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johnfowles
04-12-2006, 09:30 AM
As a car nut of many years standing it never ceases to amaze me how different the ranges even names are for the cars sold in the UK and the U.S.A
for example for several years until I wrote it off by rolling it I had an excellent made in Japan Toyota Carina II
http://www.careos.com/pics/BiblioPHO/net/carina_1988.jpg
similar to that one but the better spoiler equipped "E for Executive" model
(later models are known as the Carina E (for Europe) and produced in Derbyshire England.
Yet this model is completely unknown in the States where for many years all sales have been confined to the larger US-produced Camry
Funny story here at one time the English Member of Parliament for the Derbyshire area (Edwina Currie) in honour of the Toyota factory in her constituency drove one of the small Toyota sports cars then known as the MR2. But she had to be careful when talking about it in France because "m air deux" in French sounds exactly like "merde".!
Anyway I was reminded of this cultural difference by today's Daily Telegraph Motoring Bulletin that announced to me the existance of a new UK Market small Ford Multi Purpose Vehicle in an article headed:-
"Andrew English unscrambles the story behind Ford's new S-Max" at:-
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/main.jhtml?xml=/motoring/2006/04/08/mfford08.xml&DCMP=EMC-mot_12042006
this is what it looks like:-
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/graphics/2006/04/08/mfford4.jpg
Next big idea: the S-MAX can take a massive load
the article includes many TLA's Three Letter Acronyms and makes quite amusing reading
and I am wondering if this model will make it Stateside, where Ford already sell the Focus (broadly identical to its Europeran cousins; the previous US Ford Escort was almost entirelly different) and the larger Escape not to mention the ridiculously gimormous Expedition
Jon Fowles