Europe Loves The Mustang

So maybe you're tired of the dollar being worth about as much as a Turkish lira - or just fed up with what you perceive as anti-American sentiment in Europe.

Hate not, patriots. The Euros still want to be us, bad. Why else would they start an online petition for Ford to bring the new Mustang to their shores?

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Do them a favor and go sign the petition right now. This is one case where unabashed American might could just soften those hardened hearts and minds in Old Europe.

Patrick '93 Cobra

Reply to
NoOption5L
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Don't bother. you can buy them in Europe anyway.

It's just that the idea of a sports car with a van style solid rear axle is a bit of a joke in Europe...

And American cars are famed for being badly built from cheap materials (see "sports" cars with van style suspensions...).

Reply to
the guvnor

Until they drive one.

Kinda like the folks who dismiss the new Z06 because it still uses pushrods... IDIOTS!

Patrick '93 Cobra

Reply to
NoOption5L

Unlike sports cars with tractor/trailer style diesel engines? Any consumer cohort that would buy more diesel than gasoline BMW 3's, yet sniff at an exciting car with a 3-valve 4.3 L V8 because of its solid rear axle, is composed of lemmings and other ignorant idiots.

180 Out
Reply to
one80out

1950's pickup style suspension.

1950's pickup style engine.

Ever wondered why so few American built cars are sold around the world?

Reply to
the guvnor

Well, SIZE is one reason. Not offering right hand drive in many models is another. And those awful, bloody, import and engine-size taxes are a killer. Not to mention that the parts pipelines are awfully awfully long. They become the "foreign" car once outside the US - not to mention the computer diagnostics equipment.

I have friends in the UK that put up with the inconvenience and drive Corvettes, Cadillacs, Camaros and Firebirds.

I know one thing for sure: would LOVE to have a new Z06 in Europe and watch that "ancient" push rod technology run alongside the Ferraris, Lamborghinis, etc., at 1/3rd the price. I can also see driving up in a red Z06 at an AGIP in Italy, a TOTAL in France -- take half an hour to pry the people off the car. And park at a decent restaurant along the Amalfitana - wow! Hehehehehee!

Joel Jacobs Commerce, Texas/Naples, Italy

Reply to
Joel Jacobs

10% import duty??
Reply to
the guvnor

Those socialist amerikaners have a funny slant on things, don't they.

Reply to
Kenshlock de la Fehrêtte

Note how Europeans are free to import any car (not that anyone does) but Americans cannot import any car they choose...

Reply to
the guvnor

Perhaps the UK, not so in Italy and other countries on the Continent. The taxes will take your breath - not to mention the tax on the displacement of engine.

Reply to
Joel Jacobs

Who the hell in his/her right mind would import most US cars into Europe? I've lived in Europe off an on for the past 25 years, so you "ain't" talking with the "average" Yank.

There are many Euro cars we don't import here into the US. Getting spares for a Renault, TVR, Peugeot, even Fiats do not make it sensible to do so. And then, finding a tech to work on them is another story entirely as well.

In Europe I found ONE guy who could do the diagnostics on a Corvette while living in Southern Italy and he had the equipment to work on them because he owned both a ZR-1, and a convertible.

Reply to
Joel Jacobs

It's a choice thing.

Fair enough.

The differance is that you *can't* import them, at least not for road use.

People in Europe have long forggoten how pushrod engines work?

Reply to
the guvnor

If this weren't so silly it would be laughable.

Multi-overhead camshaft cars have inherent problems as well, so it's a matter of choice and construction. Each has some inherent problems, each has some distinct advantages. One advantage of a push-rod engine is getting very high performance for a very low cost.

I've owned Jags, MGs, MBs, BMWs, Porsches, Audis, Minis, etc. so I'm familiar with both systems.

My lanky old push-rod-driven C4 Corvette with 124,000 miles on the clock will still nudge the 165 mph mark, cut 0-60 in 5.2 seconds, and gives me better than 25mpg cruising at 75mph with the AC on. And everything on the car works! which is far more than one can say about the normal British cars.

UK build quality has a horrid reputation here in the US, has had for years - and the reputation was/is well deserved. Even those of us who loved your cars grew to detest them because of the faulty carbs, electricals, and poor workmanship. I'm very much a fan of the UK, having spent a great deal of time there for both business and pleasure. And, to be sure you have some cars that I still love. Do us all a favor, don't be an ass and alienate those of us who are fond of both you and your country, as well as your cars - faults and all.

Reply to
Joel Jacobs

Because you double the price with import taxes. Yurop has never played fair with auto imports from the US.

Reply to
Larry J.

Import duty is 10%

Note how the US car market is closed to true competition due to your fedralisation rules.

Reply to
the guvnor

Improve your friggin' build quality on cars other than the Rolls, and Americans might well buy your cars - IF you build them to world standards of crash worthiness. I loved Rover, but Rovers - other than the old Land Rovers - were pieces of crap. AND, your cars are expensive! Parts were expensive, a decent mechanic was hardly ever to be found.

I don't think you realize just how large this country is. All the countries of the UK are smaller than the single state of Oregon.

Reply to
Joel Jacobs

An American crying about car build quality???

Smaller than Russia, Canada and China.

Note how you never hear people from those larger countries banging on about how big they are...

So what?

Reply to
the guvnor

I actually thought we might make some headway. As I said earlier, I'm one of the guys that LIKES you guys.

I don't know your age, so it may well be that you don't remember how horrid the build quality of British motorcars was back in the 1960s and 1970s. Unfortunately the people my age do remember how bad those cars were - the same was true of French and most Italian cars - and as such people have shunned, in many ways, the purchase of European cars other than the German cars which held up to long-distance driving - and cars that went fast. And back in those days few Americans could actually afford a Jag and certainly could not afford a machine such as an Aston Martin.

Most of the small underpowered cars that were shipped over here by most European builders were ill-suited to American use. It's not uncommon for an American to climb into an automobile and take a multi-thousand mile trip - THAT's why I mention the size of the United States vs. the United Kingdom.

I bought another Corvette 3 years ago. I purchased it in California - I live in Texas - flew out, got the car and drove it home via Colorado - that's more than 2,400 miles. I put new shocks on it, repaired the radio antenna (the car was used) and promptly took a 7,000 mile trip around the United States. American cars do this easily. They're large enough for comfort. Economical enough to warrant a trip such as that, and manage the trip with aplomb.

In July I'm leaving the Dallas area driving to visit friends in Tennessee, West Virginia, Virginia, and New York, a trip of more than 4,000 miles. This will be my 5th such trip - in excess of 2,000 miles per trip.

American build quality used to be almost as bad as British build quality, but the Japanese spanked us so thoroughly that we had no choice but to begin building better cars, and we do. Those American cars are ill-suited for use in the UK for the reasons stated earlier.

I drove Porsches and BMWs for years, but when I moved back to the United States and small-town America (70 miles from the nearest BMW or Porsche parts and diagnostics centers) I went back to driving something I could get repaired here - population 9,500. For a performance two-seater the obvious choice was Corvette. I can get a Corvette repaired at any of the 4,500+ Chevy dealers in towns scattered across America.

Joel

Reply to
Joel Jacobs

I normally avoid these pissing contests, but the fact remains that Americans buy cars normally that they can drive wherever they feel like going, which may be to the corner store or 3000 miles away.

Unfortunately, many British cars would fail at the second. An American car typically gets its oil changed at 5000 miles, if the owner remembers. It will go 150,000 miles before any major work and quite often will get 200,000 miles on before it is scrapped out.

However, in my share of British cars, 5000 miles on an oil change was like Russian roulette and usually would never make 150,000 miles. Part of that was you traded them after a half dozen rain storms because you bought a car to drive, not sit on the side of the road waiting for it to dry out.

Been there, done that, spent my time in Europe. Loved it, had fun, but don't compare cars when they are built for two very different environments.

Reply to
Tom in Missouri

I should add that I took a 1500 mile trip once in England. Ran from East Anglia up to Liverpool into Scotland and back down. Most people in England could not grasp the idea, and when they did, they thought I was absolutely nuts to attempt such a "LONG" trip over a long weekend.

Yet here in America a few years back, I frequently made trips between Missouri and South Florida, roughly 1200 miles one way, on weekends. So my

2400 mile trips dwarf that 1500 mile trip in England. I have been known to commute 100 miles one way to work daily.

BTW, the fine English car broke, not once, but twice. I also had a wonderful leak of water pouring through the windscreen. It fortunately did not stall in the rain. It waited a few weeks to do that later on the A45 east of Cambridge.

I had a roommate who had a Rover 3500. Fast car, compared to other British cars. Yet the thing had all the quality of a '52 Plymouth. Handled about as well.

Unlike Russia, Canada, and China, the vast majority of our people have cars and actually drive them long distance. It isn't (and wasn't) uncommon for a family to drive from coast to coast. Such a trip in Russia would be beyond what most could do. Many parts of Canada does not have roads, or at least not in some months of the year. China?

Reply to
Tom in Missouri

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