bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

cliff notes:

In most of the planet, cars are made to international safety standards called the UNECE standards (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, although it's now international and has little to do with Europe). Just about every country on the planet is a signatory to the ECE standards, and those who aren't will still accept them, except the US and Canada.

What does that mean for car companies? It means that if they want to sell one car in Europe and also in America, they have to develop three versions of it. That ain't cheap.

The US has got its own incompatible safety standards called the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. In many cases, the FMVSS is actually worse than corresponding ECE standards; the rest of the time, like headlamps, it's just arbitrarily different. Canada has the Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, which are basically just the US FMVSS copied and pasted into Canadian law.

As a result of this, car manufacturers wishing to sell a certain model worldwide have to make three versions of each car:

• ECE left-hand drive
• ECE right-hand drive
• US/Canada FMVSS/CMVSS

As a result of the large costs involved in retooling a car only for the American/Canadian market, most manufacturers won't even dream of spending all of the money to rebuild a model unless they think that it will be a reasonable success in North America. Consequently, the US and Canada actually have a shockingly low number of car models available compared to most other places. Here is an article that also explains why this happens.
It's entirely possible that if the US had access to the enormous lines of subcompacts that the rest of the world does, they might actually be modest sellers in major cities, and the car companies would break even. At the very least, they could decide to only import a few to sell just to test the waters and see what happens. But until the US opens up and starts allowing ECE safety standards, we'll never know.

whole article here: http://jalopnik.com/a-simple-explana...n-h-1493377285

whoster

And this is why the Euro folk are pushing for a more unified manufacturing/safety standards...

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Agreed, the world needs to get on board with unified manufacturing and safety standards. In the end it would be better for automakers and other industries, helping reduce costs in the long run and simplifying different market standards

nabbun

Who needs hatches? I certainly don't!

mmarshall

I agree with much of what the article says, but one major difference between Euro and American-spec cars it overlooks (and doesn't mention) is the fact that that the American road system is (and probably always will be) based on miles rather than kilometers. That means, of course, that Euro-designed cars sold here also have to have recalibrated speedometers/odometers.

But one of the main reasons that hatchbacks (especially the more expensive ones) don't sell here is that many Americans just seem to have an aversion to them. Many of them consider hatchbacks frumpy or ugly...or just with a cheap image. Image, to me, is just about the last thing I consider when I go car-shopping (or when I recommend a vehicle to others)....but for many Americans, keeping up with the Jones' is a major concern. When I did a special Holiday Review of the 5-door BMW 850i a few years ago, that car (all except for the interior controls and the I-Drive) jsimply wowed me wth its refinement and driving dynamics....but I got a lot of feedback on that review as to how ugly and/or out of place a lot of CL members thought it looked. And, judging by the sales-figures, by American standards, they were right.....it just didn't sell. But the fact that it didn't sell didn't mean that it wasn't a damn nice-driving car.

With cheaper hatchbacks, though, Americans DO seem to be more accepting of them. The Honda Civic hatchbacks have always been popular, as have those from Hyundai, Kia, and other low-priced makes. In that class of vehicle, people aren't usually as concerned with image or keeping up with the Jonses.

Last, those who DO buy hatchbacks, although they tend to have a little more road noise than sedans (because the inside rear end is more difficult to seal off from the wheel-wells), are usually rewarded with a more versatile vehicle for all-around use that can carry more cargo and (sometimes) has better rear-visibility to boot.

mmarshall

I take it you don't go to yard sales or furniture stores.

Sulu

Providing speedometers that read in miles-per-hour rather than kilometres-per-hour is a very minor inconvenience. Note that cars in the UK (England, Scotland, Wales) also use speedometers reading in miles-per-hour, so it is not like only a small corner of the world requires meters reading in Imperial units. No calibration is required -- just provide a gauge that provides Imperial measurements rather than metric measurements by shifting the numbers a bit. Speedometers in Canadian cars already provide both kilometres-per-hour and miles-per-hour readings (and, of course, digital speed readings can be made to read Imperial or metric at the push of a button).

Americans, though, do not seem to like hatchbacks. VW's Jetta sells much more than the Golf in America; Honda stopped selling their Civic Hatchbacks some years ago. Let me correct that: Americans like (larger) hatchbacks that are on stilts -- they like them labelled as SUVs/CUVs. That causes a problem for us Canadians. We like small(er) cars and we don't mind hatchbacks, but because our market is -- at best -- only a small fraction of the huge American market and we follow American vehicle safety standards, it is not worth the extra cost for European manufacturers to certify and offer models to Canadians that they cannot also sell south of the border.

One reason why Americans do not like smaller vehicles, including smaller hatchbacks, is because Americans tend to equate size with price: if the car is small, the price must also be lower than the price of a larger car, otherwise Americans shy away from them, even if the cost to produce a small car is just a high (or even higher) than the cost of production of a larger car. This fact can be very obvious to Canadians, who are price conscious when it comes to car shopping, but at the same time do not have the same level of aversion to higher-priced small cars.

Small cars in Canada may offer more features (that tend to raise the price) than the same model in the USA. For example, our Corolla LE model offered more "luxury" features than the American Corolla LE. Yet, we may not get the higher trim levels in our larger cars that the Americans do, or we get decontented higher trim levels; Toyota XLE trims on certain cars may be offered in the USA but not offered here or we get cloth seats instead of leather seats, for example. And we do not get the Avalon Hybrid.

mmarshall

Tires on American-spec cars also have to be labelled in different specs/measurements than on Euro-spec cars. American-spec tires use a combination of both inches (wheel-width) and millimeters (tread width). The pressures are also measured in PSI 9which, I believe, is not use din Europe).

Granted, as you point out, these are all generally minor issues, but, added over the production run of hundreds of thousands (or millions) of cars, they can add up.

Yes, I agree with most of this.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

americans not liking hatchbacks is because a) they see so few, and b) they generally like more space from cuv's and don't have the parking issues and tiny roads like in lots of europe.

nabbun

LoL I <3 my hatch.

Although, I haven't been to a yard sale since I was in grade school . . .

Lil4X

I saw a piece on TV a few weeks ago showing auto plants in Mexico that are producing essentially two models of nominally US cars. They produce two versions, one that meets US safety standards and one that does not. It seems all the airbags, anti-locks, crumple zones, sound insulation, engine and body computers, and other "American" features make a "cheap" car very expensive in Mexico. So, for local buyers, most of these plants are building a "Mexican" version that eliminates all of the above features desired or required for sale in the US to bring in a product visually similar to the latest American car, but as much as $4000 cheaper. "American" models just aren't price-competitive in the global automotive market. By building what is essentially a 1970-standards car, they can get competitive in the local market. There is some evidence that several overseas manufacturers are testing the same idea - to build lesser cars for second and third world distribution.

mmarshall

Another big (but related) factor is that, with the exception of the Subaru Impreza and the now-extinct Suzuki SX4 and Toyota Matrix, most small hatchbacks don't offer the bad-weather security of AWD and/or extra ground clearance that many Americans want. So, they turn to CUVs instead.

spwolf

Yep...plus your Camry is priced like our Yaris, so we buy Yaris, you buy Camry :-).

geko29

I think you're actually talking about the 550i GT, not the 850i. The last 8-series was an amazing sports coupe in the late 80s. The 550i GT is a 5-door hatchback based on the 7-series platform. It's an amazingly roomy and practical car. I have not driven one, but I'll take your review that it is a damn fine ride as the gods-honest truth.

I actually had the 5GT in the consideration pool for my most recent car purchase, but my wife couldn't get past the shape. She's very averse to hatches in general, but not absolutely so. We were literally hours from buying a Golf R when we found the 335d and fell in love. She found the R hit all the high points (space, power, comfort, equipment, etc) that we were looking for in a reasonably-priced package, and that was enough to get past her aversion to the form-factor. Me? I have no problem with hatches, I think they're awesome.

So that brings me back OT, I don't care what they have to do, I want more hot hatches here. Especially if they bring the highly-contented ones. The Golf R is a great example with loads of standard features, but the Focus ST ain't half-bad neither (wrong-wheel-drive notwithstanding). Hell I saw a 328d wagon at my last trip to the local BMW shop and it made me start thinking how drunk I'd have to get my wife to get her to agree to one. I just love the formfactor, think it's so much more practical than either my sedan or her RX.

LexFather

Unless I'm mssing something we have never had more Hatchbacks here and many sell well. We even have luxury hatches selling well.

A7
Panamera
CT
A3

The WRX offered a hatch
VW hatches
The Fit
550GT
4Series GT

etc etc

In the past 10 years we have gained hatchbacks and the luxury ones actually sell outside the BMW one.