Some of you may have noticed I hadn't been around for a little while. I just returned from a 10 day vacation in Ireland. What a difference in vehicles between us and them. Cars don't seem particularly personal to them. More of a utilitarian appliance to get them from here to there and really nothing more. It was very rare to see any modification or customization. And even more rare to see anything larger than a subcompact. Right off the plane I was hit with this realization at the rental counter. Irish car rental's and my opinion of what a "minivan" is vary greatly:
A far cry from a Chevy Venture.
I also noticed that compact crewcab pickups were VERY popular in the rural ranch land area we visited. The most popular were tacomas and the mitsubishi L200 pictured below.
I did once catch a glimpse of an isuzu crewcab with fender flares on a side street but by the time I got back around the block to snap a pic, it was gone.
I lived in Germany for three years, and noticed much the same thing. The biggest reason for much of this is that the government has a lot of control over the motor industry. What I mean is, that anything you add to your car has to be approved and tested for use in that particular vehicle. Their vehicles throughout most of Europe have to be inspected almost yearly and if they fail any part of inspection they get taken off the road. While there, I tired to buy a wider tire for my motorcycle. Well no one would sell me one or install one except for the two sizes that came with a compatibility certificate for my type of bike. The only vehicles that seemed to get modified where the beemers and benzes.
[size=75]I didn't do it, it was already like that when I got it.[/size]
So, when my wife stated with much admiration, how "non-materialistic they are and that their cars are just cars, they don't need fancy new wheels for their trucks..." she was mistaken. They really do love their cars every bit as much as we do. They're actually jealous of the extent to which we are able to personalize our vehicles.
