so well.
In this regard seeing an "American car" is quite normal.
In regards to more specialist machinery. Most of are what we call "grey imported" vehicles. These are cars that are either privately imported by individuals or by private companies. These are not type approved for Europe or the UK and most are LHD.
GM has on occasion sold limited numbers of American cars in the UK, such as the 4th Gen Camaro, C5 Vette, both LHD but Euro Type approved. And they also sold RHD Blazers and Caddy Sevilles. Ford sold the 4.0 Explorer as a RHD vehicle. Numbers are not huge of these, but they are about. There are even a handful of 3.3 litre Foxbody Mustangs too.
The grey imports are imported because people want them. So it's quite varied stuff, although recent years have shown trucks, esp Dodges to be popular along with the s197 Mustang and late model Vettes.
There's a healthy number of classics about too.
I only live in a village next to a small town. But there is still an early 70's Challenger, 2 70's Trans Am's. A black C6 Vette I see most weekends. A 4th Gen Camaro vert, a 4th Gen TA, Ford Lightning, V5 SN95 Stang vert and a few s197 Stands in the area. That's just off the top of my head.
I've personally got 3 American cars:
99 Camaro z28
86 T-Bird (needs engine)
95 Cherokee (RHD UK model)
That said, it is arguably more common to see a Ferrari than it is something like a Camaro.
I was at a car show 2 nights back. Not as much American metal as normal, but less cars than normal too as it had been raining. Still a few Yanks though:
Sort of American
half American
A Bedford truck, but I beleived actually based on a Chevy truck originally:
All the pics of the evening here including the non American cars: http://s132.photobucket.com/albums/q11/300bhpton/C...
Edited by 300bhp/ton on Friday 8th July 13:57
Edited by 300bhp/ton on Friday 8th July 14:55
300bhp/ton said:
The Crack Fox said:
I think the pathetic sales of Dodge, Caddy and Chrysler stuff here tell you everything you need to know. Chevrolet just give us rehashed Korean cack sold cheap to unwitting pensioners.
The thing is, UK / EU buyers don't seem to 'get' traditional yank metal, and yank efforts at European stuff is usually pretty poor.
Wow, how can you miss such the obvious..... The thing is, UK / EU buyers don't seem to 'get' traditional yank metal, and yank efforts at European stuff is usually pretty poor.
My thought on why US stuff fails in the UK is because the key advantage that they have, i.e. price/ value, is eroded by importers pricing them at levels in direct competition with their Euro counterparts.
This also doesn't help when the quality isn't up there with European models. I ran a brand new Jeep Grand Cherokee for 9 months (cheap lease deal), whilst it was laden with equipment the quality of the plastics on a £35k car was woeful and it had leather and 'wood' which was straight out of a DFS showroom.
In answer to the OP. There is a very, very small specialist market for US vehicles.
Chrysler had limited success on the basis of providing good value for money, but in the main the big three have have consistently and spectacularly failed to make inroads into the European market with US vehicles.
In terms of luxury vehicles we are spoilt for choice with European vehicles cars Audi, Mercedes, BMW and Jaguar. The likes of Cadillac just don't get a look in. Also, the US brands have little or no standing in Europe.
Can't type more as I am busy at work.
pp
Chrysler had limited success on the basis of providing good value for money, but in the main the big three have have consistently and spectacularly failed to make inroads into the European market with US vehicles.
In terms of luxury vehicles we are spoilt for choice with European vehicles cars Audi, Mercedes, BMW and Jaguar. The likes of Cadillac just don't get a look in. Also, the US brands have little or no standing in Europe.
Can't type more as I am busy at work.
pp
soxboy said:
Sorry 300, you may have to explain yourself there.
My thought on why US stuff fails in the UK is because the key advantage that they have, i.e. price/ value, is eroded by importers pricing them at levels in direct competition with their Euro counterparts.
This also doesn't help when the quality isn't up there with European models. I ran a brand new Jeep Grand Cherokee for 9 months (cheap lease deal), whilst it was laden with equipment the quality of the plastics on a £35k car was woeful and it had leather and 'wood' which was straight out of a DFS showroom.
I assume he's referring to the fact that some of the most popular cars sold in Europe are "yank attempts at European type cars". The Ford Fiesta/Focus/Mondeo and their Opel competition, for example. The American companies just have enough sense to get Europeans to design their cars for the European market. My thought on why US stuff fails in the UK is because the key advantage that they have, i.e. price/ value, is eroded by importers pricing them at levels in direct competition with their Euro counterparts.
This also doesn't help when the quality isn't up there with European models. I ran a brand new Jeep Grand Cherokee for 9 months (cheap lease deal), whilst it was laden with equipment the quality of the plastics on a £35k car was woeful and it had leather and 'wood' which was straight out of a DFS showroom.
There is an interest and demand (mostly for 'performance' cars and classics) for American cars in the UK, but it's very niche (In the same way there's a demand for cowboy hats and boots).
Belgians (in my unscientific research) seem to quite like American cars - I see more modern American cars there than anywhere else in Western Europe - but it's still relatively small scale.
As someone's said, American cars are relatively cheap in the US, but that's eroded by the time they get to Europe, which means they don't hold a lot of appeal as they tend not to have the same build quality as European cars of a similar cost (even though they might have the engineering integrity to do 100s of thousands of miles).
That said, even Americans don't seem that enamoured of the run of the mill American cars these days, so it might just be that, on the whole, they're not very good...
M.
Belgians (in my unscientific research) seem to quite like American cars - I see more modern American cars there than anywhere else in Western Europe - but it's still relatively small scale.
As someone's said, American cars are relatively cheap in the US, but that's eroded by the time they get to Europe, which means they don't hold a lot of appeal as they tend not to have the same build quality as European cars of a similar cost (even though they might have the engineering integrity to do 100s of thousands of miles).
That said, even Americans don't seem that enamoured of the run of the mill American cars these days, so it might just be that, on the whole, they're not very good...
M.
I'd love to own a modern muscle car here in the UK... e.g. Challenger, Mustang...
A few things stop me.. parts / maintenance, and of course cost. These things cost nothing like what they do over in the states and the appeal immediately vanishes! (Mustang entry level price is $22,000.. or £13k!!)
A few things stop me.. parts / maintenance, and of course cost. These things cost nothing like what they do over in the states and the appeal immediately vanishes! (Mustang entry level price is $22,000.. or £13k!!)
Chicane-UK said:
I'd love to own a modern muscle car here in the UK... e.g. Challenger, Mustang...
A few things stop me.. parts / maintenance
These are easy to get. Places like USAutomotive carry most service items in stock. And most other bits can be got within 4 or 5 days. In short no worse than getting parts from a Honda or BMW dealer in the UK.A few things stop me.. parts / maintenance
Maintenance is easy - any half decent mechanic can do 98% of the work on any of them.
Chicane-UK said:
and of course cost. These things cost nothing like what they do over in the states and the appeal immediately vanishes! (Mustang entry level price is $22,000.. or £13k!!)
That kind of misses the point. In the US they are not so cheap - it's all relative to your earnings. e.g. if you earn $22,000 in the US then it's only £13k Sterling...... That said, bang per buck US cars usually offer far more than most cars we get here.
£20k will buy you a few year old Mustang V8.
900T-R said:
Um, that is stretching the point a bit. The only thing 'American' about Ford Europe and GM Europe is where the proceeds go when they make a profit...
That has to be the daftest and dumbest thing posted in a long time. Well done! 
EDIT:
Let me explain, why it isn't stretching the point.
Why is it, if Ford MoCo design and sell a car in the UK/Europe that it is no longer American??
By that logic, any non American car maker designing and selling a car for the US market, must there for be making American cars.....
But that would mean a Triumph TR8 or a Land Rover NAS or a 4.6 D2 are in fact American cars.....
Evidently this isn't the case. So why are you treating Ford differently? It's not as if variants of Euro models haven't been sold in the US either.
Edited by 300bhp/ton on Friday 8th July 14:58
300bhp/ton said:
soxboy said:
Sorry 300, you may have to explain yourself there.
I'm pretty sure if you check Wikipedia you'll find out this auto maker is American 
By posting a picture of a Focus you have answered the question, i.e. no there isn't demand for US cars in Europe because if there was we wouldn't have the Focus, we'd have something closer to the same cars as designed in the US. I doubt there has been any US input whatsoever in the development of the Focus. Don't you find it ironic that the European developed Focus is now a world car, with strong sales in the US?
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