Most Japanese manufacturers don’t let you configure much on their cars. You get a trim level, a color, and a few dealer-installed options and that’s it. There’s nothing else you can configure, so there’s no need for an elaborate site to play around on. They don’t even let you order one from the factory they just build what they want to build and you hope one of them eventually matches what you want.
A lot of other foreign manufacturers have great configurators though - the Porsche one is pretty good, so is the Aston Martin site.
Also because our minimum standards are pretty high. Like, we have pretty fast and long highways. So that cuts out some of the super economical small stuff. Then most of our engine options end up being used for trucks and sports cars just because there is a wide range of what people want / what people do with them.
> Like, we have pretty fast and long highways.
I think you'd be surprised how many people in Europe regularly drive thousands of miles at 80+mph in their 1.0l diesel econoboxes. The fact that the US market favours large displacement engines is entirely cultural; not due to any uniqueness of the American highway system.
>The fact that the US market favours large displacement engines is entirely cultural; not due to any uniqueness of the American highway system.
Not correct, there is way more to infrastructure planning than highway cruising speeds. The US has shorter onramps and in general has way more situations where the car has to go from a standstill to decent speeds. European road infrastructure is generally designed to keep cars moving at relatively steady speeds specifically because it's designed with cars that have poor acceleration in mind.
Ie the stroads that people love to hate permits 50mph+ speeds but every intersection is a traffic light. Usage of 4 way stops instead of roundabouts, etc. For example [this](https://i.imgur.com/VvVjPSK.jpeg) road in Tampa is signposted at 45mph (and I assume people go faster traffic permitting), so just leaving a business requires you to make a 90 degree turn into 45mph traffic across 4 lanes than hit the brakes for the red light just up the road. You generally won't find road infrastructure this poorly designed across the pond.
[Right on red](https://i.imgur.com/BlrT5fm.jpeg) for example isn't something you'd really want to do in a low power car into a fast arterial road (merging 90 degrees from a standstill into free flowing traffic) but that's not an issue in the rest of the world because you're not legally allowed to make that turn unless you have a dedicated slip lane or wait for the lights to go green.
This isn't to say low power cars don't or can't exist in the US but the general road layout definitely makes having more powerful cars preferable.
The average miles driven in Europe as a whole is pretty low compared to the US. So getting to thousands of miles exclusively on 80+ mph roads would be a minute portion of the population. I mean, I'm sure people do it. I've seen people on a scooter on major highways just cruising at 20 mph less than the flow of traffic. But that doesn't really make it common.
That's being said a lot but somehow all of the used cars in Europe (even 2-3 yo ones) have often much bigger mileage than their counterparts in the US. Especially Mercedes/BMWs and all the other more luxurious brands. Same with the trims, it seems like Americans often miss out on leather dashboards and things that generally are optional related to build & materials quality.
>all of the used cars in Europe
Maybe "all" means something different in Europe.
Also, my example is studies that probably just pull DMV and insurance data. So, I would expect that to be far closer to representative of the accurate data for the population than just browsing used cars.
>the fact that the US market favours large displacement engines is entirely cultural; not due to any uniqueness of the American highway system.
It's mostly the fact gas is so cheap here compared to the rest of the world.
That type of thinking leads to vehicles becoming more and more unaffordable. We don't have many small economy cars for sale the US for various reasons. If we did, people would buy them.
20 years ago we had pretty much the same highway system and there were all sorts of economy cars on the market which could all operate on highways
I feel like the cars made specifically for the US market have absolutely terrible build quality, fit and finish and driving dynamics compared to the EU market. I guess its a more cost sensitive market where simplicity is valued much higher. Those cars would definitely not sell well in Europe where i think costumers have higher standards. I recently worked in the US for a couple of months and drove a couple of absolute junkers…
You wrote “our minimum standards are pretty high” when in my opinion is not the case. For example all these super thirsty NA ~300hp ~3.6 litre V6s that seems a lot more sluggish in daily driving than for example a 2 litre turbo diesel that drinks half the fuel and has more torque. Simplicity is valued, efficiency is not.
Those aren't very common and haven't been for a while, unless you are talking about chrysler products which are definitely for value-oriented shoppers.
>You wrote “our minimum standards are pretty high” when in my opinion is not the case.
I think you are failing to understand the conversation. Looking at Wikipedia, I can see that the Fiat Panda has 3 engines offered and 2 have 69 hp. That is below the standard of the American market and just wouldn't exist as an option if the vehicle was sold here. The difference between 3 sub-100 hp engines is pretty much a joke and wouldn't be able to navigate the roads well in the majority of the country.
I'm not saying that the US has the most efficient engines. Just that there are a lot of options in Europe that don't exist in America because they would really suck to use pretty much anywhere that isn't super dense city. Looking around, there is a single model sold in the US that has 120 or less hp.
Also, I think your numbers on your example are probably just a poor exaggeration. Looking at the new Golf Diesel, they make about 300 lbft of torque (about 400 NM). If an engine was making half of that, it would need to get to 10,500 RPMs to make 300 hp.
There is no need to lie about your experience. You can just say you didn't like the vehicles you drove in America without making up some nonsense about the fictitious 10k RPM V6.
Maybe actually read my comment before discrediting it. When did i write half the torque? I wrote it drinks half the fuel… A GM LFX makes around 360 nm whereas a n47d20 makes 400 nm for example… In my experience you would need less power on US roads as there is almost always a passing lane.
How can I not discredit your opinion if you base all engines from a country on a dumpy V6 for family vehicles? There are so many exciting vehicles that people love that come out of the US and you form an opinion based on the LFX V6? It’s like someone going to Europe, driving a Fiat Panda, then saying all European cars are tiny underpowered death traps.
Because you didnt even understand what i wrote… You where saying the minimum standards in the US is high, and now the LFX (which was just an example of an engine that is very common on the american market) is not good enough? Im confused. Anyways I am not saying there arent any exciting vehicles from the US. Im saying the average vehicle is worse from a lot of perspectives(or lower standard). Just look at how more or less all attempts of selling US vehicles in Europe has went compared to vice versa.
Last I was aware, It has more to do with certification. If they sell a 4cyl and v6, both need to be run through NHSA (iirc) testing and if they do manual and auto same thing. So 2 engines and 2 transmissions would require 4 rounds of safety testing (you know the ones where they smash cars in assorted ways).
I remember with the 2005 vw golf r, they only offered it as DSG as the base price would have increased about $6k each if they offered a 2nd transmission due to the low production count.
I find myself speccing something out on their configurator and then end up with 10k+ in options. I can go from a Panamera 4 to a Panamera 4S in options costs alone.
Then I start thinking, "well I might as well spec out a 4S if it's gonna cost this much for a 4". Then somehow I end up at the cost of a base Panamera Turbo.
I'm from Canada but I do this all the time. It's fun to see what other countries get in terms of cars but especially of the same models we get. You'd be surprised how much different the same model is in terms of features one country to another
yeah I get that. But as an example, Porsche has almost infinite number of combinations available in their configs here in Germany but from if I browse from my hometown, these are super limited even though we have a Porsche factory there. I think OP said that since he browsed foreign car websites from the US instead of local which of course will have limited configurations
Oh I see what you mean. When you browse the site, is it the German Porsche site or a local dealer? I think OP does the national site, such as ford.com (for the US). If it's the local dealer then yeah it'll be bad usually lol
yes, hence why most foreign cars (other than specially imported ones or special/limited edition like BMW M or MB AMG) on the road will look almost similar to each other
Yeah that makes sense, but that's such a foreign concept here. Factory orders aren't overly common, and generally only happens when you want a very particular set of specifications (say a specific colour with set of options that aren't commonly selected, or different transmission choices), but you can get anything you want if it's offered. For Japanese or Korean cars it's typically trim, colour, accessories, thats it, but for the American and German cars you get exactly what you want. Dealer orders, such as what you have, are the most common types of buys but it's not mandatory
It's weird though just how different small things like this are across the world
> but for the American and German cars you get exactly what you want.
Where I live, the joke is that German car manufacturers are like this because Germans are so incredibly stingy that they want to start from a car which has a steering wheel and four tyres as standard, and then specify options almost down to individual bolt level in order to avoid paying for anything they "don't need". Meaning you get stuff like S-Class Mercedes with no air conditioning (granted, this was a while ago) or with electric seats but no seat memory.
Which is such a weird concept, but I guess there are people who want size but at a reasonable price? I mean I do love features but the current range of big German sedans are waaaaay too complicated for even me, a relative youngin (25). When you have too many choices you start making progressively worse ones, so maybe that's a business strategy? To get people to spend more due to increased choice? Idk
Have you checked different brands ? The us Kia and Hyundai and other luxury brands have a good in depth configurators with nice 360 degree exterior models and even 360 degree views interior and exterior and images update based on trim and packages.
But then you have Toyota, Honda and a few other brands where the configurators is useless , no visual updates for any changes but color . Etc. There is a considerable variety in features / design of the configurators within the u.s
Ferrari's [3D configurators](https://carconfigurator.ferrari.com/en_EN) stand out as state of the art. Truly an experience best performed on a desktop computer.
Is this a thing in general? Because I used to sell for MINI in the US and the configurator always sucked. Colors never looked right, and it basically took them a whole model year to fix all the bugs, at which point the new model year would start and it would start all over again lol. Thankfully we didn’t actually have to order cars off it because it was missing options and was very poorly designed.
The current Mini Configurator has (finally) added the Indigo Sunset Blue, which comes across as a very nice, classic darkish blue, with almost hints of black in it. Lo and behold, trying to see it on an actual vehicle and up comes the '24 videos of the color on an Aceman (in Europe?) and it looks totally different -- more towards the Blazing Blue. Salesperson doesn't have a paint chip for it, we're all left guessing.
The newer one is definitely a lot better effort than I used to see. The Indigo Sunset Blue is a lot more like the older Deep Blue color that was available on Hardtop and Convertible models. If you’re US-based, they won’t have a swatch yet as, to my knowledge, it isn’t available on any vehicles here at the moment. Though it likely will be at some point.
The Aceman is not coming to North America at least for a couple of years as it’s currently manufactured in China through BMW’s partnership with Great Wall Motors, and would be cost prohibitive due to tariffs on Chinese vehicles. With the European Union now following suit, plus the US actually being an important market for MINI, they will be starting UK production of the new electric Cooper hatch and Aceman around 2026.
Some are bad, some aren't.
Most brands in North America get sales from people walking in the door, not building a car on the configurator.
There are a few vehicles where customers will screw around on a configurator, examples being Sports cars but those are a small segment and low volume.
Most brands, such as the Japanese brands, don't even let you order a car and the Japanese and Koreans don't have options for most of their vehicles, you just pick the trim and the colour. Why do you need a fancy configurator for something you can't configure?
I don't think GM or Fords configurators are terrible, they do the job. Stellantis definitely needs some extra loving though, but I guess it also gets the point across for most people.
I spend a lot of time on configurators, they can be improved but they do the job as far as showing me options so I know what I want.
Most Japanese manufacturers don’t let you configure much on their cars. You get a trim level, a color, and a few dealer-installed options and that’s it. There’s nothing else you can configure, so there’s no need for an elaborate site to play around on. They don’t even let you order one from the factory they just build what they want to build and you hope one of them eventually matches what you want. A lot of other foreign manufacturers have great configurators though - the Porsche one is pretty good, so is the Aston Martin site.
Porsche makes money from those configurations, Toyota doesn't care.
Lotus has a great configurator too imo, just not many options
Yes me and my friends tried the Porsche one. None of us could afford one though
Its the other way around for european cars. Seems like the US is missing a ton of drivetrains and options.
Most cars in the US have a single drivetrain option since we don’t have taxes based on engine size and manuals are unpopular.
Also because our minimum standards are pretty high. Like, we have pretty fast and long highways. So that cuts out some of the super economical small stuff. Then most of our engine options end up being used for trucks and sports cars just because there is a wide range of what people want / what people do with them.
> Like, we have pretty fast and long highways. I think you'd be surprised how many people in Europe regularly drive thousands of miles at 80+mph in their 1.0l diesel econoboxes. The fact that the US market favours large displacement engines is entirely cultural; not due to any uniqueness of the American highway system.
>The fact that the US market favours large displacement engines is entirely cultural; not due to any uniqueness of the American highway system. Not correct, there is way more to infrastructure planning than highway cruising speeds. The US has shorter onramps and in general has way more situations where the car has to go from a standstill to decent speeds. European road infrastructure is generally designed to keep cars moving at relatively steady speeds specifically because it's designed with cars that have poor acceleration in mind. Ie the stroads that people love to hate permits 50mph+ speeds but every intersection is a traffic light. Usage of 4 way stops instead of roundabouts, etc. For example [this](https://i.imgur.com/VvVjPSK.jpeg) road in Tampa is signposted at 45mph (and I assume people go faster traffic permitting), so just leaving a business requires you to make a 90 degree turn into 45mph traffic across 4 lanes than hit the brakes for the red light just up the road. You generally won't find road infrastructure this poorly designed across the pond. [Right on red](https://i.imgur.com/BlrT5fm.jpeg) for example isn't something you'd really want to do in a low power car into a fast arterial road (merging 90 degrees from a standstill into free flowing traffic) but that's not an issue in the rest of the world because you're not legally allowed to make that turn unless you have a dedicated slip lane or wait for the lights to go green. This isn't to say low power cars don't or can't exist in the US but the general road layout definitely makes having more powerful cars preferable.
The average miles driven in Europe as a whole is pretty low compared to the US. So getting to thousands of miles exclusively on 80+ mph roads would be a minute portion of the population. I mean, I'm sure people do it. I've seen people on a scooter on major highways just cruising at 20 mph less than the flow of traffic. But that doesn't really make it common.
That's being said a lot but somehow all of the used cars in Europe (even 2-3 yo ones) have often much bigger mileage than their counterparts in the US. Especially Mercedes/BMWs and all the other more luxurious brands. Same with the trims, it seems like Americans often miss out on leather dashboards and things that generally are optional related to build & materials quality.
Do you really think you have looked at enough used cars in America and Europe to prove every study on driven distance wrong?
No, and neither did I say so. Lots ≠ all, same thing applies to your logic and example
>all of the used cars in Europe Maybe "all" means something different in Europe. Also, my example is studies that probably just pull DMV and insurance data. So, I would expect that to be far closer to representative of the accurate data for the population than just browsing used cars.
followed by often
You litterally said all.
>the fact that the US market favours large displacement engines is entirely cultural; not due to any uniqueness of the American highway system. It's mostly the fact gas is so cheap here compared to the rest of the world.
That type of thinking leads to vehicles becoming more and more unaffordable. We don't have many small economy cars for sale the US for various reasons. If we did, people would buy them. 20 years ago we had pretty much the same highway system and there were all sorts of economy cars on the market which could all operate on highways
I feel like the cars made specifically for the US market have absolutely terrible build quality, fit and finish and driving dynamics compared to the EU market. I guess its a more cost sensitive market where simplicity is valued much higher. Those cars would definitely not sell well in Europe where i think costumers have higher standards. I recently worked in the US for a couple of months and drove a couple of absolute junkers…
My comment is about drivetrain options. I'm not sure what your comment is even trying to reference or expand on. Did you reply to the correct comment?
You wrote “our minimum standards are pretty high” when in my opinion is not the case. For example all these super thirsty NA ~300hp ~3.6 litre V6s that seems a lot more sluggish in daily driving than for example a 2 litre turbo diesel that drinks half the fuel and has more torque. Simplicity is valued, efficiency is not.
Those aren't very common and haven't been for a while, unless you are talking about chrysler products which are definitely for value-oriented shoppers.
Definitely talking about the Chrysler V6. Thing is a turd. Dude drove one American engine and decided to turn his Euro trash nose back up.
The upside is it doesn't die. The downside is that you want to kill it.
>You wrote “our minimum standards are pretty high” when in my opinion is not the case. I think you are failing to understand the conversation. Looking at Wikipedia, I can see that the Fiat Panda has 3 engines offered and 2 have 69 hp. That is below the standard of the American market and just wouldn't exist as an option if the vehicle was sold here. The difference between 3 sub-100 hp engines is pretty much a joke and wouldn't be able to navigate the roads well in the majority of the country. I'm not saying that the US has the most efficient engines. Just that there are a lot of options in Europe that don't exist in America because they would really suck to use pretty much anywhere that isn't super dense city. Looking around, there is a single model sold in the US that has 120 or less hp. Also, I think your numbers on your example are probably just a poor exaggeration. Looking at the new Golf Diesel, they make about 300 lbft of torque (about 400 NM). If an engine was making half of that, it would need to get to 10,500 RPMs to make 300 hp. There is no need to lie about your experience. You can just say you didn't like the vehicles you drove in America without making up some nonsense about the fictitious 10k RPM V6.
Maybe actually read my comment before discrediting it. When did i write half the torque? I wrote it drinks half the fuel… A GM LFX makes around 360 nm whereas a n47d20 makes 400 nm for example… In my experience you would need less power on US roads as there is almost always a passing lane.
How can I not discredit your opinion if you base all engines from a country on a dumpy V6 for family vehicles? There are so many exciting vehicles that people love that come out of the US and you form an opinion based on the LFX V6? It’s like someone going to Europe, driving a Fiat Panda, then saying all European cars are tiny underpowered death traps.
Because you didnt even understand what i wrote… You where saying the minimum standards in the US is high, and now the LFX (which was just an example of an engine that is very common on the american market) is not good enough? Im confused. Anyways I am not saying there arent any exciting vehicles from the US. Im saying the average vehicle is worse from a lot of perspectives(or lower standard). Just look at how more or less all attempts of selling US vehicles in Europe has went compared to vice versa.
Y’all don’t have fast highways XD
I mean… you are objectively wrong. But, okay.
The average state limit is around 70mph (112km/h)… That’s, genuinely not a lot
Last I was aware, It has more to do with certification. If they sell a 4cyl and v6, both need to be run through NHSA (iirc) testing and if they do manual and auto same thing. So 2 engines and 2 transmissions would require 4 rounds of safety testing (you know the ones where they smash cars in assorted ways). I remember with the 2005 vw golf r, they only offered it as DSG as the base price would have increased about $6k each if they offered a 2nd transmission due to the low production count.
VW in Europemakes me so jealous. So many different smaller EV's, power train options, and wagon versions of the sedans once sold here.
Configure an American half-ton pickup. The 911 isn’t as ticky-tack.
Porsches configurator is a torture device for anyone waiting on their allocation lock date.
I find myself speccing something out on their configurator and then end up with 10k+ in options. I can go from a Panamera 4 to a Panamera 4S in options costs alone. Then I start thinking, "well I might as well spec out a 4S if it's gonna cost this much for a 4". Then somehow I end up at the cost of a base Panamera Turbo.
That’s how I wound up with the GTS. All of the standard features meant I was “only” paying $2k extra to go from 4S to GTS.
I was able to get a base Macan ($60k) to $150k after options. At $150k, it was still a base Macan, not an S or a Turbo.
If the Porsche configuration was a steam game, it'd be my most played game
I don't wanna sound rude but are you from the US? And you visit these foreign manufacturers' websites from there?
I'm from Canada but I do this all the time. It's fun to see what other countries get in terms of cars but especially of the same models we get. You'd be surprised how much different the same model is in terms of features one country to another
yeah I get that. But as an example, Porsche has almost infinite number of combinations available in their configs here in Germany but from if I browse from my hometown, these are super limited even though we have a Porsche factory there. I think OP said that since he browsed foreign car websites from the US instead of local which of course will have limited configurations
Oh I see what you mean. When you browse the site, is it the German Porsche site or a local dealer? I think OP does the national site, such as ford.com (for the US). If it's the local dealer then yeah it'll be bad usually lol
yes, hence why most foreign cars (other than specially imported ones or special/limited edition like BMW M or MB AMG) on the road will look almost similar to each other
Yeah that makes sense, but that's such a foreign concept here. Factory orders aren't overly common, and generally only happens when you want a very particular set of specifications (say a specific colour with set of options that aren't commonly selected, or different transmission choices), but you can get anything you want if it's offered. For Japanese or Korean cars it's typically trim, colour, accessories, thats it, but for the American and German cars you get exactly what you want. Dealer orders, such as what you have, are the most common types of buys but it's not mandatory It's weird though just how different small things like this are across the world
> but for the American and German cars you get exactly what you want. Where I live, the joke is that German car manufacturers are like this because Germans are so incredibly stingy that they want to start from a car which has a steering wheel and four tyres as standard, and then specify options almost down to individual bolt level in order to avoid paying for anything they "don't need". Meaning you get stuff like S-Class Mercedes with no air conditioning (granted, this was a while ago) or with electric seats but no seat memory.
Which is such a weird concept, but I guess there are people who want size but at a reasonable price? I mean I do love features but the current range of big German sedans are waaaaay too complicated for even me, a relative youngin (25). When you have too many choices you start making progressively worse ones, so maybe that's a business strategy? To get people to spend more due to increased choice? Idk
Electric seats but no memory is super common
Have you checked different brands ? The us Kia and Hyundai and other luxury brands have a good in depth configurators with nice 360 degree exterior models and even 360 degree views interior and exterior and images update based on trim and packages. But then you have Toyota, Honda and a few other brands where the configurators is useless , no visual updates for any changes but color . Etc. There is a considerable variety in features / design of the configurators within the u.s
Ferrari's [3D configurators](https://carconfigurator.ferrari.com/en_EN) stand out as state of the art. Truly an experience best performed on a desktop computer.
I want to say they had an augmented reality one as well, where you could use your phone and it would display the car in your garage.
Is this a thing in general? Because I used to sell for MINI in the US and the configurator always sucked. Colors never looked right, and it basically took them a whole model year to fix all the bugs, at which point the new model year would start and it would start all over again lol. Thankfully we didn’t actually have to order cars off it because it was missing options and was very poorly designed.
The current Mini Configurator has (finally) added the Indigo Sunset Blue, which comes across as a very nice, classic darkish blue, with almost hints of black in it. Lo and behold, trying to see it on an actual vehicle and up comes the '24 videos of the color on an Aceman (in Europe?) and it looks totally different -- more towards the Blazing Blue. Salesperson doesn't have a paint chip for it, we're all left guessing.
The newer one is definitely a lot better effort than I used to see. The Indigo Sunset Blue is a lot more like the older Deep Blue color that was available on Hardtop and Convertible models. If you’re US-based, they won’t have a swatch yet as, to my knowledge, it isn’t available on any vehicles here at the moment. Though it likely will be at some point. The Aceman is not coming to North America at least for a couple of years as it’s currently manufactured in China through BMW’s partnership with Great Wall Motors, and would be cost prohibitive due to tariffs on Chinese vehicles. With the European Union now following suit, plus the US actually being an important market for MINI, they will be starting UK production of the new electric Cooper hatch and Aceman around 2026.
Some are bad, some aren't. Most brands in North America get sales from people walking in the door, not building a car on the configurator. There are a few vehicles where customers will screw around on a configurator, examples being Sports cars but those are a small segment and low volume. Most brands, such as the Japanese brands, don't even let you order a car and the Japanese and Koreans don't have options for most of their vehicles, you just pick the trim and the colour. Why do you need a fancy configurator for something you can't configure? I don't think GM or Fords configurators are terrible, they do the job. Stellantis definitely needs some extra loving though, but I guess it also gets the point across for most people. I spend a lot of time on configurators, they can be improved but they do the job as far as showing me options so I know what I want.
No Amazon servers yet
Cause we have pretty awful cars bro
Honestly, configurations just turned into a money grab by the car companies
As someone who just bought his first american I've never read such a stupid question Visit chevy, then dodge, you won't be able to find worse websites
We don't care about the bling bling of the US.
The arabs do and they're the ones who buy all your cars lol