Cool Cars You Won’t Find in the U.S.
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We’ve all heard that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, and truer words have never been spoken if you love cars. While we get some great choices here in the U.S., other countries have some sharp-looking cars and trucks that will never make it to our driveways.
In some cases, it’s a marketing decision that’s based on consumer trends, but other times, the cars just don’t meet our safety or emissions standards. Regardless of what’s holding them back, these are some of the top cars that you can’t buy in the U.S.
European Sedan: Alfa Romeo 159
If you want a sedan with Italian style, you don’t have many choices in the U.S. To make matters worse, the ones we do have, like the Maserati Quattroporte, aren’t exactly affordable. In Europe, Alfa Romeo sells sedans like the 159 that stand out from the pack, offering Italian style in a small, upscale package. All hope isn’t lost, however. The 159 is set to be replaced in 2014 by a new model, the Alfa Romeo Guilia, which the automaker plans to sell in the U.S.
Compact Car: Audi A1
Compact cars like the Mini Cooper and Fiat 500 offer a great deal of style, but their retro-inspired looks may not be for everyone. That’s where a car like the Audi A1 steps in, with its good fuel economy and modern looks. Audi originally thought that the A1 wouldn’t sell well in the U.S., but with gas prices on the rise, a car that slots in under the Audi A3 might not spend much time on dealer lots.
Compact Truck: Ford Ranger
While there may still be a few 2011 Rangers on dealer lots, Ford has stopped selling its compact pickup truck in the U.S. Additionally, Ford added insult to injury by redesigning the Ranger that we can’t have. Ford sells the new Ranger in 180 other markets, so while full-size Ford trucks continue to sell like hotcakes in the states, you’ll have to look elsewhere if you want a smaller truck like the Ranger.
Off-Road SUV: Land Rover Defender
Rugged, off-road SUVs seem like a dying breed, and the Land Rover Defender is nearly as iconic as four-wheelers like the original Jeep CJ and the early Ford Bronco. The Defender earned a cult following when it was sold here in the 1990s, but new regulations in 1998 required airbags for both front-seat passengers. Since Land Rover couldn’t fit airbags without major modifications, they stopped importing the Defender to the U.S.
Hot Hatchback: Volkswagen Scirocco
The Volkswagen Scirocco originally hit U.S. streets in 1975, but just like acid-washed jeans, the low-slung hatchback faded out in the late ‘80s. In 2008, Volkswagen reintroduced the Scirocco, but the new car is only available in Europe. On this side of the pond, VW feared that the Scirocco might cannibalize sales from the GTI, and that the Scirocco’s base price would be too expensive. That could change, however, as some industry analysts suspect that the Scirocco could return to the U.S. after it gets redesigned.
If your ride is as awesome as some of these cars, you’ll be cruising all over town. To find out the gas prices in your area, visit Allstate.com’s Gas Price Locator.
Photos courtesy of: www.carbase.com, www.carpw.com, www.alfaromeows.com, www.autocarsight.com
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The diesel-powered Toyota HiLux is another great vehicle you can’t get here. Its a small truck but more rugged than a Ranger or S10, and has a bullet-proof diesel engine, unlike the gasoline engines found all over the US. Unfortunately the only diesel trucks you can get here are huge things.
Absolutely. Of course when I lived in Japan I loved the HiAce diesel vans as well. Some were really tricked out and were quite wonderful. Why I never saw them in the states I’ll never know but I’d say they were only doing us Americans a favor by not selling them because they’d have killed off any competition. Quite sad really.
And the HiLux was the first (I believe) vehicle driven to the N.Pole.
Clarkson and May did it on Top Gear.
Your right about that,but it wasnt a happy trip!
No good diesels for us, i will keep on driving my big diesel beast until the EPA can get thier head out and figure out that a small 40mpg diesel is better for the environment than a 8mpg V10!
I was in Japan in 2002 and Tokyo was prohibiting all diesals. Also in Japan the diesal exhaust are kept at ground level. Why? I loved the economy of their 600cc engines. and then to turbo charge them oo ye
So true, Wiley! After living in Japan 15+ years, I’ve never quite understood how such a technically advanced society can’t design a diesel exhaust pipe that isn’t strategically or intentionally placed at passenger-window level…right as you’re stuck in traffic, a big Hino passes by, extra-loud…and u can taste the diesel soot in your mouth. On my Suzuki gamma, after riding just a short time in Tokyo, I look like a raccoon when i take my helmet off…and my nose boogers are black. Chix seem to dig it ‘tho, ’cause it ain’t because of my good looks…
What about the volkswagon Aromok? an 35mpg awd truck which they wont sell in the USA!
That is an imperial gallon it probably gets about 25-28 in america with our smaller gallons dont believe the hype
you mean Amarok?
Bring the Toyota Corolla here!!!
The honda civic in Japan has 540 horsepower.
Right. It’s a custom ultra-expensive one-of-a-kind vehicle made from a Honda Civic by Redline 808. Bring your slice of Fort Knox to buy it and maintenance cash flow like Bill Gates’ monthly income. What would you do with 540 HP in a Honda Civic anyway? It’s fuel economy is like any other racing vehicle. You measure how many gallons it uses to go the 1/4 mile drag strip for which it was designed.
edelbrock has a 400hp straight bolt in.w/transaxle is about 30 grad! my 16yr old son thought id be easier then rebuilding the civic del sol that my brother gave him.add 10 more grand to keep it from twisting in half,& the many other parts,and thats us doing it.wonder what a shop would charge? I may be off on hp plus/minus.
Zek Et, Once upon a time, I had a Honda car in Japan that had a 360 cc engine that sold for $360 a cc. RRRrrrrrrr. Just like a motorcycle zipping through those dinky streets.
Regarding the Volkswagen Scirocco. How could a car with a base price that is “too expensive”, “cannibalize sales from the GTI”, or any other model for that matter. Are writers today ignorant of basic business fundementals, careless, or just so disinterested in their writings that they write without basic thought?
the etchasketch (sic?) was broken,they couldnt do there math!
sweet I like it. but its their not there.
similarly most use then, as if they never heard of than
That was the official response of VWoA, although it should include the Golf .:R32
The GTI is already over 30 with options. My guess is that the Scirocco would price itself into competion with the Audi instead. If you paying the same price as a TT most would probably choose that over a VW. Remember the Phaeton?
You can still get the Phaeton, now they call it “Bentley”
What ever happened to the Mercury Capri II.It was billed as “The Sexy European”? Sold in the US during the mid seventies, it was actually built at Ford Motor Werks Munich Germany. Seems they were fast, compact and stylish.
Will European Mfrgs. figure out how the Japanese do it? Hell no! The Chinese, however WILL! When ART and EGINEERING are what you sell, your market requires BIG BUCKS. The big buck-a-roos are a shrinking percentage of the market.
The J’s understand that QUALITY can be “ARTFULl”. The C’s will follow and the E’s…Who knows? They are now trying very hard to work around it. It killed the UK’s. Nuff said!
Recently in France and had a rental. A Peugot 3008 diesel. It was a GREAT car. Got great mileage on a tank of gas, handled very well and we loved the huge sun/moon roof. This car should have made this article.
How about the Toyota Land Cruiser?
The tough ones are still made in south America, but try to find one here!
We can’t get any of the well built diesels from Europe, even the ones that are built here. Ford sold ranger turbo diesels, Dodge sold diesel minivans and avengers, I’m sure GM sold diesels over there as well. The Dodge Avenger diesels got 54 mpg!! while the minivan diesels only got 40 mpg.
you guys cant qoute europen mpg they are not the same size gallons you think its just the cars are more fuel efficient there they are not there are however many smaller cars and many more disiel options
gallons are gallons and liters are liters, but apples ain’t oranges.
Europeans don’t quote fuel economy in Gallons only the English do and they are Imperial Gallons that contain 5 us quarts. That’s why Americans get drunk faster on an English pint – it is bigger. The rest of Europe quotes in liters/100km which can easily be converted to usa miles per gallon.
I would give anything to be able to buy the Mercedes E series cabriolet with a diesel engine. You can buy it in Europe, but forget it if you live in the U.S.. I think the government and oil companies want to keep us dependent on gas sucking cars.
Went to France in 2005. Rented a small diesel peugeot with retractable roof. Wonderful car, great mileage. Wish I could buy one here.I have the pic. Even though it’s already 7 yrs old, it would still be cutting edge here today.
The Paris Auto Show starts next week. Let’s go!
I think you mean the Mercury Merkur, and not the Capri.
The Capri was a copycat of the Ford Mustang.
No it wasn’t. The Capri was released in 1972, as a differently styled Maverick. Then it was redesigned again in 1976. It was never meant to look like, replace or model after the Mustang.
The Merkur was a Euro car, designed and built in Germany. It was primarily a special order car here in the US. Pretty sporty and fast for its class, but had a lot of problems and parts were hard to come by.
The 2nd generation Capri in the 80s was totally a Mustang clone. take a look:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_Capri
Yes, I had one, and the hot engine was the 2.8 V6 – the exhaust note was wonderful, but my gosh it used a lot of oil. Everywhere… ) Blue smoke or not, it was a more refined looking FairladyZ with a cool map-light and better sunroof that leaked in liters, not gallons. Later on from about ’81, Ford had a copycat with the Mustang – same basic car, but with a different back roofline. The 70′s versions were superior, however, and had a better back seat.
I used to drive a VW diesel pickup that routinely made 50 mpg in mixed urban-freeway driving. And that was with 1990s technology. To the best of my kowledge nothing like that is available today.
I have had a VW pickup, Ford Ranchero, El Camino, Ranger and I do not understand why nobody makes a small pickup for the American market. I don’t want or need an oversize PU. It would not be hard to design a light duty PU based on a SUV platform like a Ford Escape or a Chey Traverse.
Didn’t you watch the congressional hearings? The only ceo w/ brains was Ford’s Mullaly. I had an 83 Toyota diesel pick up and ’84 Camry diesel. Both got in the 40 mpg range(manuals). Like you I feel a small diesel pickup would sell well here. The Transit Connect w/ a 3/4 cylinder diesel getting in the 30 mpg range would be a winner. Oil co’s artificially high prices on diesel is just to discourage its popularity and sell more gasoline. Everyone knows this but nothing gets done.
Joe, it’s not the oil company’s artificial high diesel cost, it’s the law of supply a demand. With any item of high demand, high mass production (helps) keep the cost and price low. Any item of less demand, the company has to charge a higher price to offset the higher price per unit cost.
Most states have higher taxes on Diesel which is the real reason diesel is more expensive than gasoline.
We also can’t buy the diesel powered Chrysler Minivan. It is built here, but they all go overseas. Blame the EPA. They only get 40 mpg. They were selling the Dodge Avenger over there, also made here, but it only got 56 mpg.
One can also buy a diesel Smart Car in Europe that gets over 70mpg. How about a Mercedes C200 diesel for 45mpg? Again EU only. Too bad.
Actually, I blame the oil companies!
Sean I made a good living working for an oil company, and have heard them blamed for every crime you can name. I was there and when prices rose from all companies at the same time everyone screamed price fixing so much so that it was investigated 52 times last i knew and never was any thing ever found more than simple supply and demand. Not one person or group thought it was a good ROI theory to build a new refinery in America for over twenty five years
@ Leon B – I used to have a VW Rabbit diesel and it got 55mpg on the highway. You can’t have a car like that anymore in the US, because it didn’t have air conditioning, airbags, abs, stereo, power windows, power locks, alarm etc. All those options these days – so todays Rabbit TDI gets only 40-mpg. too bad.
The US market is much larger and the taxes are cheaper, so when a car company sells a car here, they have to sell more of them to have it make financial sense to them. That is one reason we don’t have some of these cars – they wouldn’t sell in large enough numbers to make it worthwhile for the companies who sell them. For my next car, I might buy a used one in Europe and have it imported. Just have to make sure that for the year I buy, it meets all the US standards for that year.
FWIW, VW always undersells their mileage. My GTI VR6 is only rated to 30 MPG but I will get almost 35 on longer highway trips. Likewise my Pops Passat TDI is rated to 40 but he regularly gets 50-55 MPG on the highway.
That’s great if you next to a highway.
I’m still waiting for a car that isn’t available in the US or anyplace else for that matter, the concept car Dodge Demon.
I wish we had the GTD over here. We have the Golf TDI, which is great but only comes with cloth seats and basic accoutrements. The GTD is outfitted like the GTI but gets an even faster version of the TDI engine (which gets 40-50 mpg.)
I want a diesel but VW in America has chosen to outfit them like a cheaper level car.
I thought the same thing! If it is in a different price class, it won’t cannibalize anything. Seems like a weird statement. “We are worried this much more expensive car will steal sales from our cheaper car.” Doesn’t seem right.
The Mercury Capri was the first car ever marketed to women to the exclusion of men. Not that men didn’t buy any, but the Capri was an experiment in making a car appeal to women first.
Owned two ’74 ‘s and two ’76′s Capris. They were great cars..
When I lived in the UK they had the Chrysler 300 diesel. Now that was a sweet ride. Great mileage to boot.
Until the last couple of years, U.S. diesel fuel was not compatible with the diesel powered european version of cars sold in America. Since we now have switched to a low-sulfur diesel blend similar to that sold in Europe, its not as much of a problem. The main reasons diesel cars and light duty trucks have are not being sold in America are two-fold: 1. Cost..the cost to develop and certify any new drive train is prohibitive. 2. The history of diesel cars in america is somewhat “checkered”. The good news is that companies other than VW are starting to add diesel powered vehicles to their lineup. Hopefully this will inspire the domestic manufacturers to finally get serious about diesel powered passenger cars and light duty trucks.
I owned a 1975 VW Scirocco. It was one of the worst cars I ever owned. I kept Duck tape with me to hold the engine together. This is no joke,
Then, I got a 1978 VW Scirocco SE. It was one of the best I’ve ever owned and a great piece of eyecandy until someone decided to hit me head on at 60mph in 1980. It was totalled, and I spent 4 weeks in the hospital and another year recuperating. It took two years to be able to drive another stick shift. Would love to have another one of those today.
Imperial gallason are 1.2 times larger than our gallons. I just looked it up. Never the less a Ranger size pickup with a smaller diesel seems just like something that would sell in America. It seems like the Japanese auto manufacturers [text edited by admin] would do it. I guess I don’t know all the facts or I would understand why no one will do it.
Imperial gallons are only sold in England. They have five 32 ounce quarts. In Europe, gas is sold by the liter (about 4 ounces more than a quart). Mpg comparisons to European cars usually involve converting liters to US gallons. Same is true for the Mini, Jaguar, Bentley, and Rolls Royce. Writers in the US normally convert Imperial gallons to US gallons.
Why so few diesels here? First, until recently we had high sulphur diesel fuel. Developing and qualifying a European engine for it was too high for the expected sales. Why were the expected sales low? Remember the Olds Diesel? A true disaster? It soured the market for diesel passenger cars for a generation.Even the quality diesels sold here in the 80′s – Mercedes and Audi – traded decent fuel economy for performance. They were bog slow! We had an Audi diesel, fortunately a five speed, because an automatic would barely move. Also, diesel fuel is considerably more expensive per gallon than gasoline.The better mileage more than offsets it, but people who will drive half an hour to save five cents a gallon aren’t likely to do the numbers. Finally, there is usually a substantial price premium for a diesel. Even the improved economy takes a long time to pay for the higher cost. So the demand hasn’t been there to make diesels profitable. Why are they in Europe? Eight to ten dollars a gallon (of any size) clears the head amazingly. And the turbo-charged diesels over there get highly satisfactory performance, using torque instead of horsepower.
Figure the “Strong” Euro as opposed to our “weak” dollar. European cars suck. They are just as bad as American cars.
The VW Phaeton is one of the best cars I have ever owned. Can’t get it here anymore. Love that Bentley chassis and interior. Oh and the 200mph speedo;)
How about the Ford Focus station wagon?
How about Honda Civic diesel?
Citroen C5, anyone?
This summer we rented a Renault Megane when we were traveling in Europe. Absolutely outstanding car in all respects – speed, handling, fuel economy. Magnificent performer on the Autobahn. Like the Peugeot 3008 and Citroen C5 mentioned earlier, these cars should be available here in the US.
My friend bought a VW diesel truck in 1982. Got 51 mpg. Here we are 30 years later and he still drives the truck everyday. 51 mpg. If you drive by Moxie Scooter in Colleyville Tx where he works, you’ll see something from the past that get more gas mileage than my Harley (46mpg on a good day). I borrow it once in a while and I’m still amazed that no one talks about the VW truck or most don’t even know about it. Light blue….still going strong.
That light blue was its best color. The only problem with the little truck is when it was laden in the back with heavy stuff the front wheel drive was compromised. Empty it was fun to drive.
You folks who keep blaming the oil companies are looking in the wrong place… the EPA has made it so painful to build and sell a diesel powered vehicle that it’s not cost effective for the user to buy it. Filters, urea tanks, pollution controls… they cripple the mileage and jack up the prices to the point where they aren’t competitive on small scale vehicles
The real problem is the marketing research indicates a deisel version of the popular american cars would not sell in enough volume to make it worth while. The deisel engines cost a bit more to build and, until recently, could not meet our air pollution standards. With computer controlled fuel injection, they can now meet our air polution (clean air) standards and can be built w/o the deisel rattle noise at idle. Unfortunately, the HP and Torgue curves are different, so mass producing deisel versions of popular cars and small trucks involves more than just bolting in a different engine. We will probably see more deisels soon, but their big advantage over cheaper gas engines has shrunk a lot as gas engines have improved. I have used small imported deisel trucks, comparable in capacity to the 350 or 3500 sizes of american models and the deisel engines are tiny compared to our gas engines, but perform just as well and run forever as long as they get clean oil and clean fuel. As soon as the big companies here discover through market research that deisel will sell, you will see lots of deisel cras and trucks. Deisel is a lot more popular, and common in Europe and Asia because their fuel prices have been a lot higher than our for many years.
What about the new VW Golf MK7? Available in Europe, here we only have the old MK6. Bummer. I would have bought a MK7.
Why can’t Americans with physical challenges have the Toyota WellCab line? We need less expensive alternatives to aftermarket conversions. We needed the Chrysler Diesel Minivans badly. Too many of the small cars Obama and the EPA want are unsafe and no room for wheelchairs.
It is just me, or has anyone else noticed that Diesel fuel is priced at 40-60 cents more per gallon than unleaded regular? The increased fuel costs alone would more than offset the increased mileage of Diesel passenger vehicles.
The Holden Ute is a El Camino type vehicle that GM should market here in the States.
I wish the BMW 118d was here.
Whatever the case may be, the late model cars have lowered the roofs and forbids a six foot tall driver. guess that is why I am trying to find an old model, (NO EPA JUNK) car.