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Comment by BobbyTables2 | Hacker News Reader

Why do Europeans buy American cars?

I never could figure that one out either…

American brands like Ford typically sold models that were both designed and manufactured in Europe such as the popular Ford Escort and Ford Transit. They are completely different to what is sold in the US.

Hell I don't even know why Americans buy American cars.

Seems only about 9% of US manufactured car exports go to the EU[0], which is down from 12% in 2022.

So there are some who buy US made cars, but why they would...

[0]: https://www.acea.auto/fact/fact-sheet-eu-us-vehicle-trade-20...

We don't, for the most part. Most American brands are fairly unpopular here. Tesla is (was?) the exception.

I'm not sure - I certainly see a lot of Vauxhall/Opel cars about, and Ford Transit vans are pretty universal. Caterpillar vehicles are hard not to see on construction sites in Europe. The only sector where American brands seem to have absolutely no market penetration at all is that of heavy trucks, to the extent that I have never seen one except at vehicle shows.

Thought it was the N American love of (large) pickups and SUV's that's the real problem wrt Euro sales?

Opel is a German brand with a German headquarters and production, iirc, primarily in Germany.

Opel is Stellantis which despite being headquartered in the Netherland for tax purposes is controlled by Americans, French, and Italians.

There are no Germans on the board or in executive positions.

I recall Opel was owned by GM already before WWII? And iy was only relatively recently that GM got out?

(Ownership aside, Opel has been producing cars made in Europe for (mostly) Europeans for AFAIK the entire post-WWII era.)

Opel - the fastest rust in Europe. The only decent one were the later runs of Insignia and we all joked that the whole project was a failure because you could expect for the car to work straight out of the factory.

Would you call the Ford Transit an American vehicle?

I wish trades here in New Zealand used them, rather than the ubiquitous and fairly dumb Ford Ranger. Other than towing capacity, I can’t see why Rangers are popular.

I can remember back when most NZ tradies were happy with a Mitsubishi L300 or Toyota Hiace van that were smaller than a Ford Transit.

Yes, my recent (last 10 or so years) experiences have gone from being shocked at seeing full-size F250s in Amsterdam (!) to no more raised eyebrows. I've driven from Tallinn to Kyiv five times over the last year, and I've seen plenty of American vehicles. I know in Ukraine it's popular to kit bash imported wrecked US cars into something drivable, and I've seen plenty of full-size Dodge and Ford pickups on the roads in Poland.

On 13 June 2025, I took a picture of a Honda with dealership plate frame from Bellevue Honda in Tallinn. I imagine many of the vehicles in Holland and Germany are owned by US military folks, but they can't all be.

The Transit was made in Europe for Europe and it’s only quite recently that they have been sold in the US.

Ford in Europe wasn't entirely controlled by Detroit at the time it was first produced, though I don’t really know what that means in terms of ownership. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Transit

Wow, I didn't know that. I always assumed that there was only one Transit van. It looks like both the American models and the European models were sold in the UK, with the European models being significantly smaller; is that right?

The vast majority of of Fords you see in Europe are designed in Koln at Ford Europe GMBH. I believe there are less than 5 models that are sold in both markets

Shocking as it may seems, people do like American cars. most American cars I see are stuff that just isn't culturally European - muscle cars - the new mustang for example, the biggest pickups - Tundras and the likes and Teslas.

Because American cars are absolutely massive? Like, if you want something that’s guaranteed to pulverize anything you hit in Europe, an american car is a good bet.

American cars today really aren't massive. Trucks are, and many American people drive trucks rather than cars.

Even the cars are massive. A Toyota Camry is nothing special in the US, here it’s a big long car

And the Lexus SUV range stops at the RX in Europe, with 3 smaller SUVs under that

They're pretty rare. Ford was really big here at one point but it's a shadow of what it used to be. Tesla was an exception until Elon decided to go full-on Nazi-wannabe.

And it doesn't look like it will recover again:

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/teslas...

Other than that there are some people that have legitimate needs hard to cover with EU made vehicles, for instance larger pickups. Those are often imports, Toyota's, some Dodges, some GMs. Rarely Fords though, I don't remember when I last saw an F150 or an F250 here in NL, in Germany or Poland. The Dodge's are popular with landscaping crews here.

In '24 Tesla did very well here (NL), with close to 8% of the market. For '25 they'll be happy to have half of that. And I expect BYD to achieve parity or even to exceed Tesla for EVs. Ford is at 3.5% and Jeep at 0.5%. So in total, for NL including Tesla the USA represents about 12% of the market and next year more than likely less than 10% and if Trump keeps up his tariff bs it might be far lower than that.

> Ford was really big here at one point but it's a shadow of what it used to be.

Speaking for the UK at least, it's not like we were really getting US-originated models from Ford: it used to be the Mondeo or Fiesta but now it's the Kuga. Similarly GM (AKA Vauxhall/Opel, now Stellantis) pushed the Corsa/Astra and so on rather than, say, the Chevy Suburban.

A majority of them are made within Europe (if not necessarily the EU, between the UK and Turkey) so should avoid tariffs.

Yeah the oversized gas guzzlers of the US were never popular in Europe. They're hard to park here (parking bays are smaller), difficult to drive in narrow historical cities, expensive to fuel etc. And pick-ups are very unpopular here, unless you're a farmer there's no point in such a large open loading bed.

I remember choosing between a Nissan 100NX and a Ford Probe (both about 10 years old) but the latter had way worse fuel economy not being a Europe native model (though it wasn't really a US model either I think). Also the 100NX wasn't really a sports car, it was just a Nissan Sunny compact with a more sporty looking body and T-top. It was a super nice car though.

> And pick-ups are very unpopular here, unless you're a farmer there's no point in such a large open loading bed.

And even if you are a farmer, an american pick-up seems to be a rare choice around here. If you see something pick-up-like, it's usually more a variant of UniMog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unimog .

And for the "small-time farmer without enough money to buy lots of equipment" (rare nowadays), tractors with tons of included functions were often more practical: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fendt_GT (no english version, sorry). Since Germany is more dense and distances are smaller, low speed is less of an issue I guess, compared to the US. And you can pull real farm equipment, which a pick-up car usually cannot.

Yeah it's also that American pick-ups usually don't feature 4WD (unless as an even more expensive option) which is kinda a need if you're into farming. It's a weird niche for people that want to show they are outdoorsy somehow but aren't really.

And for people that just need to move a lot, having it exposed to the open air is usually a dealbreaker. Panelvans are much more popular for that. Or MPVs with removable seats.

I have seen other countries where they are popular though. Like in Australia where they call it a "Ute". But yes also a long-distance country like you say.

In our part of rural Australia ute (utility vehicle) is largely reserved for the classic Australian Ute (eg: 1974 HQ Holden Ute: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cztnXaND-Xo) which is a non US car footprint that'd be at home in Europe, cut down from a family sedan to be a single front bench seat in a two door cab, with everything behind as a tray.

Other parts of Australia do vary

As such things get bigger, get more doors, and veer towards a US size they get called crew cabs, trucks, pickup's, etc.

The wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ute_(vehicle)

  Traditionally, the term referred to vehicles built on passenger car chassis and with the cargo tray integrated with the passenger body (coupé utility vehicles).
  However, present-day usage of the term "ute" in Australian English and New Zealand English has expanded to include any vehicle with an open cargo area at the rear, which would be called a pickup truck in other countries.

doesn't speak for all Australians and veers toward city usage.

The difference between a 2WD model and a 4WD model is about 10% (4k) on a base model 40,000 dollar truck.

They're all available with 4WD however.

A lot of Ranger pickups in the UK now too, at least from what I can see in London.

> Ford was really big here at one point but it's a shadow of what it used to be.

The Ford cars sold in Europe are mostly European-designed and European-built though, seeing an actual US Ford model on the road is quite rare (in Germany at least). And the Ford factory in Koeln is so old (founded in 1925) that I'd say it's not unusual to recognize Ford as a German brand over here.

What’s the thing with calling him a Nazi? Being against mass immigration? His support for the German AFD party? That’s the 2nd most popular party, hardly a fringe extremist Nazi party, despite its distant roots. Far left people are lately the most anti semitic, so it’s all ironic.

If you think he really did a Nazi salute, you’ve just drank the media kool aide.

The AfD are literally pitching themselves as Nazi 2.0, so his support for violent racist extremists in Germany and Rest of World - notably the UK - is entirely on point.

But ultimately the Nazis were a specific brand of fascism. You don't need a Hugo Boss uniform and a lower limb disorder to be a fascist.

You do need to be actively opposed to fair elections and other bedrock progressive values, a cynical exploiter and promoter of race hatred and violence for political ends, and a dedicated corporatist.

The fact that his own chatbot labelled itself MechaHitler after he updated the system prompt is just icing.

That's a lot of hyped up delusions in one post. And so many people think only the right wing lives in a media bubble.

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