Because You Never Asked

THE AUTOMOBILE, EUROPEAN STYLE

     (Written in 2001, this is the companion essay to “The Automobile, American Style”, and should be read after it. In the current oil starved climate caused by the general pigginess of our consumer society, and magnified by the disaster of the second Bush Oil War, it seems timely today.)

     It was not my intention to devote any degree of scrutiny to the European driving scene during my stay by the Roman Sea. But, having spent the better part of the last year monitoring this SUV phenomena and American automobile use in general, the difference in European vehicular use could not help but jump out at me. There was one particular model car which was the eventual catalyst for these 2 essays. (More later).

     The evolution of language is always one of the first indicators of both the entrance of something new or the exit of something old in a culture. “SUV” or “Sport Utility Vehicle” are new words fresh in the minds of any American and they reflect the great popularity of this development in American auto trends.

     Do any of you out there in essayland remember the words “compact car”? When is the last time you heard that phrase? Probably not since we talked about “LP’s” or “record albums”. Driving a compact car is something like putting on your “britches”.

     Back in the early 70’s, due to something having to do with the Ayrabs being pissed at us (or something like that), we found ourselves mired in an “oil crisis”. Since then, these crises have succeeded each other with some degree of regularity, although there always seems to be enough of the gunk around to go on polluting “ad infinitum”. But the early 70’s was our first such experience and it seemed to have --- sad to say, only temporarily --- some degree of psychological impact. There was much talk about greater fuel efficiency, alternative sources and, lo and behold, even use of smaller vehicles.

     For the next few years, the American automobile industry took a crack at it. All the manufacturers began producing a line of smaller cars called “compact cars”. But the crisis wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, and once the powers to be who had invented it decided to call it off, the compact car became a much harder sell. It wasn’t long before the few that had been bought had driven off into the sunset and the motor moguls stopped making them, claiming a lack of demand. I won’t question such assertions, but there’s a part of me that suspects they didn’t give their all in trying to convince us.

     Regardless of the American auto industry’s zeal for smaller cars, the marriage of the American public with compact cars must be considered a dubious one, one that could only be saved with great amounts of love and patience. Before long, a lack of both had become evident. It’s something like cutting back on the burgers and fries; we know it makes sense, we know it’s better for us, but human beings are not robots or machines. Emotion often gets the better of rational. How else can you explain 40 million dead people in 2 World Wars within 25 years of each other? Compared to that, bitching about some fat ass SUV doesn’t seem like much, but they could have a similar blood line. Think of all the bombs, missiles, tanks and artillery unleashed in pursuit of oil.

     In any event, the ”market” is more responsive to accountants than anything else, and the consumer needs something a bit more apocalyptic than your average oil crisis, or some theories on cholesterol, to cut back on habits that are now cultural addictions. We’re Americans! We don’t drive dinky little cars. We’re not the world’s only super power for nothing. Let’s hop in the SUV and head over to the nearest drive thru.

     Kiss my ass.

     (Some 5 years after this essay was written, President Mini-Me Bush referred to our oil habits as an “addiction”. It’s not that I was in the vanguard here, but more a case of W. being so intellectually slow.)

     And yet, the compact car is not only surviving, it is thriving. In Europe, it is the basic form of private transport. Surely, the higher cost of gasoline there has contributed to this development, but by now, the inhabitants of this techno-rich area have been conditioned to these cars, regardless of such economic factors. It is a usage that makes sense to them in any fiscal climate. But there are other factors as well.

     It would be nice to think that one of the primary reasons for this use of smaller cars is a more highly developed ecological consciousness. Although it is an argument that can be made, I would do so without a great deal of conviction. Sure, the “green” Parties are more active here, in most cases holding legislative seats and even taking part in some coalition governments. The Bush administration has been received with an almost unanimous wave of skepticism and ill will with regard to its petroleum oriented policies, and its reluctance to go along with the Kyoto accords on green house gases has set off a generalized wave of indignation and dismay. But in the end, western Europeans are born and bred global economy consumers. If the small car has prospered here, the still remote specter of global warming and unacceptable pollution levels might be seen as mildly relevant factors, but more practical concerns have probably led to this state of affairs.

     In addition to the price of fuel, one must remember that Europe is a more crowded place than America. There is a need to fit more things into smaller spaces. Their cities are much older. Their urban cores reflect a more Medieval hodge-podge of tortuous, narrow streets, developed without the least bit of concern for fossil fuel travel. The big car is much less adapted to this reality. In such conditions, miniaturization becomes an exercise in creativity. Almost all the great auto companies of Europe --- Seat, Peugeot, Fiat, V.W., Renault, Citroen, Lancia, Opal, even Mercedes and Rover along with the Japanese and Korean standards --- have continued the evolution of what we Americans rejected. They’ve continued developing new styles, technologies and engineering techniques. It’s become a more sophisticated art form. Even if it happened for reasons less connected to ecological concerns than some of us would like to believe, it is living proof as to how effective these cars can be. If 99% of the daily use given an SUV could be done in any size car, 1% of what a small European car does would ever need anything bigger.

     As I said near the beginning of this piece, there was one particular car which instigated these 2 essays. Each time I’d see one zipping by on the 2 lane road they refer to as the highway here, I’d think, “gee, that’s a cute little car”. It seemed, with a little commercial effort, they could sell such a car in America. Although it wasn’t dramatically different from the pedigree it belonged to, it had that illusive, hard to explain quality called “it”. There was something “avant garde” in its soft, rounded form, like a small space capsule on wheels. It was “Tiger” while the others, although good, were just the field.

     One day I found myself in close proximity to one and strolled over to take a closer look. It’s definitely not made for your average NFL lineman, but if we limit our research to just human beings, 4 such creatures could use its services with reasonable comfort. (In the 5 years since this essay was written, I’ve noticed that the area smothered under the girth of the average American has grown noticeably, thus bringing the previous sentence into doubt. But that’s part of the problem, isn’t it?) You wouldn’t want to pile in and head cross country to Wally World in it, but for everyday service, like all the wide gamut of small cars offered in Europe, it does the job.

     The time has come to find out who makes this car. You can imagine my surprise when I discovered it was manufactured by

     Ford!

     Have we not tapped into the core of absurdity when a renowned American car manufacturer can produce such a neat little car and won’t even try to sell it in America?

     Post Script: About 2 weeks after writing this essay, I bumped into an American who was an executive at Ford. I asked him about the car in question and if the company would ever consider trying to market it in America. His attitude left no room for doubt. For them, trying to sell a “compact car” in America was something like trying to sell vegetarian food at a bull fight. 

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Email: JerryG@postcman.info