8 ms·

Im a European, well British anyway.... Something occurred to me today regarding Americans and big huge stupid cars... I was watching the NASCAR earlier and the

by alan_cx 14y ago

Im a European, well British anyway.... Something occurred to me today regarding Americans and big huge stupid cars... I was watching the NASCAR earlier and there was a throwaway comment about some driver's sponsors being "local". By local they mean 60 miles away. Now to a Brit, maybe other Europeans, 60 miles feels like anything but "local". So, I get the impression that we don't understand the sort of scale of travel there is in the US. Which kinda begins to explain this fascination with big large cars with big lazy engines. These cars fit American geography and scale. I think it also explain what oil seems that bit more important to the Americans. See, Im pretty sure that if an American came to live in the UK (maybe else where in Europe) and tried to run a big old American car here, it would take about a week before this American when off and bought a little European type car. Equally, Im pretty sure we'd ditch a small Euro type car for a big old American thing is we went to the US. I too think American cars are a bit silly, but I think they make sense in context. I think American cars will get smaller and more efficient, but I think they will always be designed with those long distances and scales in mind.

scott_s 14y ago
"A Brit is someone who thinks 100 miles in a long distance, and an American is someone who thinks 100 years is a long time."
courtewing 14y ago
To give you some sense of how "local" 60 miles can be in the US, I live a more urban life style than most people in the US (although likely less than most people on this board), but I frequently drive 60 miles simply to have dinner with friends or family. We never considered that a hike, it's just a quick trip in the car. Our 2005 Honda CRV is approaching 120,000 miles, and both myself and my fiancée telecommute.
- arethuza 14y ago
  I'm in the UK (Scotland) and I don't think twice about driving 6 hours in one day to go skiing (3 hour drive, say 6 hours skiing, 3 hour drive back) - in fact thinking about doing that tomorrow. A colleage just drove/ferry back home from Germany - which nobody regards as anything unusual.
- arethuza 14y ago
  I'm in the UK (Scotland) and I don't think twice about driving 6 hours in one day to go skiing (3 hour drive, say 6 hours skiing, 3 hour drive back) - in fact thinking about doing that tomorrow. A colleague just drove/ferry back home from Germany - which nobody regards as anything unusual. The idea that most people think that 100 miles is a long way is silly.
jedberg 14y ago
I think you've hit a nail on the head here. I grew up Los Angeles, and for us, driving 60 miles round trip for dinner was totally normal.
X-Istence 14y ago
I drive a 2012 Subaru Impreza. Before that I drove a 2001 Hyundai Accent and before that a 1997 Kia Sephia. All of those are small cars, maybe it is because I am from The Netherlands but I never considered a large car, they slurp gas like it is going out of style and I want something compact that I can park almost anywhere. What I do like is that even with a small circle of friends it is almost guaranteed that you know someone with a large truck that can help you move large things, such as couches =).
- GFischer 14y ago
  A Subaru Impreza is considered a small car ?????? It's more than 4.3 meters long ! I have a Renault Twingo (3.4 meters long), and before that I had a Maruti 800 (3.2 meters long). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Twingo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Twingo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maruti_800 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maruti_800 That's what I consider a small car :) . My father had a Fiat 600 (the original one), and now has a Suzuki Maruti Alto/A-Star http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzuki_Alto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzuki_Alto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_600 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_600 The current best-selling car in Uruguay is the chinese-made Chery QQ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chery_QQ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chery_QQ
  - sukuriant 14y ago
    Those are tiny! In the States, a Subaru Impreza is a compact car in size
    - GFischer 14y ago
      I know, but what called my attention is that the poster is European. Part of my family lives in Austria, and what they consider a "small car" is more along the lines of a Volkswagen Golf, which is a little under 4 meters. According to Wikipedia itself, the Impreza wold be a "Compact" (what North Americans consider a small car) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_car http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_car while the Golf would be a "subcompact" (what I thought Europeans considered a small car) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subcompact http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subcompact and the Maruti would be a "city car" (what we Uruguayans consider a small car) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_car http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_car
jmspring 14y ago
My wife and I both have a 70-80 mi round trip commute. Between our two cars, we average about 41MPG commuting. Also, we both don't commute everyday, that said, we still manage to have put 50k miles on each of our cars in 3 years. California is not a small/compact place. Given how little I currently commute (2x/week), I am actually considering trading in my diesel VW for an old vanagon -- to facilitate some camping trips and the like. It will mean less milage efficiency, but 2x/week commuting won't take a huge hit.
elithrar 14y ago
> Now to a Brit, maybe other Europeans, 60 miles feels like anything but "local". So, I get the impression that we don't understand the sort of scale of travel there is in the US. Which kinda begins to explain this fascination with big large cars with big lazy engines. These cars fit American geography and scale. I think it also explain what oil seems that bit more important to the Americans. I would daresay it's more cultural than geographical, or at least it's an isolated case. Distances here in Australia are even larger, yet SUVs/4WDs don't outpace the small-medium car sector in year-over-year growth.
- johnrgrace 14y ago
  Ahh, but in my limited experence in visiting Australia your roads are in MUCH better shape. In some parts of America road maintaince is poor and the demand for an SUV is in part a desire for better driving experence.
aaronbrethorst 14y ago
Now in six US cities: https://www.car2go.com/ https://www.car2go.com/ My 8.5 year old car has 31,000 miles on it. I haven't had a job since 2007 where I have to drive to work. My daily commute now is a 1.5 mile round trip walk. I hate traffic and don't understand other Americans who are fine with driving long distances on a daily basis.
DanBC 14y ago
America is a big country, and Americans drive everywhere, and so 100 miles isn't that far. But this is exactly why gas guzzling cars are idiotic.
ivix 14y ago
The sense of scale is noticable even in this article. The author is parking a fire engine on his driveway. Here in Europe a driveway is one or two car lengths of gravel or paving blocks. In the US, everyone's driveway is more like something approaching a major civil engineering undertaking, being the size of a tennis court, consuming several cubic metres of concrete, steel reinforcing, etc.
- nollidge 14y ago
  They're really only that big out in the exurbs.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - adestefan 14y ago
    There are a lot more middle of nowhere locations than there are exurbs in the US.
    - nollidge 14y ago
      Yeah, I should've said "exurbs and beyond".
      - adestefan 14y ago
        I wonder what the stats on that are. I can only think of a hand full of US metro locations that would actually have areas that I would think of as exurbs and most of them are on the coasts (sans Chicago and maybe Dallas/Fort Worth).
        nollidge 14y ago
        Since I'm not a researcher I can really only speak to my experience around Milwaukee. Basically any town within Milwaukee County doesn't (as a rule, there are exceptions) have that kind of space. But further than that, there's quite a bit of space. Probably still not fire-engine-storage space, but at least riding-mower-recommended space.
joshAg 14y ago
That sounds about right. I grew up in sacramento, CA and commuted about 30 miles to high school (centrally located private high school that had much better test scores than the public schools less than 5 miles away from my house.). Many of my classmates commuted just as far, too, so it's not like I was weird for doing so.

by alan_cx 14y ago

scott_s 14y ago

"A Brit is someone who thinks 100 miles in a long distance, and an American is someone who thinks 100 years is a long time."

courtewing 14y ago

To give you some sense of how "local" 60 miles can be in the US, I live a more urban life style than most people in the US (although likely less than most people on this board), but I frequently drive 60 miles simply to have dinner with friends or family. We never considered that a hike, it's just a quick trip in the car. Our 2005 Honda CRV is approaching 120,000 miles, and both myself and my fiancée telecommute.

arethuza 14y ago
I'm in the UK (Scotland) and I don't think twice about driving 6 hours in one day to go skiing (3 hour drive, say 6 hours skiing, 3 hour drive back) - in fact thinking about doing that tomorrow. A colleage just drove/ferry back home from Germany - which nobody regards as anything unusual.
arethuza 14y ago
I'm in the UK (Scotland) and I don't think twice about driving 6 hours in one day to go skiing (3 hour drive, say 6 hours skiing, 3 hour drive back) - in fact thinking about doing that tomorrow. A colleague just drove/ferry back home from Germany - which nobody regards as anything unusual. The idea that most people think that 100 miles is a long way is silly.

jedberg 14y ago

I think you've hit a nail on the head here. I grew up Los Angeles, and for us, driving 60 miles round trip for dinner was totally normal.

X-Istence 14y ago

I drive a 2012 Subaru Impreza. Before that I drove a 2001 Hyundai Accent and before that a 1997 Kia Sephia. All of those are small cars, maybe it is because I am from The Netherlands but I never considered a large car, they slurp gas like it is going out of style and I want something compact that I can park almost anywhere. What I do like is that even with a small circle of friends it is almost guaranteed that you know someone with a large truck that can help you move large things, such as couches =).

GFischer 14y ago
A Subaru Impreza is considered a small car ?????? It's more than 4.3 meters long ! I have a Renault Twingo (3.4 meters long), and before that I had a Maruti 800 (3.2 meters long). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Twingo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Twingo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maruti_800 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maruti_800 That's what I consider a small car :) . My father had a Fiat 600 (the original one), and now has a Suzuki Maruti Alto/A-Star http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzuki_Alto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzuki_Alto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_600 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_600 The current best-selling car in Uruguay is the chinese-made Chery QQ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chery_QQ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chery_QQ
- sukuriant 14y ago
  Those are tiny! In the States, a Subaru Impreza is a compact car in size
  - GFischer 14y ago
    I know, but what called my attention is that the poster is European. Part of my family lives in Austria, and what they consider a "small car" is more along the lines of a Volkswagen Golf, which is a little under 4 meters. According to Wikipedia itself, the Impreza wold be a "Compact" (what North Americans consider a small car) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_car http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_car while the Golf would be a "subcompact" (what I thought Europeans considered a small car) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subcompact http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subcompact and the Maruti would be a "city car" (what we Uruguayans consider a small car) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_car http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_car

jmspring 14y ago

My wife and I both have a 70-80 mi round trip commute. Between our two cars, we average about 41MPG commuting. Also, we both don't commute everyday, that said, we still manage to have put 50k miles on each of our cars in 3 years. California is not a small/compact place. Given how little I currently commute (2x/week), I am actually considering trading in my diesel VW for an old vanagon -- to facilitate some camping trips and the like. It will mean less milage efficiency, but 2x/week commuting won't take a huge hit.

elithrar 14y ago

> Now to a Brit, maybe other Europeans, 60 miles feels like anything but "local". So, I get the impression that we don't understand the sort of scale of travel there is in the US. Which kinda begins to explain this fascination with big large cars with big lazy engines. These cars fit American geography and scale. I think it also explain what oil seems that bit more important to the Americans. I would daresay it's more cultural than geographical, or at least it's an isolated case. Distances here in Australia are even larger, yet SUVs/4WDs don't outpace the small-medium car sector in year-over-year growth.

johnrgrace 14y ago
Ahh, but in my limited experence in visiting Australia your roads are in MUCH better shape. In some parts of America road maintaince is poor and the demand for an SUV is in part a desire for better driving experence.

aaronbrethorst 14y ago

Now in six US cities: https://www.car2go.com/ https://www.car2go.com/ My 8.5 year old car has 31,000 miles on it. I haven't had a job since 2007 where I have to drive to work. My daily commute now is a 1.5 mile round trip walk. I hate traffic and don't understand other Americans who are fine with driving long distances on a daily basis.

DanBC 14y ago

America is a big country, and Americans drive everywhere, and so 100 miles isn't that far. But this is exactly why gas guzzling cars are idiotic.

ivix 14y ago

The sense of scale is noticable even in this article. The author is parking a fire engine on his driveway. Here in Europe a driveway is one or two car lengths of gravel or paving blocks. In the US, everyone's driveway is more like something approaching a major civil engineering undertaking, being the size of a tennis court, consuming several cubic metres of concrete, steel reinforcing, etc.

nollidge 14y ago
They're really only that big out in the exurbs.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- adestefan 14y ago
  There are a lot more middle of nowhere locations than there are exurbs in the US.
  - nollidge 14y ago
    Yeah, I should've said "exurbs and beyond".
    - adestefan 14y ago
      I wonder what the stats on that are. I can only think of a hand full of US metro locations that would actually have areas that I would think of as exurbs and most of them are on the coasts (sans Chicago and maybe Dallas/Fort Worth).
      - nollidge 14y ago
        Since I'm not a researcher I can really only speak to my experience around Milwaukee. Basically any town within Milwaukee County doesn't (as a rule, there are exceptions) have that kind of space. But further than that, there's quite a bit of space. Probably still not fire-engine-storage space, but at least riding-mower-recommended space.

joshAg 14y ago

That sounds about right. I grew up in sacramento, CA and commuted about 30 miles to high school (centrally located private high school that had much better test scores than the public schools less than 5 miles away from my house.). Many of my classmates commuted just as far, too, so it's not like I was weird for doing so.