Comparison of American, European, Japanese Cars performance
 

Well I ve been reading up on diff cars and in every different forum people seem to bash the other cars the mustangs bash the 4 cylinders and so on. So I thought I d do a comparison as to what I know of and people would add. Keep this performance cars that are affordable.

American cars - Ford Mustang, Dodge str4, Dodge charger etc. - save for the str4 all are n/a engines and all come with a v8 option rwd, tremendous hp outputs due to the displacement like 300 and above is normal however 6 redlin and 120 140 top speed is common, Makes me me think when americans make performance cars they go for the highest output engine not caring about weight or how it will do at autocross. Drag Cars. Average reliabilty of the 3.

European - vw gti, mini cooper, bmw, audi etc - these engines are a mix some offer turbo engines like the 1.8t 180 hp while others use v6 or v8 in bmw's case. These cars are both fwd and rwd and tend to have good handling with decent 1/4 miles. Cost more then the american cars. Nice interiors :). Worse reliabilty of the 3. While most german cars will outhandle american performance cars drag cars would loose money for monrey a gti vs a mustang is a lost cause. So good handling diff engines to pick from, awesome interiors, expense, and sucky reliabilty. Get ready to drop somemajor money on the cars and repairs.

Japanese - Impreza wrx, eclipse, rsxtype s, civic si, 350 z - small cars, light weight, good interiors ( not as amazing as the german ones but upthere) affordable but not as cheap as american,best reliability, engines are typically small but gooten the most power out of them hp numbers equal to v6 on american and a little extra boost even the v8s, very good handling, and typicaly cars are either fwd or awd, due to the small engines and light weight the cars do very well in autox, and do some decent times at the drag strip matching v6 and v8s powers, however due to many fwd cars lunches become a problem and so does wheel hop. Redlines are high.

So in my opinion there is no best cars they all have their pros and cons. Personally I like Japanese cars because of the possible high hp outputs on such tiny engines 500 hp on 2.5 liters is awesome to me. However I def wouldnt mind racing a mustang at the drag with that rwd and 300 hp v8 ( the sound is awesome). And driving around in an audi you feel like a king sitting on heated leather with that amazing dashboard.

Word up...

The European carmakers need to pull their ____ together...it's amazing how nearly all of them but Porsche and some BMW are quite a bit below teh average industry dependability.

Domestics certainly have been improving, but with all the slumping sales and discounts, it's looking grim, I think.

I agree, what happened to the famed German engineering? I seems more and more now I'm hearing horror stories about German cars. Mostly electrical problems. I now will never purchase a BMW or Mecedes. Hello Acura and Lexus!!!

Well, they actually do have a ton of high tech stuff. It's just that they have so much that I'm guessing since everything is so complicated, it's hard to make everything work well.

Yeah...Hooray for Acura and Lexus! Although they still don't have the....I guess "status" of MB or BMW, they're certainly the better/cheaper alternative for luxury cars

the electrical euro problems are vw not bmw or mercedes alltho mercede's do suck.

No, BMW and MB also have electrical problems. BMW is not as bad..but certain models, I think the X3 or 5 SUV and either the 5 or 7 series are horrible in that area. MB...yeah, they are plagued with electrical problems as well.

ummm. actually german and american cars are about the same in reliability. and in the past german cars were more reliable. only recently has american cars pull up to the declining german cars. VW have always had electrical problems.

european cars are also commonly AWD. Audi is a big example of this. Imports also have tons of RWD cars as well as fwd and awd.

American car companies have adapted and now offer a hand full of awd cars, Ford is one company.

Generally speaking, as a general rule, American cars are more expensive than Japanesse cars. Not the other way around. Japanesse companies just put more tech. in the building process. European cars are typically more high end than the others.

Also, most japanesse cars have a 6k-7k redline, which isn't that high. Honda, has some of the highest redlines in their classes of cars. Such as, the new Si with 8k redline. So, what im getting at, all japanesse cars don't have high redlines. It depends on the car.

Cya

Actually only recently have German cars been offering AWD. Most BMW's and MB still remain RWD.

Re: Comparison of American, European, Japanese Cars perform
 

With the weight comment about american cars....not really true. A perfect example is the new corvette. Barely tips the scale at 3100 lbs. Even the new Pontiac Grand Prix GXP with a V8 is actually lighter than the s/c V6 version. It only weighs in at 3500# which is the same or less for japanese cars in its class. Due to upgrades (wider front wheels than rear, bilsten struts, larger sway bar and larger cross drilled and slotted rotors) in it's suspension it actually handle much better (almost 0.9 on the skid pad). There interiors have come a long way also. The GTO is a gorgeous interior and again the GP GXP interior is a huge improvement. The Cobolt SS interior is suppose to be very nice also.

Me personally, I prefer american due to the raw throw you in the back of your seat power. That would be called torque which most foreign cars lack. I also like to have that power down low were most daily driving is instead of having to wind the engine out to 7-8k rpm to make any.

Good thread by the way.

The GTO does have a gorgeous interior for sure, but it's not an American car -- it's a rebadged somewhat modified Holden Monaro built in Australia. Not that it matters, it's still the tits.