This post couldn't fail to make me smile...

the differences highlighted in Pcmaher's account illustrate perfectly the differences in our consumer cultures and you can see how the stereotypes we have of each other start up. The incredulity experienced by encountering a BMW without A/C, a manual 'box and (horror of horrors) a wind-up window!

So we perceive the average American as a fat, spoilt and lazy, and we Europeans (I'm British) are seen as slowly emerging from the stone age, in awe of indoor plumbing. None of which is true, of course.

The car thing is true, though. I'm only in my thirties but can clearly remember electric windows appearing as 'luxury' items on average cars (and then just in the front!). Our first taste of such exotica was a 1984 2.0 Austin Montego. How proud we were.

Even top-end cars such as BMWs and Mercedes have historically had very spartan standard specifications in the UK, for the customer to add as extras all the toys (an expensive business). This is excused by `the customer knowing what he does/doesn't want in a car' which is marketing crap for let's see what we can leave off and get away with. Being British, we swallow it.

You Americans, however, do not, and fair play to you. Electric everything from the fifties onwards. Why rough it, eh?

As for engine sizes, two litres upwards is considered 'big'. Purely because we don't have the distances (esp. in the UK) that a US driver will encounter. Also, and this is the real decisive factor, petrol is £0.81 (almost $1.50) a litre. This also accounts for the massive popularity of 50mpg diesel engines. I know you guys would rather die...

We are changing, though. V8s are much more common now in a lot of manufacturer's model ranges (and don't forget we make TVRs, Land Rovers, Jaguars, etc) and all the toys (A/C etc) are now becoming standard across the board. We just don't have the sunshine, you see...

You guys don't have the A-class? So you missed all the hysteria when a Swedish motoring journalist rolled one doing the `Elk Test' (an almost mandatory avoidance procedure in those parts), initiating a hasty redesign and a lot of red faces in Stuttgart.

A message from God to stick with what you know...