The Car Nerd’s Guide to Automobiles Based on Country of Origin
I have been a car nerd since I was old enough to talk. I have bought and read thousands of magazines and articles, have owned twenty of my own cars and driven hundreds more.
I will try to distill all this knowledge in a few sentences and point out the fundamental essence of cars depending on their country of origin. I’ll start in Europe because that’s where it all began.
First up are the German cars, which are very well built and have the most advanced technology.They are expensive to buy and maintain which some people think is an advantage as a status symbol. An Audi driving experience will give you a great feel for one German manufacturer.
Italian cars are gorgeous to look at, generally fun-to-drive, mostly cheap to buy but are not very reliable or well built. Try a Ferrari driving experience or Lamborghini driving experience to get a feel of the Italian car manufacturer superpowers.
French cars are all about design flair and unique ways of doing things but are not particularly well built or reliable.
British cars are terrible, which is why most of the many manufacturers have closed down. Spanish, Czechoslovakian, Yugoslavian, Russian and Bulgarian cars were always for niche markets and most no longer exist.
Japanese cars started out being badly made but cheap, but have since become very well built and reliable-though they are desperately boring to drive.
Korean cars are similar in philosophy to the Japanese, are catching up fast.
Chinese cars are newborns in the automotive field and are currently badly made, low-tech and copies of other designs. Indian cars are based on ancient designs but are cheap.
American cars are generally based on tried-and-tested technology, fun to drive and are cheap enough for everyone to be able to buy a nice car. In my opinion this makes American cars the best of the lot.
