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AMG A45 acceleration comparison with Golf R.

TheWombat

Go Kart Champion
Location
Vermont
Part of it is also that on the average most people in the United States are much fatter than the rest of the world, and thus NEED bigger vehicles. Also, for some reason, people here still seem to think that bigger = safer.
Mostly it comes down to the fact that the average person in the US is much less educated when it comes to vehicles than people in Europe.

As to the VW truck, I wouldn't be surprised to see it make its way here soon. They're already trying to get in on the GIANT SUV market with the Atlas, so I can see them bringing the pickup here at some point.

Well, "educated" in terms of vehicles is partly true, I suppose, but I think it's more about different needs and values. I've lived and worked in Europe (Germany) and the culture around cars is very different. In the USA, the way cities are laid out, their relative youth, and the ways cars have deeply shaped the experience of most citizens in the past fifty to 100 years means our take on cars is a lot different from people whose cities and living patterns were largely determined long before the automobile came about.

So, American preferences for big vehicles that are more spaces than machines makes sense if you look at the history of our society and our communities. Personally, I hate it, but I'm pretty much one of only maybe two or three people I know in my circle of colleagues and such who actually likes driving per se. Most everyone I know views driving as a waste of time between things you really want to do, and views cars as appliances whose only task is to get you from A to B. Which again makes sense when in the USA you have to use a car to do pretty much anything. In that sort of situation, people tend to see only the utility of cars, not their entertainment value. And as a part of that, they don't care enough to research stuff and figure out the real data behind things like safety and what not.
 

Gawernator

Go Kart Champion
Location
Fremont, CA
Yup. European cities are different. America is way more spaced out. HUGE land mass. Not even comparable


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TheWombat

Go Kart Champion
Location
Vermont
When I was living in Berlin, I was lucky enough (thanks Uncle Sam and the US taxpayer!) to rent a rather nice house (well, half of it) in a very nice neighborhood, where I actually had a garage. It was super small but my Integra fit in it and it was something of a rarity. I took my car out pretty much only to go to work though, and that only because I often needed to go between one installation and another during the day. Otherwise, the excellent bus and train system was the way to go, especially as we got to ride free with our IDs.

There was, though, one stretch of unlimited speed Autobahn in Berlin then (this was pre-unification, though I was living there when the wall came down, and yes, that was quite a night), and of course people (meaning, dumb Americans like me) had to try it out. Later I got to drive on "real" Autobahn, in West Germany proper, where I was introduced to the joys of three lanes of hell--one lane of 180 mph Porsches and bad-ass AMGs, one lane of people like me going 120 or 130, and one lane of Trabants and Wartburgs going 50 kph at best.

Anyhow, in Berlin, a colleague of mine came over from the states with his...Corvette. A late 80s C4, and I remember I couldn't even see over the freakin' front hood (I'm short, ok?) For whatever reason, this guy, who was some sort of technician dude and perfectly fit the stereotype of the 'Vette driver, loved to run up and down that one stretch of road. I think the Berliners thought he was some sort of whack job, but then, after decades of being a four-power city in the middle of Commie-land, they were used to oddities. Of course, the Vette, like most American vehicles, was, shall we say, sub-optimal for German city driving in general. Parking garages were dinky, gas was outrageous (if you ran out of military ration cards that is), and you better be able to service it your self because ain't no way the Germans were going to touch your Detroit iron.

Erm, actually, this story has no point. Sorry. But I did rent an Audi 80 for three months, and that was kinda like a VW.
 

nate704

Go Kart Champion
Location
Virginia
When I was living in Berlin, I was lucky enough (thanks Uncle Sam and the US taxpayer!) to rent a rather nice house (well, half of it) in a very nice neighborhood, where I actually had a garage. It was super small but my Integra fit in it and it was something of a rarity. I took my car out pretty much only to go to work though, and that only because I often needed to go between one installation and another during the day. Otherwise, the excellent bus and train system was the way to go, especially as we got to ride free with our IDs.

There was, though, one stretch of unlimited speed Autobahn in Berlin then (this was pre-unification, though I was living there when the wall came down, and yes, that was quite a night), and of course people (meaning, dumb Americans like me) had to try it out. Later I got to drive on "real" Autobahn, in West Germany proper, where I was introduced to the joys of three lanes of hell--one lane of 180 mph Porsches and bad-ass AMGs, one lane of people like me going 120 or 130, and one lane of Trabants and Wartburgs going 50 kph at best.

Anyhow, in Berlin, a colleague of mine came over from the states with his...Corvette. A late 80s C4, and I remember I couldn't even see over the freakin' front hood (I'm short, ok?) For whatever reason, this guy, who was some sort of technician dude and perfectly fit the stereotype of the 'Vette driver, loved to run up and down that one stretch of road. I think the Berliners thought he was some sort of whack job, but then, after decades of being a four-power city in the middle of Commie-land, they were used to oddities. Of course, the Vette, like most American vehicles, was, shall we say, sub-optimal for German city driving in general. Parking garages were dinky, gas was outrageous (if you ran out of military ration cards that is), and you better be able to service it your self because ain't no way the Germans were going to touch your Detroit iron.

Erm, actually, this story has no point. Sorry. But I did rent an Audi 80 for three months, and that was kinda like a VW.

Cool story but pointless and wasted 1 minute of my time.
 

MonkeyMD

Autocross Champion
When I was living in Berlin, I was lucky enough (thanks Uncle Sam and the US taxpayer!) to rent a rather nice house (well, half of it) in a very nice neighborhood, where I actually had a garage. It was super small but my Integra fit in it and it was something of a rarity. I took my car out pretty much only to go to work though, and that only because I often needed to go between one installation and another during the day. Otherwise, the excellent bus and train system was the way to go, especially as we got to ride free with our IDs.

There was, though, one stretch of unlimited speed Autobahn in Berlin then (this was pre-unification, though I was living there when the wall came down, and yes, that was quite a night), and of course people (meaning, dumb Americans like me) had to try it out. Later I got to drive on "real" Autobahn, in West Germany proper, where I was introduced to the joys of three lanes of hell--one lane of 180 mph Porsches and bad-ass AMGs, one lane of people like me going 120 or 130, and one lane of Trabants and Wartburgs going 50 kph at best.

Anyhow, in Berlin, a colleague of mine came over from the states with his...Corvette. A late 80s C4, and I remember I couldn't even see over the freakin' front hood (I'm short, ok?) For whatever reason, this guy, who was some sort of technician dude and perfectly fit the stereotype of the 'Vette driver, loved to run up and down that one stretch of road. I think the Berliners thought he was some sort of whack job, but then, after decades of being a four-power city in the middle of Commie-land, they were used to oddities. Of course, the Vette, like most American vehicles, was, shall we say, sub-optimal for German city driving in general. Parking garages were dinky, gas was outrageous (if you ran out of military ration cards that is), and you better be able to service it your self because ain't no way the Germans were going to touch your Detroit iron.

Erm, actually, this story has no point. Sorry. But I did rent an Audi 80 for three months, and that was kinda like a VW.

Cool story but pointless and wasted 1 minute of my time.

I rather enjoyed this
 
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