@tom
Thank you very much for creating this thread.
It helped me finding answers for some questions that I still had in mind after my "dishwasher size in US" thread.
Now having Europe as a 3rd comparison region, i could understand much better the factors that can influence the appliances sizes. Well, not only the appliances but everything.
Dishwashers: the habits and the architecture (smaller kitchens) as explained on my thread.
Refrigerators/ freezers: all very well explained above.(thank you guys)
Cars....???????
The whole world knows that US had very cheap fuel and it was great for the muscle cars with very powerful engines, blah, blah blah. I'm not asking about them.
Let's consider a car a middle class family would have: In the US it would probably be a big sedan (or more recently a SUV like a, let's say, Ford Explorer).
The the definition of "compact" is very different for a north american, a south american and an european, did you notice that?
Thanks to a wonderful fact (i don't know if it's just a coincidence or not) South America has the best of both worlds. Let's consider the GM cars. Here they are sold as Chevrolet and we have/had several models based on both american GM and european Opel and even Vauxhall.
A Corsa (NLA since 2012) was a compact car for US. A typical car a middle class family would buy. There was the sedan, a wagon and a pick up version too. But at the same time, we had the Astra (Hatch/Sedan/Wagon) rated as compacts.
Vectra was a medium sedan and Omega was the luxury car.
Paralel to that, there was the Tigra, (made on Corsa's Platform) that was tiny AND CONSIDERED A MUSCLE CAR. (that little thing a muscle car?!?!)
Now (not all models available at the same time but, some were paralel and some with a very small difference) the americans here...
We had the opala (same impala) and now we have the Camaro rated as a MEDIUM SEDAN (medium sedan?) Onix is a compact (filled the gap left by Corsa)
Zafira and Meriva is sold as a SUV (where in this world Zafira is a SUV?) and the HHR is sold as a COMPACT SUV (but the HHR is much bigger than a meriva)
now the oddest things: Montana, a tiny pickup made on Corsa's platform is a medium pick up. S-10 (which is much bigger) is a SMALL pickup.
Cruze is considered a COMPACT sedan (while the Cobalt/Aveo are considered a BIG sedans.)
Now on Ford:
Ka is sold as a compact. But the new Fiesta (exactly the same available in the US) is a "sub compact". (I don't need to say the Fiesta is much bigger than a Ka)
What to say about the US made Focus? Well, it's a compact too, exactly like Ka. The previous version, made in europe was a "big hatchback"
Ford Courrier (a tiny pickup made on the same platform used for the "frog" Fiesta) is a MEDIUM pickup. Ford Ranger is a SMALL pickup. (but one could almost transport a Corrier on the back of a ranger) And the F-250 is considered a truck and one would need to change the driver's license category to drive it. it's also sold on Ford truck dealers. (together with huge 18 wheel trucks)
Do you want something even more strange? Ford Focus Sedan (made in europe) was a BIG sedan. At the same time, we had the Ford Mondeo (made in US) that was a SMALL sedan and the Ford Taurus was rated as "MEDIUM" sedan... Come on. if the Taurus is a medium sedan, what would be a big sedan for the americans?
And if someday you come to Brazil and go to a car dealer, please never ask them to try to explain this discrepancy. You'll see smoke going out of their heads. They will probably stare at you with their mouths open and saying ah... eh.. hum... errr... and you'll listen to crickets sound.
