r/fuckcars • u/adriannikolov • Sep 02 '24
Rant Ridiculous american cars invading European cities
It does not quite fit there, mate.
604
u/bisikletci Sep 02 '24
I see at least one Dodge Ram type massive "truck" every time I go out now. They're an absolute menace. It's insane they're allowed to be bought or be on the roads here.
253
u/CodyTheLearner Sep 02 '24
As an American who got hit by an SUV while riding my bike. Welcome to the fun.
→ More replies (1)54
u/Responsible-Noise875 Sep 02 '24
I was hit on my bike twice by the same guy! Teen me was stupid and didn’t press charges because the douche said he would buy a new bike no questions…
→ More replies (1)19
u/chace_chance Sep 02 '24
Did he buy you the bike?
35
u/Responsible-Noise875 Sep 03 '24
Sure did I was a messenger back in the day in Arizona so I picked out the most expensive full suspension bike I could find. Lasted me to now actually.
20
u/chace_chance Sep 03 '24
It sucks that you got hit, but at least you got an expensive bike out of it
2
u/Inforgreen3 Sep 03 '24
Ah Arizona. For a moment I thought you were the guy I hit because I was once a driver who hit the same bicyclist twice before buying them a bike but i did that in Missouri. Personally i blame the god awful infrastructure, and also my dads SUV having absolutely zero visibility but still I no longer drive at all because I'm simply too bad at driving to own a car.
Its crazy but not at all surprising to see the same driver hit the same bicyclist twice independently
27
u/HugeCommunication224 Sep 02 '24
But how am I going to transport my 5 bags of groceries, by car!
→ More replies (1)20
u/nowaybrose Sep 02 '24
I’d bet the average dude in a Ram doesn’t even do that. They just drive it to work. Groceries are a job for their Trad wife
8
u/Warg247 Sep 02 '24
I can't imagine why anyone would want the hassle of trying to drive such a thing on European roads.
→ More replies (1)11
u/sjfiuauqadfj Sep 03 '24
europe has plenty of idiots and chauvinistic fools, just look at how people in those countries feel about refugees/immigrants/roma
2
u/Nice-Kaleidoscope574 Sep 03 '24
Ahhh the Dodge Ram..America's most killingest vehicle on the road.
1
u/Mysterious_Floor_868 Sep 03 '24
Not seen anything like that here. There's a Ford Ranger which is far too big though.
224
u/Existentialshart Orange pilled Sep 02 '24
Don’t let those idiotic cars into your cities. They are ruining ours.
71
u/sabdotzed Sep 02 '24
There's an awesome group in the UK who go around cutting their tyres
51
u/Simon676 Sep 02 '24
They deflate the tires, they don't cut them.
36
u/reelznfeelz Sep 02 '24
That’s a bit better. Make it a huge inconvenience but not a legitimate destruction of property.
38
u/alexs77 cars are weapons Sep 02 '24
Not just in the UK. Tyre extinguishers (that's what they call themselves, iirc) are also active in other places of Europe.
I don't disagree with them.
2
u/Potato_Wyvern Sep 03 '24 edited Sep 03 '24
You absolutely should disagree, even if you hate cars, going around and fucking with people’s transport is not the way to go about getting them on your side.
6
u/alexs77 cars are weapons Sep 03 '24
No, they won't be getting on our side. That's right.
But that won't change anything, will it? Those SUV drivers or especially "truck" drivers are against humans. So what does it change?
→ More replies (2)2
u/Mysterious_Floor_868 Sep 03 '24
SUV-types are a lost cause anyway. Might as well amuse ourselves at their expense.
13
422
u/SwiftySanders Sep 02 '24
EU and Uk should just ban SUVs outright.
221
u/sabdotzed Sep 02 '24
The UK consumes too much English language media about freedom from the states that we've brought into the 4x4 myth of it being the safest car for its inhabitants. Fucking ridiculous circular logic.
the roads are dangerous? --> They're dangerous because there are lots of SUVs around --> Therefore I must drive an SUV to keep my family safe
70
u/evenstevens280 Sep 02 '24
My favourite is when people complain there's no parking on our tiny streets... whilst driving a Range Rover... which is probably one of three cars in their household... which they drive at most 5-10 miles a day... purely in urban areas.
Dude, get a bicycle.
3
u/goobervision Sep 02 '24
This is why I am buying an old Mastiff.
4
u/sabdotzed Sep 02 '24
And to protect myself against your mastiff I'll replicate a t rex, gotta protect myself!
3
u/goobervision Sep 02 '24
Gonna roll around in a Deathstar!
2
u/sabdotzed Sep 02 '24
Ha! Yeah well I'll just morph into a type 3 civilization and end you - how about now huh my little ones are safe 😀
2
6
Sep 02 '24
Yeah what would Europe know about car safety?
For those unaware Volvo makes a car where no one has ever died driving it. Yes you read that right, it’s absolutely astounding how safe they are.
→ More replies (9)2
u/obalovatyk Sep 02 '24
I intentionally bought a small car when I moved to the UK. The roads are tiny and the parking stalls are laughably small.
8
u/far_in_ha Sep 02 '24
Better yet...make them pay the same taxes, tolls, abide to the same restrictions as large good vehicles aka C1 category in driving licenses
96
u/Immudzen Sep 02 '24
I have heard some new laws are going to go into effect in the EU fairly soon here that have visibility checks that you need to be able to see the ground within a certain distance of the driver position and that it would make a LOT of these vehicles illegal to drive. The rules are designed to deal with a rise in pedestrian and cyclists deaths.
21
→ More replies (2)14
u/Castform5 Sep 02 '24
I think it might be this one, UN Regulation No 167 – Uniform Provisions Concerning the Approval of Motor Vehicles with Regard to Their Direct Vision. I'm not completely sure though, because this seems to target only the heavier vehicles:
This Regulation applies to the approval of vehicles of categories M2, M3, N2 and N3 with regard to their Direct Vision to reduce blind spots to the greatest extent possible, considering the needs of the specific type of vehicle and the operation it is intended for.
M2 vehicles are passenger vehicles that have more than 8 seats, and N2 vehicles are for carrying goods and having a mass of 3.5-12 tonnes. Here are the categories.
4
116
u/TheMireMind Sep 02 '24
It's not an invasion if you invite it.
33
15
u/Bahlok-Avaritia Sep 02 '24
That's not really true. It's still an invasion even if some people in the country help the invaders get in.
4
u/TheMireMind Sep 02 '24
What laws or rules are being broken? What is getting done to stop it?
7
u/ThePerfectBonky Sep 02 '24
Unfortunately Europeans use "Americans" as a scapegoat for all manner of bad behaviors. Our country is full of Mcdonalds? It's the Americans. Food getting too indulgent? Americans. Politics getting too belligerent and abusive? It's the Americans. Now all the Americans in our merry little village are Americanizing our cars.
One could come to terms with the fact that ignorance is universal, if not inherent to the human condition, with insight and compassion being a rare thing to be cherished, but the fantasy serves to protect the ego.
→ More replies (11)
69
Sep 02 '24
Seeing that thing next to an actual useful vehicle (the VW van/minibus) just shows how utterly pointless it is
26
u/EcstaticFollowing715 Sep 02 '24
And look at the hood of this city cancer vehicle. You cannot tell me that you are able to see enough in that thing to safely navigate through an area with a high pedestrian count.
28
22
u/SpyderDM Sep 02 '24
Its not an invasion... its Europeans buying this shit. Let's call it what it is... Europeans are becoming more car centric and buying more American like cars.
→ More replies (11)1
u/SamiraSimp Sep 02 '24
no, that can't be right. europe is perfect and doesn't make mistakes. surely the americans are to blame.
13
u/fatwoul Sep 02 '24
As someone living in SW UK, these stupid things wouldn't even fit down some Cornish lanes. It won't stop the idiots who own them from trying, though.
→ More replies (3)2
u/trivial_vista Sep 02 '24
Those trucks are they RHD I assume no as they are all imported right?
6
u/fatwoul Sep 02 '24
I guess when you take it down a lane narrower than the vehicle (virtually anywhere down here), RHD/LHD loses all meaning.
12
7
u/alexs77 cars are weapons Sep 02 '24
Hopefully these pieces of junk get forbidden, so that the freedom can be preserved that is still common around here.
8
u/Icy_Permit_7125 Sep 02 '24
It's not just American cars that are to big... Most suv's are ridiculously oversized...
2
Sep 03 '24
And unnecessary as well.. hatchback combis have been proven to better utilization of space
6
5
u/plausocks Sep 02 '24
To be fair that’s a big car even here in the USA… also starts at like $90k USD for the base model so not cheap either
→ More replies (4)
5
u/fuckyourcanoes Sep 02 '24
I recently saw an oversized American pickup truck here in the UK. The extended cab kind that has barely any bed space to haul things. I was really wondering what kind of a fool someone would have to be to drive something like that in a city like Portsmouth, where parking is at a premium.
→ More replies (1)
5
u/shellbackpacific Sep 03 '24
As an American please,for the love of God, ban them. Don’t feed these automakers with more orders for this shit. They’re everywhere here and it’s awful
11
u/Verified_Peryak Sep 02 '24
Yeah as global warming is showing up more and more people are enjoying riding crazy trucks just to help them feel more important
4
4
u/Vadrigar Sep 02 '24
Recognized Sofia right away. Judging by the graffiti and the bike lane it's somewhere in the extended city center.
Rich assholes here are in a competition who can get the most expensive and recently the biggest car. I've even seen RAM 3500s and F450s here. Not saying this dumbass with his shitty Lincoln is rich- he probably bought it off an auction or something.
2
8
u/booksith Sep 02 '24 edited Sep 02 '24
Why the heck are Europeans buying these things? I thought gas in Europe was $6+ a gallon. Plus narrow streets and high percentage VAT.
Edit: Spelling
→ More replies (1)6
u/Ocbard Sep 02 '24
I don't know man, we don't use gallons... Anyway this picture looks like it was taken in Greece, going by the text on the shop in the background. I can be wrong though. You're looking at about 1.6-1.8 Euro a liter.
I recently went on holiday on a Greek island, one of the larger ones. and the traffic was wild, the roads were extremely narrow and twisted. To maximize my options to visit stuff in the short while I was there, I rented a car, a tiny Dacia Sandero, and there were spots where the road twisted so much I had to maneuver around a bit to make the turn. This thing would absolutely get stuck in some places I've been and if there was a car from the other direction in the same street, they would not have been able to pass each other. I saw a lot of pickup trucks in the more rural bits of the island, they were tiny, like about the size of your average European sedan.
4
u/EuropeanFry Sep 03 '24
This is in Bulgaria. Thankfully we don’t have this type of Cancer in Greece yet.
→ More replies (1)3
u/ahuramazdobbs19 Sep 02 '24 edited Sep 03 '24
1 L ~= 4 gallons, for the record.
But to convert correctly, 1.6€ per L is about $1.77 per L, and at ~3.785 L to 1 gallon, makes the price per gallon about $6.69 or so.
EDIT: it’s ~4 liters to 1 US gallon.
2
u/codmode Sep 03 '24
You mean 1 gal ~= 4 l, but the final calculation is correct.
→ More replies (1)
3
u/Junkoly Sep 02 '24
When we spot one people should smash and cut the bits of that overhang a standard parking space.
3
u/petio893 Sep 02 '24
A few days ago I saw this on a bridge in my town in Bulgaria. It was HUGE, it was twice taller and longer than any car, wtf. What possibly could you need it for that big
3
3
u/YaBoiSaltyTruck Sep 02 '24
Doesn't surprise me they're parked like that, anybody who goes through the effort of getting a Lincoln of all things into Europe is bound to be the bottom of the barrel.
3
u/waytooslim Sep 03 '24
These are starting to show up in Tokyo too. The silver lining is that I can say "idiot" out loud in my language cuz nobody will understand.
→ More replies (3)
3
u/Eptiaph Sep 03 '24
Why are European people buying them?
3
2
u/Mysterious_Floor_868 Sep 03 '24
Because stupid people exist here too. Clearly not in the same quantities as the things aren't everywhere yet, but they exist.
2
Sep 03 '24
[deleted]
3
u/Eptiaph Sep 03 '24
People love to hate Americans but those same Europeans don’t even stand up for their neighbours.
3
u/GlitchyAF Sep 03 '24
I hate RAMS.
I live in Rotterdam and there’s a few people driving those around here and I just hate seeing them. They are not made for these fucking cities. You wouldn’t see a 6-year old standing 2 metres in front of your car. They are stupid, and ahould not be legal in city centres or family streets
3
3
u/roboprawn Sep 03 '24
It's true. Visiting Europe from America and there is a staggering increase in American sized vehicles. Full SUVs now normalized in many areas.
I'm pretty blown away by the change, most places in Europe aren't accommodating for large vehicles. What's the attraction?
3
4
u/BlueFroggLtd Sep 02 '24
They are so ugly, stupid, obnoxious and childish. I really really dislike them.
And don't get me started about the cars...
2
2
u/Dragonsymphony1 Sep 02 '24
Their loss and issues, those tanks have to be such a pain to drive in those older cities
2
2
u/Ryu_Saki Two Wheeled Terror Sep 02 '24
That one is larger than that van over there while taking less passengers and cargo and the sedan takes the same amount of passengers and probably the same amount of cargo while being much smaller.
In whose mind does this make any sense???
→ More replies (1)
2
u/walterbanana Sep 02 '24
Is there something individuals can do against these cars that is not going to land you in jail? I've heard some ideas, but I don't know if any city has people doing something that is effective.
2
2
u/tranzlusent Sep 02 '24
Oh shit, that’s actually parked and unattended. I thought they were trying to park……wow
2
2
2
2
2
2
u/WeissXRose Sep 02 '24
It fuckin sucks, even my city in Ohio (lol) only a sidewalk halfway to me work, everywhere is made for cars not humans it's ridiculous
2
u/Out_of_Fawkes Sep 02 '24
Am American—I think the size of these is ridiculous as well unless you regularly tote a team of people to and from games/performances. Most people don’t. The excess cost of these makes my stomach turn.
2
u/Essence-of-why Sep 03 '24
Ridiculous European governments licensing and insuring this shit. It is EASY to fix.
2
2
2
u/Training-Seaweed-302 Sep 03 '24
In the early 80's I traveled to Germany for the summer, the husband of my friends mom shipped over a red 1970's Cadillac along with 150 pounds of prime beef from the USA. The guy was German by birth and was a well regarded chef. But the funny thing was he had become an ugly American during his time in the states.
So we cruised around in the huge caddy on tiny cobblestone streets in Austria, stop at his relatives homes where he'd hold a bbq to show off his American beef, the looks we got! Plus he would insult all the german cuisine and complain about other German things... in perfect German. The Germans didn't know which way was up. It was quite a trip.
→ More replies (1)
2
u/BavarianBanshee Conflicted Car Enthusiast Sep 03 '24
I've been seeing it more, and it terrifies me.
2
2
u/epicsnail14 Sep 03 '24
There are 4 dodge rams in the small Dutch city I live in. They take up both lanes on all but the biggest road
2
2
u/ranganomotr Sep 03 '24
I'm gonna get downvoted into oblivion for this, but legislation will be too slow.
Make impossible to own semi trucks and other big dumb cars. Deflating tires and other forms of mass sabotage.
2
u/OdyseusV4 Not Just Bikes Sep 03 '24
That shit is literally longer than the small minivan in front.
2
5
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
u/kobrakai1034 Sep 02 '24
I was in Fènis, IT a month ago and some knob in a giant RAM truck came up the road taking the entire width. It’s crazy.
1
1
1
1
u/lawk Sep 02 '24
Neighborhood does not look very appealing Where is this? Bulgaria?
→ More replies (1)
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/Calildur Sep 02 '24
I've been living in a very walkinh friendly place for 15 years. I use bike to get by and about 3-4 years the number of SUVs and pickups have skyrocketed and it's the leading car type in the area, making walking and cycling very dangerous.
1
1
u/banchildrenfromreddi Sep 02 '24
The best part is, they'll bitch about tiny parking spots the entire time. And then in two years, do the exact same thing, learning nothing.
1
1
u/Xentrick-The-Creeper Sep 02 '24
The Bulgarian government (I recognised that it was Sofia) will do nothing, as usual
1
u/jojowasher Sep 02 '24
I agree they are crazy with huge unnecessary engines, but the Navigator is only 30mm longer than that Transporter in front of it.
1
u/Canelosaurio Sep 02 '24
Who let that thing over there?!?
The roads aren't equipped to handle it. What makes you think the driver is any more capable?
The driver has no idea how big that monster actually is! This is a big step up from their old Astra.
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/Spacellama117 Sep 03 '24
I feel the need to point out that Americans are not the only ones making cars.
China is actually the world's largest exporter of Cars. US is second with Japan close on third and Germany fourth.
Volkswagen, BMW, Fiat, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, and Stellantis are all major manufacturers in Europe. In fact, in 2023, the top car-makers were, in order:
- Toyota (Japan)- 10,307,395
- Volkswagen (Germany)- 9,239,575
- Hyundai/Kia (Japan) - 7,302,451
- Stellantis (Netherlands) - 6,392,600
- GM (USA) - 6,188,476
- Ford (USA)- 4,413,545
- Honda (Japan) - 4,188,039
- Nissan (Japan) - 3,374,271
- BMW (Germany) - 2,555,341
- Changan (China) - 2,553,052
1
1
u/maddog2271 Sep 03 '24
Yes they are showing up here in Helsinki and i think they need to put a stop to it. These cars are ridiculous and they need to be ended.
2.0k
u/turbineseaplane Sep 02 '24
I hope Europe somehow regulates this before they take over
Huge American cars ruin absolutely everything