Cars in America vs. Cars in Europe

When I visited France with the school in 2008, immediately when I stepped foot outside of the airport, I noticed all these weird looking cars. Usually, when you show me a car, any random car on the street, I can name it off the spot and usually tell you a few random facts about it. However, when I was in France, I couldn't do that; almost all of the cars were completely different. This was pretty unsettling. I decided to pay attention to the cars on the long bus rides we would be taking over the eight day trip, and I did learn quite a bit.

For starters, in Europe, a lot of the cars are shared, meaning basically as you cross into different countries, the cars are the same. It's like our country in relation to Canada; our cars are pretty much the same as the cars that are in Canada.

In Europe, there are many more brands than what we have here in the U.S. Here are just some of the most popular "normal" ones (meaning, not any super sporty types):

Renault - French company
Citroen - French company
Peugeot - French company
Alfa Romeo - U.K. company
Fiat - Italian company

Like I said, there are others, but these are among the top car makers there for normal cars.

Of those companies, probably you have only heard of Fiat, or possibly Citroen. Last year, Fiat bought a large portion of the Chrysler company, in an effort to keep the company from going under. We have yet to see any Fiat branded cars here in the U.S., but they could come sooner or later. Citroen had a short period of time here in the U.S. It was quite a few years ago (between the 1950's and 1970's) so chances are you've never heard of them (I hadn't either).

The first couple of days during my trip, all of the cars were a blur to me. That must be what it's like for the people that do not know their cars or quite frankly don't care (which I'm sure there are many people like that and I understand, don't worry).

As the days wore on, I began to pick out a couple that I kept constantly seeing. There was this one car called the Renault Kangoo. I remembered it for a couple of reasons. The primary one is because of the name- who wouldn't like a name like Kangoo? Not only does it sound like "Kangaroo," but it has a zing to it. This French car company has some very good marketing people. The second reason was because one of these vehicles nearly hit me as I attempted to cross a busy street. At this point in time I also was able to hear the horn. The horn sounded strikingly similar to a chihuahua barking at a mail man.

Anyways, that was one of the main cars that stuck in my head, and for good reason too.

The other car that I remember vividly from the trip was the Renault Trafic. It was, again, a neat name.

Overall, the cars there are much smaller in scale. The main reason for this is that the gas prices are very very high. I went over there knowing this and when I first saw a gas station (called Petrol Stations there because gas is Petroleum) there, I was shocked. The prices looked ridiculously low. However, I quickly realized it was per litre, not per gallon.

Another reason for the overall compact feeling of their cars is the fact that so many streets are narrow. Our huge touring bus had to creatively navigate the small streets in many small cities and towns, not to mention the metropolis of Paris. There were many nasty words uttered in Romanian by our bus driver, whom was from Romania.

If they had all the huge SUVs and cars we have here, I don't think they would be able to cope. You would see a lot of missing side-view mirrors, missing bumpers, and scraped doors because of the difficult navigation that needs to happen. Additionally, a lot of drivers there are crazy.

When it comes to liking which area's cars better, I would have to say I like ours. This is obviously because I know way more about them and that I've been around them my whole life. The cars abroad were very different and unique and I think a few should come over the pond and be sold here in the U.S. I think some of the cars would do very well over here.

Toyota's Troubles

If you haven't heard about the recent multiple Toyota recalls, you must be living under a rock. Over the past few months, Toyota has issued two major recalls; one that fixes a problem with the floor mat possibly hitting the accelerator pedal and the other, a direct fix to the pedal itself. There could be more recalls to come as well.

Many owners seem to be very concerned about this problem and they should be. These problems have been related to at least 19 deaths across the country. I’d reckon that probably that of every ten cars you see on the road, at least one of them is a Toyota. In fact, my family owns a 2005 Toyota Camry (not on the recall list at this time). Now, many, including the co-founder of Apple, Steve Wozniak, believe that this problem could be related to an electronic malfunction within the internal computer of the car.

Virtually every day on the nightly news, there is at least one story about the Toyota saga in which they show pictures of cars that have experienced unintended acceleration. Through my own observations, I have discovered that some of the pictures of these wrecks are vehicles that aren’t even included in the recall. I have seen at least five different pictures of the same model year Camry as my family’s vehicle. This is very concerning and I believe that Toyota has handled this situation very poorly.

ABC news recently did a report about how to contact Toyota about your recalled vehicle, and they couldn’t come in contact with anyone for a long time; and when they did, the representative did not have enough information to answer any questions. Additionally, when they brought their cameras to one of Toyota America’s offices in Chicago, Brian Ross, the reporter, was met with swift action by the receptionist. Ross was told to leave the property as soon as he walked in the door.

Over the course of the past week when I’ve been writing this post, there have been at least two more additions to the recalls regarding their vehicles that have been issued. Here is a list of all the vehicles that are under a recall as of February 4, 2010 with the model years listed after: (with help from CNN.com)

Avalon – 2005-2010
Camry – 2007-2010*
Corolla – 2009-2010*
Highlander – 2010*
Matrix – 2009-2010
RAV4 – 2009-2010*
Sequoia – 2008-2010
Tundra – 2007-2010
Pontiac Vibe – 2009-2010

*Models with a VIN number that starts with the letter “J” are unaffected.

For a more in-depth description of each different recall, click here.

As of now, talks are surfacing about a possible new recall affecting the 2010 Toyota Prius. Owners are complaining about limited braking power, which some believe could be related to the electronic system in the car.
It is a widely known fact that Toyota has been, at least until this point, a much respected and well known car company. General knowledge held by the public is that Toyota’s vehicles are the most reliable and safe vehicles available for purchase on the market. After this bout of problems, I believe that this may change for some.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood made a comment that suggested owners should refrain from driving their vehicles on February 3.

“My advice is if anyone owns one of these vehicles, stop driving it,” he said. Later on in the day, LaHood clarified his statement. He meant to say that owners should take their vehicles to the dealer if they are worried about the recall.

Those people that would have said without hesitation to purchase a Toyota may hesitate now. This has been a huge story. Many will now remember this recall and think about it whenever Toyota comes to mind. It is a huge black eye for the company, if you will. However, I don’t believe it will hurt their reputation to the point of extinction. I’m sure some people may stop purchasing them, but there are a lot of people who have sworn to the Toyota name before this recall and will probably still do so afterwards. I know my immediate family will still purchase them- after all, our Camry with over 70,000 miles on it hasn’t had any problems whatsoever. In fact, it still has the original muffler, which my dad cannot stop touting.

In my opinion, I still wouldn’t mind purchasing a Toyota. I might be somewhat cautious about purchasing one by researching to look for any recalls before hand, but that is what I’d probably do anyways. Overall, my advice to anyone buying a car right now- don’t worry about this recall. If the car model you are looking at is effected, either make sure it has been taken care of or don’t buy it. Since they’ve halted production of the effected vehicles as of February 1, you’ll probably have a hard time buying any effected vehicle too.