"Taylor" <taylor_m@NOSPAMntlworld.com> wrote in
news:OJMBf.8227$Y6.4579@newsfe3-win.ntli.net:

> Hey there...
>
> I was just wondering; being British, why Americans don't seem to have
> the same fad as we do with smaller vehicles? Such as super-minis,
> Vauxhall Corsa for example, Nissan Micra, Toyota Yarris, and so on...




One reason: Because our gas taxes (sorry, "petrol taxes") aren't nearly
what yours are, so our gas prices are about half yours. Or less.

Also, at least in my province of Ontario, our annual "road tax" does not
follow a sliding scale based on engine displacement and CO2 emissions,
unlike yours. For us it's a consistent $75 per year (about 35 UK pounds),
whether you've got a Daihatsu Charade or a Lincoln Navigator. Nobody here
pays $355 for "road tax".

Many European countries have always had stupid tax penalties that lead to a
culture of tiny cars with tiny engines. France, Italy, and the UK all come
to mind as prime examples. This means tiny cars with sewing-machine engines
are the norm over there. People are used to it and that's what they expect.

Anywhere in the world where big cars are not (or were not at one time)
penalized, that's what people buy. Australia, South Africa, Turkey, etc.
Few people voluntarily buy a sardine can.



>
> The reason I'm asking is that most teenagers over here tend to drive
> super-minis, not only because of driving inexperience, but also
> because insurance on cars with bigger than 1.4L engines is extremely
> high.



There you go. We don't have that problem. Insurance for teenagers here is
usually high *regardless* of the vehicle they drive.

In fact, here, older cars are popular purchases with the younger crowd, and
are often preferred because they are cheap to buy and are exempt from
emissions testing if they're over 19 model years old. That they're often
bigger is a coincidental matter.



> I was in Boston recently and was surprised that basically
> everybody drives a 'big' car



Define "big". Honda Civic? Ford Taurus? Minivan? Cadillac Escalade?

We've got a big country here. Everything is very spread out. Once you get
out of the city, or off rush-hour, traffic density falls to zero. Even our
houses are bigger than yours. Surely you must have noticed this when you
were in Boston, unless you never left the downtown core. Even my wife's
girlfriend from Wales remarked on these things (without being asked, I
might add).





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