Murica, the land of excess.

Boosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by lurgee.

Because they like rice?

I just tried to find any source for this and failed, so take the following with a pinch of salt, but...

My understanding was that this is an example of American automotive industry protectionism coming home to roost.

There was a time where the Japanese cars were viewed as more reliable, cheaper and more fuel efficient (as mentioned in the video). American companies became increasingly worried about competition so settled on the plan of changing American consumer preferences for ever larger cars through aggressive advertising.

This gave American companies a price advantage over foreign producers, as larger cars cost much more to transport, and created an unofficial import tariff. Other companies also did not have designs for big cars, as they are domestically unpopular and fuel is usually prohibitively expensive in their regions.

Now the same industries are calling protectionism as their designs don't match the preferences and fuel efficiencies expected by non US consumers.

Like I say, not sure about this, but if anyone knows something about this either way, I'd be interested to hear.

I think poorly made cars that get horrible gas mileage and are not the right size is more than enough reasons why they don't buy American cars. Also Japanese cars ARE fuel efficient, the most reliable cars made, and the right size. I think pay back for American protectionism seems far fetched when all the above reasons are so overwhelming, but just my opinion of course

I think we're agreeing here that the reason these don't sell is because of the size and inefficiency. My point was that this isn't an accident.

The suggestion is American cars were designed to be large (and thereby inefficient) because it created a trade barrier to cars produced elsewhere.

The reason they see a trade barrier due to size, is because they created it when it suited.

Ahhh, now i get it. I misunderstood what you were saying. My bad.