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Comment by seabass-labrax | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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?

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

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.

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.)

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 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

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

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