Is there any reason why Europe have small cars

Question

Is there any reason why Europe have small cars

Answer 1

They are cheaper to own & operate.

Answer 2

Smaller roads.   Higher gas prices (they really jack up the tax on gas) lead to smaller cars.

Train travel in Europe is convenient and efficient.  

Answer 3

There's a couple reasons why Europe tends to have smaller cars than in North America:

1) Most European cities were built long before cars were invented, and many of their streets were built with pedestrian and horse traffic in mind - not cars. So in order to fit through older streets, European cars needed to be smaller. Most dense European cities also had very little room to store cars (everything was built before the need to park a car) - so cars that take up less space can fit into more areas that are converted to store them - whether on the street, or in converted garages. If the only spot you can park your car is tiny, you can only get a tiny car. Many American cities (especially suburban developments) were built after the popularization of automobile ownership.

2) Gasoline costs a lot more in Europe than in North America, over the course of the entire twentieth century, and even today. With high fuel costs, getting better fuel efficiency is more important. Smaller cars tend to get better fuel economy.

3) While there is wide open country in Europe, there was a network of exiting highways and roads that were designed before the car, and in many places, it was unable to widen them to accommodate wide freeways and highways (or cost prohibitive) - either it would require major engineering to rip apart mountains to widen the roads, or it would require taking property from local landowners. While Europe has an extensive higher speed highway network now, many roads in rural areas are still narrow, to maximize the amount of land that isn't road (so it can be used for farming, etc.). Narrower roads generally make for lower speed car travel, which smaller cars can handle fine. Smaller cars have less momentum for braking.

So perhaps the question is - why does America have large cars?

Answer 4

Gas is expensive in Europe.  My German teacher, Frau Peterson stated that gas costs $8.00-10.00 per gallon.  However, people prefer to walk more in Germany and other places in Europe.  Also, its particularly hard to find a place to park in urban cities which includes Hamburg, Berlin and Munich.  

Answer 5

First off, many of the older countries have narrow streets that make large cars impossible to drive.

Another reason is gas is super expensive in Europe.

In Hungary at the moment, it is $8.00 per gallon, more in other countries.

Answer 6

High gas prices and people travel shorter distances on average

Answer 7

Gas in Europe is $7.00 to $12.00 a gallon depending on the country.

Answer 8

You didn't say smaller than where but I guess you must mean smaller than the USA.

America has a long tradition of making excruciatingly ugly, big and bad handling cars with spongy soft suspension.  Championed by the immortal classic Ford Edsel.

Compare a 1970 square box Ford Mustang or a GTO with the graceful steamlining of a Jaguar XK..  Compare the 1970's Lincoln Continental square box tank with an S class Mercedes of the same era.

Actually most very rich people in the USA who are not restricted about what they can afford buy European cars, particularly Mercedes, Jaguar, BMW, Porsche and Ferrari.

Most people in both the USA and Europe who want a good price, quality and reliability buy Japanese cars these days.

You can always expect a significant proportion of people in any country to buy cars made in that country rather than imports.  But if you look at what the world chooses, there are not many countries outside the USA where you see a significant number of USA cars.  It seems the whole world except the USA thinks they are ugly gas guzzling monsters.