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!

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).

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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 😂

I’m from Denmark and it’s probably the most expensive country in the world to buy and own a car, The taxation on “normal” cars are around 150 %. EV’s are at the moment exempt from tax up to a certain value. That said, since I acquired my drivers license in 1980, I’ve been owning and driven multiple US cars. I’d always stuck out in the crowd when I arrived in a nice Camaro or El Camino, that was my daily driver. Since around 2010 I have driven Mercedes as daily driver, but always had at least one US car on the side for fun and to have a dose of V8 occasionally😊 I not rich and through my working life I have had a normal salary, but I’ve used all my money on my cars and I repair them myself. This has cost me 2 marriages and now I’m enjoying my retirement as a single, surrounded by my beloved cars!😅

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.

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.

Japanese luxury divisions like Lexus, Infiniti, and Genesis (which is Korean) also have no important role in Europe, while they are common in the US.

The Escalade starts in Germany as a brand new vehicle at €114.000. I don't think we have this huge fee and taxes are with 19% a bit lower. Price included the 19% sales tax. The Mustang 5.0 starts at €51.000 including tax.

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.

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).

Speaking for Germany: with the introduction of the Mini Van for the Family car, the Chrysler Corporation and GM were in late 80´s and early 90´s back in the game. The Pontiac Transport (1990-1996) ( Oldsmobile Silhouette ) was sold in good numbers via Opel Dealerships. Chrysler got a step further and set up an whole new network of dealerships - all gone by now. The Chrysler Voyager was very well sold in Germany for years. All these cars (GM an Chrysler )were even fitted with orange turn signals on the rear end and Halogen Headlamps specifically manufatured to meet the regulations. But it was like a one hit wonder , they only lasted to the end of the 90´s. Then Chrysler sold their Dodge Ram Products, but never came near the sales figures with the Vans. Good on sale was the Jeep Cherokee line as well. Renault offered it in Germany too, but not with that result as Chrysler did. It rocketed off in the 90´s. You could see a lot of Jeeps back then. It was widely accepted. Then the Chrysler 300 c, it started well off, but was never a total sales hit. Ford USA was never that much active. Today here an there you can see a new Mustang or Charger or Chevrolet , but this it not considered as "mass transport".

In 1980 in the Netherlands, from what I remember, only the neighborhood butcher drove American cars. He had a 1979 Mustang that he traded for a 1980 Montecarlo. The doctor drove a Citroën CX Pallas. Most others drove European cars, old ladies drove DAFs (inexpensive automatic, easy to drive little cars made in NL). No cars were older than 10 years and people were starting to buy more Honda Civics , Toyota Carinas, Daihatsu Charades and similar Japanese cars. But US cars were considered ostentatious perfect for blue-collar well-paid jobs like garbage collectors and butchers.

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.

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

Fun fact: The most sold car model in Sweden and Norway 2024 is American: Tesla Model Y. It seems a bit restrictive not to regard it as “American” just because it’s an EV. It’s like not regarding Jaguar as British because it isn’t steam driven.