[vikramkr]

The best way I've heard it phrased is that europeans 2ant to know much much fuel they need to get to their destination, while americans want to know how far they can go on a tank. Its obviously oversimplified/not relevant/other pedantic nitpicking but it captures the different relationship americans in general have with driving and their cars

[njarboe]

Maybe this is because most people with cars in America (especially in the 1950's) were not worried much about the price of gas. Europe had much higher gas prices and was much poorer, so how much it would cost (how much gas would be used to get somewhere) was more important for planning than knowing when they would need to fill up again.