Every time I travel to Europe I get very confused about the different philosophies of building cars in the US versus Europe. European cars are small, agile and mostly underpowered (by US standards) – built for winding roads, while US cars and trucks are of monster size, heavy, with humongous engines build to drive on straight roads. In the US all the power is used on the straights to accelerate from a red light to highway speed (65mph, 110km/h). On Europe’s narrow roads, the relatively weak engines don’t seem to matter that much. Rationality would imply the exact opposite: high power engines on winding and challenging narrow roads, while cruising on the four lane highway would require the leanest 1.2L/50hp engine to keep a rig coasting along on the freeway. Gas prizes have encouraged a different taste of the local consumers though. In the US bigger is definitely better. No one crinches at 5.7L V8 engines – they are considered cool. 12 mpg is just a way of life – a little more expensive lately, but that’s alright. Only when gas prices exceeded $4/Gallon, people started thinking about alternatives, and that has stopped after fuel prices have dropped again recently. Europe has gone Diesel in the meantime. While environmentally less appealing, the Diesel delivers great torque  with frugal fuel consumption. Lower Diesel prices combined with a lot of annual driving offsets the higher tax for these cars. In the US Diesel is 20% more expensive than gasoline – the exact opposite of Europe and the main reason why we haven’t seen more European manufactured Diesels coming to the US (The lack of low sulfur Diesel was another reason until 2007). But this is about to change. Hybrids have paced the way for the environmentally conscious and clean diesels are introduced in the luxury segment (Audi, VW, Mercedes and BMW all offer a diesel option in 2010 – albeit pricey).