American Cars Vs Everyone Else's Cars

[Tsukiyumi]

It's 70 mph here in Houston, though that's been lowered from 75.

[Reliant121]

Limits are 70 here.

Same here, most people will travel in the outside lane at about 85. I maintain, we do quite alright. To be fair, Diesel is a lot more popular than petrol now.

[Kevsha]

I think we've been over this before, but the main reason we have big engines in our cars is because we'd like to get where we're going before we die of old age. .

exactly, i hace a 60 mile round trip work commute mon-fri. and to do it i need to get on the NJ turnpike, where the weak are killed and eaten, if i cant get up to 80MPH from the end of the offramp to the end of the merge lane i am going to get run over by a semi. anemic little motors aren't going to cut it. granted i may have over-killed it when i got ,y truck with the 5.4V-8 but i do no city driving ever, all the roads i drive are highway, or big open roads

[Kevsha]

And we can get 41 mpg out of a 2.0l standard petrol, in most cases.

well, what kind of car, how big? you can't trow numbers out without context... but as i said, hybrids are a joke

[Tyyr]

Americans also like fast cars with big engines. We just do.

[Reliant121]

my counter argument would be my mothers car that got from around 20 to 70 with about 100 yards left of slipway left.


Her car is a 4 metre 1.4 litre SIGMA series petrol.

Tyyr: i guess it just doesnt make sense to me. I just cant connect desire with need and cost. I cant quite compute it in my head.

[Tsukiyumi]

I think we've been over this before, but the main reason we have big engines in our cars is because we'd like to get where we're going before we die of old age. .

exactly, i hace a 60 mile round trip work commute mon-fri. and to do it i need to get on the NJ turnpike, where the weak are killed and eaten, if i cant get up to 80MPH from the end of the offramp to the end of the merge lane i am going to get run over by a semi. anemic little motors aren't going to cut it. granted i may have over-killed it when i got ,y truck with the 5.4V-8 but i do no city driving ever, all the roads i drive are highway, or big open roads

Exactly.

But, if you want to talk big open roads, and getting run over doing a weenie little 70 mph, come to Texas.

[Kevsha]

my counter argument would be my mothers car that got from around 20 to 70 with about 100 yards left of slipway left.


Her car is a 4 metre 1.4 litre SIGMA series petrol.

i have no idea what a sigma is besides a handgun, year/manufacturer

[Reliant121]

It's a new line of engines Ford have developed for European manufactured cars. My mum's Ford Fiesta is the first car to be fitted with it. For reference, here it is in that colour and style. might be a bit big.

[Tsukiyumi]

Ah, it's a Focus.

A friend of mine drives one, though it has a bigger engine than that.

[Reliant121]

not quite. The American Focus is quite different to Our focus.

Yank Focus


Brit Focus

[Tyyr]

Tyyr: i guess it just doesnt make sense to me. I just cant connect desire with need and cost. I cant quite compute it in my head.

It's part of American culture. Fast cars and big engines. Most people don't want to drive a dinky four cylinder or even less. They want to put the pedal down and have the engine rev and the car take off. There's no real need to it*, just want. As gas prices rise I'm sure people will care about efficiency but even with where they are now they're still about a third to a half of what ya'll pay for gas. If prices keep rising I'm sure people will get over it but not for a while. And while we may buy a pissant 4 cylinder or a hybrid they'll still want a big V8.

*There are exceptions. If you buy a truck to do any towing or hauling with anything less than a V6, more realistically a V8, then you're fairly well an idiot.

[Kevsha]

Ah, it's a Focus.

A friend of mine drives one, though it has a bigger engine than that.

Negative its smaller than a focus... they are going to be selling those in america soon

[Reliant121]

We use almost exclusively 4 cylinder cars, although many cars like the Peugeot 107 and its Citroen/Toyota versions, as well as the Skoda fabia and many others use 3 cylinder engines that produce a characteristically racy engine tone, but can be a little rattly.

[Tyyr]

3000Gt VR-4 Twin Turbo
I wish I'd been able to find a JDM version but I wasn't willing to pay the import fees. Cheaper to buy the bigger turbos myself.