Just watched The Bourne Identity this past weekend and enjoeyed it very much. My question concerns the ex-boyfriend or womever that Bourne and Marie visit. He’s a rich British guy, apparently, and we see him driving a Jeep Cherokee. Wouldn’t a person “of means” in Europe have a Range Rover or something other than a very common American car?
I’m kind of a car geek and that kind of jumped out at me.
Unless there’s some kind of status to it (which I doubt very much…).
Range Rovers are (relatively) common in the UK, Grand Cherokees are not. Maybe he wanted to stand out a bit in the UK?
Nowadays, product placement is of primary importance when a director or set dressing team is choosing the products that will appear on-screen. I don’t know if many people in Europe drive Jeep Cherokees (I suspect not), but I’d be willing to bet that Jeep paid a lot of money to get a Cherokee into the movie.
It happens all the time- I mean, I don’t picture a suave, international spy/thief driving a Volvo, but that’s what Val Kilmer drove in “The Saint,” simply because Volvo coughed up a lot of money to make that happen.
I think it was more of an homage to the original TV series in which Roger Moore drove a Volvo P-1800. That page says the TV production company is rumored to have bought the P-1800 from Volvo at full price.
Anyway, imported cars are more expensive than comparable domestic cars. I’ve noticed that some cars attain higher status because of this higher price, and because they seem exotic. The Chevy Astro van was extremely popular in Japan a while ago, and many young people bought it simply because it’s an exotic and cool car. (Now they’re mostly on the used market dirt cheap. I’d buy one but they all have the steering wheel on the wrong side.)
That explains the perfect-condition classic Ford Mustang I say parked outside the Helsinki train station, but what about the big old battered Chevy van I also saw there?
My SO used to own a Chevy Camaro in Berlin.
It was considered quite the status symbol.
In a land full of Mercedes, you would be amazed what passes for hot, exotic wheels.
Gotta agree with this. I’m a car geek myself. I spent a year in Germany some time ago, and a LOT of that time was spent ogling all that beautiful machinery (where I come from, we don’t get most of the good stuff!). Being in Munich, where most of the big German money is, helped too. Whenever an american muscle car or big exec saloon drove past, heads would turn. Every time!
Well, the Cherokee is certainly one of the more popular American cars in Europe, that’s for sure. But just to give you an idea: a Grand Cherokee has a starting price of about 55,000 Euros here in the Netherlands: almost $60,000 for a mere 2.7 liter diesel. The top-of -the-line 4.7i V8 Overland Automatic will set you back a cool 70,000 Euros, or some $76,000. It’s quite an expensive car to buy here - I’d surely buy something else for that kind of money, but there’s no denying it’s more of a status symbol over here than it is back in the US, where it’s quite a common car, from what I’ve seen.
On the matter of American muscle cars: opinions vary. Germans may think of a Camaro as a status symbol, but remember, they also love David Hasselhoff. 
In my country, American sports cars like the Camaro and Corvette are often looked down upon as somewhat tacky (I’ll admit to absolutely loving the new Corvette, though). Plus, a lot of the European car press just loves comparing the handling qualities of American sports cars with their European counterparts, and seeing the American behemoths fail miserably (again, I’ll allow for an exception for the new Corvette, which appears to hold its own just fine).
The image of American cars being huge gas-guzzling, soft-springed straight line cruisers that steer like pigs is still very much alive over here. Not in all cases rightly so, but there you go.
I read that DaimlerChrysler is going to (try) and sell a diesel version of either the Liberty (a smaller SUV) or the Cherokee or the grand Cherokee. Or maybe another vehicle, I’m drawing a blank. And an FYI, the Grand Chreokee is different than a Cherokee. Anyway, it will be interesting in these times of more expensive fuel if a diesel actually sells over here. Over here, people think big trucks genreally when you say diesel.
My boss bought a Jetta TDI last year and absolutely loves it. Almost 50miles per gallon, about twice what my Saturn gets. i would consider a diesel, I think but it would have to be the right car.
Thanks all for the replies.