Cars in the United States are, by and large, commuting appliances. Buyers want a comfortable, relatively bulletproof conveyance to get them back and forth to work, primarily, for as little money as possible. Cutting edge doesn’t interest most US buyers, they want tried and true.
Cars in Europe are, by and large, status symbols, even the small economy cars. Commuting when it is done is usually via public transport. All cars are very expensive by comparison to what we pay here. They’re therefore interested in the latest and greatest tech, and are demanding about materials and design. Time spent and miles driven in these cars isn’t nearly to the extent of the US, so their perception of reliability is different from ours. Maintenance is more demanding and more frequent.
Most US models find little success in Europe, because they’re just too large in their perception, they’re on the dull side as far as materials and design, the quality particularly of the interiors seems subpar to them, they’re not adapted to their markets and they’re still very expensive. There are some exceptions, for instance the latest Ford Mustang, which has been designed for export as well as for domestic sales.
Most European models find little success in the US, believe it or not. What we think are European cars are about as European as Fords built for Europe are American. Actual European models are usually too high maintenance, they don’t have that sort of cushy living room commuting environment. Their reliability isn’t what Americans demand, so they fail. See practically any French manufacturer, most Italian and really anything but German. The Germans made the effort to succeed in the US, and adapted. The others didn’t.
I can’t disagree with most of what you say.
However, my take is that GM (Opel/Vauxhall) and Ford in Europe do a bang-up job with the cars for the European market. A much better design, IMHO.
All of my travels in Europe are to out of the way places.
Smaller towns where many people do own cars.
Btt