hall, a company owned by General Motors. They are mostly reworked Opels with the Vauxhall name on them. To me, they are nothing more than British Chevys.The average size of cars over here are roughly that of the Chrysler PT Cruiser, which by the way, is sold over here with the steering wheels on the right side of the car instead of the left like the American version. All the Asian brands are well represented here as well as most European brands, including some we've never heard of. Skoda, a division of Volkswagen, are produced in the Czech Republic. Alfa Romeo, Citroen, Renault and other brands that we used to see in the States all sell well here. T
he largest car sold over here that I know of is the Chrysler 300C, and yes, the Hemi is an available option over here too, for those who don't care how much gasoline (petrol) costs. The smallest car sold over here is the Smart Fortwo. Smart, a division of Mercedes Benz, sells the Fortwo, a two seat car for urban drivers. These cars are not made for driving across the Contentent, not that you couldn't, it's just not a good idea. Actually, the Smart Fortwo would be a great car for all the commuters that drive from the suburbs into the major city centers like Atlanta. Imagine how 
much space would be freed up if all those cars coming out of Atlanta during rush hour were Smart Fortwos. And they'll drive just as fast as anyone would need to survive on the Interstate system. And parking these little beauties is a snap in any parking lot!Something that most Americans don't know is that here in the UK, as well as throughout all of Europe, automatic transmissions are quite rare except in the upper market cars, and even then, it's an option. If you come over to the UK or anywhere else in Europe and expect to drive, you had better be well versed with a five speed transmission! In fact, here in the UK, if you take a driving test in a car equipped with an automatic transmission, you'll be limited to driving cars so equipped! In order to be licenced to drive cars with any type of transmission, you have to test in a car with a manual transmission.
So, why is everyone over here hung up on manual transmissions? Simple . . . when your fuel costs around $10 or the
equivalent, you use whatever gives you the best mileage. That's also why most cars are tiny compared to American cars. The car we had, until the insurance got too high for us to afford was a 2001 Ford Mondeo, similar to the Taurus in the States is considered to be something of a large car over here. It has a 1.8 liter four cylinder engine, a size that would never make it in the States, and a 5 speed transmission. Since they don't have as tough of emmission standards as we do, they are able to use smaller engines that don't burn quite as clean to provide decent power. With just me in the car, I could go from 0 to 60 in about 7 seconds, not bad for an engine not much bigger than what's on some riding mowers! But there are times I wish I could have brought my 1999 Ram Quad Cab over with it's 5.8 liter Magnum engine. There's just something almost musical about the sound of a big V-8, especially if its hooked up to dual exhausts. Not only that, it sounds more wholesome than the tiny little weedeater motors that some of the hot-rodders around here have. I find it somewhat ironic that I enjoyed more room in my old pickup truck cab than most people over here have in their entire car. And there is something just unnatural about a country that considers 2 liter engines to be quite large. I'm not quite sure you can buy a car with that small of an engine in the States, can you?
