There are some differences in some of the already named cars and I'll try to get some things clear.


I'd say Ford is like two different car makers under one batch, one for the US market and one for the European market.

Some cars like the Focus, Ka, Fiesta and Mondeo are top sellers and have their own production lines in German factories, the RS for example is beeing built in Saarlouis, not far away from where I live.

I bet the front of the Focus like Taylorinalaska drives looks slightly different to the Euro-Focus, I haven't seen his car yet but I guess it has these amber day headlights left and right to the Ford emblem? In German i.e. you don't have to have those amber lights on cars of any make because it's not required by law.

There are more engines to choose from here, from small N/A 4 bangers over to different type of Diesel engines up to the 5 cyl Volvo turbo engined Focus ST and RS.

The European Ford Escort is totally different to the American Ford Escort, it looks different, the engines are different and the Euro Escort only got build until 1995.


Thats one of the biggest differences, the variety of engines in a car.
In the USA the smallest engine you can get for a new BMW 3series is their smallest 6 cylinder.

In Europe it starts with the 318 4cyl whats actually a 2 liter engine. then there's the 318 Diesel, the 320i, the 320 Diesel-------same with the 325, 330 and even the 335.....all of them are also available as Diesel engines.

The thing to do if you want to buy a gas saving BMW is to buy one of the 4 cylinder Diesels because they are way better than the petrol versions....the new 320d "Efficient Dynamics" only needs 58.8l diesel per gallon and is almost as fast as my car what is not bad at all if you consider the 320d only has 164 hp but 400 Nm of torque!


back to the differences.

In Europe some cars aren't that well equipped by factory like the American equivalents, but since most people here only complain when nobody can hear them they pay for the extras.....Japanese cars usually are way better equipped.

Automatic transmissions are only for handicapped people like my grandfather who got injured by a russian artillery grenade in WW2, for luxury sedans or for old people, thats what I think about automatics and alot of other people here also think like that.

so in most "common" cars you'll find stickshifts, but it shows that most of the Benzes, BMWs and Audis are beeing ordered with autmatic gearboxes or, if available, with double clutch gearboxes.

Our cars don't make all these annoying beeping and buzzing sounds apart from some exeptions like if my car buzzes if I forget to turn the lights off after removing the key from the ignition lock......but there were and are no automatic fastening seatbelts and no "dude you left your door open" bells.......but tbh it's getting worse, people get more lazy and stupid they need a reminder for everything.

The new BMW M models won't even start if you haven't put your seatbelt on.

Our cars need to have ABS and ESP. thats why some models aren't available here like the Charger V6 which I read has no ABS.

We have Dodge, Chevrolet and Cadillac dealers.....but we don't get everything you guys in America get. We had no Neon SRT-4s....sure we had crappy shitbox Chrysler rebadged Neons but that was it.....we do get Caliper SRT-4s though, Corvettes and Escalades.

well......nobody buys these cars except for the Vettes maybe, for all the others there are better alternatives with better brakes and with higher top speeds+better interieur quality.

there are tons of things that are different, mostly its about the engines and factory options and build quality....and of course the different EU and US laws.

you think California has strict exhaust gas emissions?

Well....Mazda stopped selling the RX-8 in Germany lately because its emissions are not good enough....same happened back then with the Supra and the RX7 and thats also why we never got the S15 Silvia.

speaking of Silvia, the S14s are called 200sx in Germany, and thats because we got them with the SR20DET stock, always full leather interieur, AC and everything, only option was the choice for an automatic gearbox.
several editions were available, rarest of them all were the Z-Editions, 200 cars in total, 100 in black, 100 in red.....thats how Nissan tried to get customers for the 200sx in Germany.

Its quite a rare car compared to the US.

Making a switch over to Toyota.....we got the GT-Four models of the Celica in Europe.....in Cologne Toyota runs their own performance center which occasionally drops some tweaked versions of their normal cars.

Best examples are the Yaris TS Turbo.....only available in Switzerland, limited to 500 cars as far as I know.

or the Corolla TS compressor, putting down 224 bhp, I saw one of these a few weeks ago but didn't take a picture but I have one of a Yaris Turbo




We don't get most Amercian cars officially like the new Challengers, Camaros, Mustangs, Hummers......but there are ways to buy them.
Geiger Cars in Munich is the unofficial import dealer for every Amercian model, they get their TÜV certification and most of them get a natural gas fuel system to save money (our gas prices are WAY higher than yours).


We are missing some other models as well like the 3rd and 4th version of the Mitsubishi Eclipse or the actual STI sedan, the actual Civic Sedan and Coupe.

All we get are the hatch versions.......in return we have a hatchback version of the Lancer (not the Evo though).

I could go on like this forever.....

most differences are:

model years and body versions (sedans, wagons, hatches and so on)
engines (Diesel, petrol)
equipment (fully loaded or pay for every single thing)
safety (brakes, ESP, ABS, mirrors, crash protection)
names (200sx/240sx - Jetta/Bora etc etc)




nice 2 know:
Audi started the actual daylight running light trend by putting LED daytime running lamps in their cars, now pretty much every manufacturer except the French and BMW (they have halo lights) jumped on the bandwagon, now you have LED lights on the new Mercedes E class, on new Porsches, VWs, Seats, Skodas, Lamborghinis, Ferraris and even on Kias and Daewoos/Chevrolets.
---->as I said, they're not required, its just for looks.

what is required in Europe by law are these humongous rear view mirrors the newer cars have, also the massive A-pillars for better crash results and most of the front designs result out of the regulations for pedestrian protection.
what cars in Europe also need by law are rear fog lights what leads to weird rear bumper designs if the car is not from Europe like this S14a 200sx of a friend of mine




that single red light above the exhaust is the fog light

if the car is an import like some the Skylines or Supras some friends of mine have, they have to "upgrade" such a rear fog light what really looks like shit

here are the two cars of my buddy Björn, his GT-R has a rear fog light, on his STi Wagon it had to be applied additionaly