[stasomatic]

My wife drives a VW that's built locally in Tennessee. The engine is from Mexico, the transmission used be from Japan. I think it's a Korean unit now produced on a license.

Optimistically, it drinks about 11L per 100KM. Stop and go will severely increase consumption.

It's a large car to you, but it's kind of midsize here.

[accountofthaha]

I looked it up, and that car isn't being sold here and would indeed be in the 'big SUV' range. About 3% of cars here are those cars, while in the USA it's about 10-20%.

But question: why drive that car, with that milage, while you could have a slightly smaller car with better milage? I just don't get that.

[stasomatic]

But question: why drive that car, with that milage, while you could have a slightly smaller car with better milage? I just don't get that.

I am long time VW driver. I've had several GTIs, have driven the Rabbits, the Corrodos, the Sciroccos. My fave was my '95 Driver's Edition GTI, the one with the the golf ball for the manual transmission knob.

Things have changed. I have a mini bear 120 lbs Akita. 2 bikes that fit nicely in the trunk of the Atlas (mine is Cross Sport), so that we don't have to deal with hitches and bike racks. I've spent thousands on Thule bike racks and don't like the experience when backing up and maneuvering, the constant beeps and near panic attack level alerts.

We also live in Miami, where biblical level floods are at least twice a year. The clearance helps. My wife refuses to drive a sedan, because they really float down the street when it rains, you might as well get row paddles and a sail. And, I won't risk driving my EV (Hyundai Ioniq 5) in such conditions. It's the states/urban planning fault, but here we are. Even the Atlas's clearance isn't much help in these conditions, I've seen lifted Toyota trucks just slide into the canals.

In addition, and I can't tell what's the chicken or what's the egg, but we don't have access to inexpensive utilitarian vehicles in the US. The manifucatures dropped low margin vehicles, everything is luxury this or that, that includes European brands that export to the US.

I love small cars, it's that we only have a few on the market, and the ones that remain don't make sense financially. My 2010 Mini Cooper was a hoot to drive, I drove it with my Weimaraner (RIP Lotus) coast to coast twice with room to spare.

while in the USA it's about 10-20%

These numbers look too low. When I lived in North Carolina a few years ago, seemingly every other vehicle was either an F150 or a Ram or a Silverado, and that's not counting SUVs. The US is not a monoculture.