US cars used to be too big for UK roads, says Chris, but have today’s lardy European models levelled the field?
“What American car would you most like to import?” Here’s a question that 20 years ago I would have struggled to find an answer for, save perhaps the then new Ford GT.
Cars developed and built by the high US carmakers have always unashamedly targeted the North American way of motoring life and that meant they tended not to work so well in Europe. Large, inefficient engines drank too much fuel and crude suspension systems didn’t adapt well to the medieval donkey tracks we call roads. You only imported something from the US if you simply wanted to be talked about.
It perhaps says more about the US car industry than either side of the Atlantic would care to admit, that many US vehicles now seem appealing for use in Europe and the UK. And that’s excluding Tesla from the discussion, because despite being very clever and very popular, the one thing any Tesla never feels to me is American built.
Last year on the TV show we had a Dodge Charger with an especially violent name and around 700bhp. It wasn’t very good at being driven on damp UK roads and the interior was clearly made from recycled crisp packets, but it had more character than a showroom full of AMGs. It also didn’t feel like a freak show on UK roads. And herein lies the reason why US cars never felt right over here – they were just too big and too wide and you felt like you shouldn’t really be driving such a machine over here.
I think it was in 2003 or 2004 that Chrysler decided to import the Dodge Ram. Like all US trucks, it made anything from Europe look emaciated, but it was also completely useless as a commercial vehicle because of its thirst, size and lefty steering wheel. I asked to borrow it to see if it could be used on narrow Gloucestershire lanes, but never managed to drive it because the poor delivery man had removed the nearside mirror on a passing vehicle, then reversed it into my barn as he was tryin
