True. We rented a BMW 1 Series in Portugal, which isn’t sold in the US.
Not officially, sold through Mercedes/Smart dealers. Zap is a reseller; I believe that at one point they were buying vehicles secondhand on the European market, though I think they were negotiating for bodies so they could be Americanised without having to take too much stuff off.
Canada may be getting the BMW 1 series, but apparently we have to wait for a sedan version because the US hates hatchbacks. Canada does not hate hatchbacks. We did get the previous version of the Toyota Yaris hatchback, which was called the Echo Hatch and never sold in the States, and it was extremely popular. It’s unusual for a maker to diverge that much between Canada and the US, though.
I stand corrected. Mais oui!
I read this morning that the francophone population of Canada is 11.3mil, which actually seems like a high figure to me. Regardless, that isn’t much of a market, in particular if you have to make serious changes to the cars to make them street legal.
I think T_SQUARE was also referring to cheaper models such as the 318, 320 and 325, which according to BMW USA aren’t available in the States.
Told you I was getting old. I remember it now: ugly name, ugly car.
Soon, though.
So apart from the usual luxury ones, Italian brands are not available in the US anymore. What a pity! What is their reputation in Canada and Mexico, however, where I read here they’re still marketed?
I take it you didn’t read my post …
The only Spanish brand is SEAT, part of the Volkswagen group, which CBEscapee already mentioned. About five years ago they decided to give Mexico a try and were greatly surprised by the good results. I don’t have current data so if any Mexicans want to correct me please do. As recently as last August I had SEAT mentioned to me as “a very good brand” by a Mexican coworker. Apparently they are affordable for a middle-middle class family and perceived as both stylish and reliable; several people have mentioned “great suspensions!”. Many sedan models have relatively high bottoms, which is good since Mexico is one of those places where even the good roads get stretches that look like they were pulled in from another century.
I did, and that’s why I asked 
. I was thinking more of working-man kind of cars. Taking away the usual Ferrari, Lamborghini and the other luxury ones, Alfa is not the only remaining, and it arguably is the one with the smaller sales - and while being not as expensive as those, it still is a luxurious brand. What about Lancia? Abarth? Autobianchi? And especially Fiat, which owns most of the others and sells many, many more units than those brands?
I know about Autobianchi, Lancia and Fiat. Fiat is the umbrella under which many Italian brands fall. Alfa, Ferrari, Lancia and Maserati, to name a few. It is now leveraging some of the more advanced technology from Maserati for use in the lower-end brands, such as Alfa, but the only brands worth exporting to America for a good profit are the nicer ones like Alfa, or so Fiat hopes. Autobianchi hadn’t done anything besides the A112 really, and so far as I know, the company folded up many years ago. Awesome little car, though, with a long production run. It was kinda like the Volkswagen Beetle production that just recently ended a production run of half a century in Mexico. I don’t think Autobianchi’s been around for at least a decade.
I would love to see Fiats and Lancias here again, but they haven’t been exported here since the early 80’s when Fiat pulled out of America, and it may take a few years yet for Fiat to decide whether or not there’s a business case for export of commuter cars here again. A lot of that rests on the success of Alfa Romeo here in the coming years, which is why I’m excited about it and why I brought it up. Italian cars are kind of a prestige item here because the well-known ones are so exotic and passionate, while the lesser known ones have had a reputation for slow technological progress and poor reliability. I for one would like to see that change.
Let’s hope Alfas take on well then, and Fiat might have a shot at it. They improved reliability a lot, and the models available are much, much more interesting than in past years. Consider the new Fiat Panda; even Jeremy Clarkson himself likes it a lot (I’d say more that he raves about it ). I tried it and like it too; they have a good thing going on there. Let’s hope it attains the success it deserves.
Clarkson is one of my favorite celebs. I love how there’s often no rhyme or reason to his assessment of what makes a car good or bad. He will always favor a car that is true to its cause and criticize a car that isn’t, no matter what it costs. You wouldn’t expect someone like Clarkson to have any interest in the Panda, but that’s what I love about him.
Subcompacts are experiencing a resurgence in America, although cars like the Smart models are just silly, with virtually no utility or practicality, much less driving prowess. They struggle to carry cargo or even passengers with much fuel efficiency, and can’t handle anything but a perfectly paved straight road. I recall Clarkson also testing a Smart on the Top Gear track and the thing understeered more horribly than any car I’ve ever seen in my life. It essentially didn’t steer at all. What a colossal joke. I thought what DaimlerChrysler tried to do with the Smart brand … it was a praiseworthy notion for cheap city cars, but it’s a massive failure even in Europe. No doubt, the Panda would make for a great, utilitarian, Euro-chic competitor in the growing segment of North American subcompacts like the Honda Fit, Nissan Versa, Toyota Yaris, and the upcoming Mazda2. The Panda may be chunky, blocky, and stocky but it is roomy, well-proportioned and has a design finesse that “cube cars” like the Scion xB completely lack.
I thought it was James May who liked the Panda (and owns one)? I read a lukewarm Clarkson review of the Panda in which he said it was OK but underpowered.
You know, I think you’re probably right … but I’m suffering from a lack of sleep right now and it’s all blurring together. Clarkson’s tastes are largely unpredictable, which was why I thought he might have liked the Panda, but I now vaguely remember him giving James a hard time over his purchase of a Panda. What Jeremy did do in one of the most recent episodes of Top Gear, though, was turn a red Fiat Panda into an enormous, freakish custom limousine. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) It proceeded to break in half when the welds towards the middle of the car snapped while on the way to its destination later in the episode. That episode absolutely had me rolling. Truly one of the better Top Gears in recent memory. 
To be honest, what Jeremy used was an old model of Panda. James does own a Panda, and it’s the new model. As for Jeremy, he expresses his appreciation for it in the clip where he competes with an athlete across London. He also put it on his Cool Wall. If that is not a sign that he likes the Panda, I can’t imagine what else is!
My favourite limousine in that episode, by the way, is the two-faced one that James put together out of the front halfs of a Saab and an Alfa! Great stuff!
Heh, this just proves I can’t keep track of which cars Clarkson likes. He has, after all, been known to move cars around on the Cool Wall with reckless abandon. To his credit, I know the Freak Panda was well over ten years old and the new one is a much different car, but I still admire the old one. I loved how he says that if Gerald the Fieldmouse runs around his wheel very very fast, the Panda will get from 0-60 in 18 seconds!
I also liked James’ “Salfa Romeaab”, particularly the steering wheel which was always falling off in the middle of a turn. 
The people I know that own them are quite happy. They market several models and you are correct that they are popular.