The view from France ....

[dvdre]

I just got back from a 2-week vacation in eastern France, traveling from Strasbourg to Lyon while mostly enjoying my two favorite hobbies ... drinking wine and eyeballing cars (OK, French girls, too).

Here's what I saw:

1) You could walk through a large parking lot and find 7 hatchbacks out of every 10 cars. SUVs and minivans are non-existent. Hatchbacks ARE the SUVs of Europe. Sedans are also pretty rare. It's mostly hatchbacks (2 or 4 door) and sporty coupes.

2) Diesel is the fuel of choice ... probably 80% or more of new cars I saw were diesel. Diesel fuel is cheaper than gas in Europe. We rented a diesel 4-door Ford Fiesta hatchback. It was OK. My estimate is that it got 40+ miles per gallon, so the price of fuel was not much higher overall, U.S. vs. Europe.

3) Audi A3s - two doors, TDI - are very common in the streets of Strasbourg, Lyon and Dijon. Cloth interior. Leather seems to be very rare.

4) VW Golfs and Polos are everywhere, mostly TDIs. I saw a lot of Polos and I really could see that car being popular in the U.S. Some of the Polos had the 1.4 engine.

5) I saw only about four GTIs in the two weeks -- and one was a Type I in great shape. The GTI is probably too much of a fuel hog to be popular in Europe.

6) Roads in France are great. We drove on a lot of wine routes, off the big toll-road highway. Europe is nutty about quality maps, so there was always good information on where we were headed.

7) Attached is a photo of my favorite car (?) I saw on the entire trip.

 

[Eric1285]

Yeah, Europeans are a lot smarter than Americans - they appreciate the practicality of hatchbacks, as well as the benefits of diesel. Oil refineries in Europe also produce a higher percentage of diesel than refineries here in the States do.

 

[Tig]

I go to poland every year and its the same thing. Diesel cars everywhere. They also have small 3 cylinder cars. Almost no SUV/trucks. Although I did see a couple Dodge Rams and one f-150.
The other suv's are almost compact size themselves. In Poland they have cars that run on propane, its cheap and the cars get good milage on it. My lawyer's BMW runs on propane.

 

[dustinwark]

more pictures!!!!!! i went to europe for a week a few years ago, france, monaco, and italy, absolutely loved it, i saw semis over there that on average were smaller than trucks i see driving around here

 

[MkVBlkMgc]

I hear ya. When I was in London and Paris this past May, the few SUVs I saw on the road stood out like sore thumbs. Almost everyone across the pond gets it - bigger isn't always better.

 

[magsta]

Yeah, Europe loves their Polo's, i was there (Rome and Paris) recently, also saw plenty of them,
check our Polo range.
http://www.vw.co.za/models/polo/

Europe is beautiful though hey...

 

[dpham00]

moved

 

[power-san]

Great things to know.. Please share some more pix..

 

[RedRabidRabbit]

It's all true.

At least 80% of the cars are hatchbacks. Even cars here that you never see as hatches are all over there (most aren't even sold here) such as 1 series, E classes, 5 series, Passat Wagons, I even saw a couple RS4 Avants. MkV's are freaking everywhere. I don't think I saw a single pickup the whole 16 days, although I did see an H2 (compared to about a combined 40 Ferraris, Bentleys, Rolls', Astons and R8's.)

 

[Bad hare]

Yeah, Europeans are a lot smarter than Americans - they appreciate the practicality of hatchbacks, as well as the benefits of diesel. Oil refineries in Europe also produce a higher percentage of diesel than refineries here in the States do.

Your right & I blame soccer moms everywhere!