Why did the other American manufacturers fail in Europe?

The new Ford Mustang in Europe is the first Muscle car from the states to really hit it big over here. The waiting list is now so long that Ford UK has begged Ford North America for more production time in an attempt to deliver as many cars as possible. It’s clear to see that Ford are onto a winner.

This isn’t the first time an American muscle car has landed on our shores, however. General Motors and Dodge-Chrysler have had a hand in it as well, but both manufacturers failed to deliver the American dream to us Europeans – and by “failed”, I really do mean “FAIL” in the biggest letters Microsoft Word with permit. In retrospect it’s easy to see why they failed, but surely they should’ve known better at the time.

The 300 SRT8 was phenomenally expensive and outdated

When Chrysler decided to bring the 300 SRT8 to European shores (badged as a Lancia on the continent) they were sure that they were onto a winner – a big 6.1L engine and all the techy goodies you could ask for - American manufacturers know that we Europeans love tech laden cars, how could they possibly get this wrong?

It did go wrong, and it went wrong in such a way that Chrysler UK has shut down. The previous generation SRT8 only came with a positively horrid 5-speed Automatic and interior plastics that were merely “okay”, and nothing in the way of sophistication when it came to the suspension. Chrysler clearly thought “high technology” meant “just throw every optional extra we have at the car”, and the end result was devastating.

The end result was a gut wrenching starting price of £55,000. You could haggle an Audi RS5 or BMW V10 M5 down to near enough the same money at the time, or at least haggle it to a point where the price difference was acceptable given the Bimmer came with two extra cylinders and an interior that didn’t feel brittle.

The only other model in the range was a woefully inefficient V6 diesel at £30,000. These weren’t cheap cars. Given what the SRT8 offered it should’ve been closer to £35,000 than £60,000. The 5-speed automatic really didn’t help matters, even the American market hated it. Crude and expensive meant this car was destined to fail. The upside is used SRT8s can now be had for as little as £10k - even for that price I still wouldn’t want to deal with that horrid automatic.

Cadillac gave us the wrong impression

When Cadillac landed in the UK and Europe (right hand drive models included), General Motors clearly thought they were onto a winner. Here was their top marque ready to challenge BMW, Jaguar, Audi and Mercedes right on their home turf. It didn’t go so well. Cadillac failed in spectacular fashion and it was axed in Europe as a result – its cars left a bad taste in our mouths and the stereotype of American cars being, well, a bit poopy, was solidified.

The first generation CTS made sense in the USA. It was reasonably priced and its build quality was okay, but more importantly it was significantly cheaper than the German and British brands, thus its shortcomings could easily be forgiven when the price gap against the Euros was factored in. What General Motors clearly didn’t factor in was the cost of these European cars in Europe itself. New BMWs cost less than a Ford Focus ST over here – bringing the CTS over to Europe without any change in base price, neigh, they brought it over with an INCREASE in base price, meant the CTS was now monstrously expensive compared to rivals.

Don’t get me wrong, I love American cars, but there is no way on earth you can convince me that the first generation CTS is as good as a BMW 5-series, Audi A6 and Mercedes E-Class. It looked horribly cheap in comparison to a slick Audi and the overall build quality was pretty substandard given the market segment it was competing in. The facelifted version later in life made it look far better when positioned against its rivals, but this was still a car that had a base price of £41,000.
Let me just say that again – base price was Forty-One Thousand. Want the 6.2L V8 CTS-V? That’s £66,000 please. SIXTY-SIX THOUSAND. That’s actually £1000 more than the aforementioned V10-engined M5. Who were General Motors trying to fool?

Rather than lower the price of the car, Cadillac instead gave us the BLS – basically a reskinned Saab 9-3 with all the Saab bits (aka, the good bits) ripped out, whilst also being more expensive than the 9-3 it was based on. Predictably, people bought the Saab instead.

A dim-witted Automatic gearbox on all its vehicles and no Diesel or 4-cylinder Gasoline engines pretty much killed the brand without mercy, erasing any hope it had of mainstream success.

Dodge and Chevrolet were a joke

Mid 2000s Dodge – you know, the guys that made the Avenger and Nitro? Yeah, that Dodge. When the brand launched in Europe we were graced with these boxy budget cars and, well, we politely ignored them. Sure, they were cheap, but they were also pretty terrible. The Avenger was by far the worst offender - the 2.4L and V6 were both dropped from the European market and replaced with a shoddy 1.8L Turbo Diesel and a 1.8L Naturally Aspirated 4-pot petrol engine both sourced from VW – so you can imagine just how dull both these units were to drive.
Dodge didn’t even entertain the idea of importing the Challenger or Charger despite a business case existing for them. The 300C just needed a drop in price and it would’ve sold a lot better – the Charger could’ve been the answer and, of course, everyone in Western Europe loves a good Coupé (ergo Challenger). But alas, it was never to be and Dodge quickly pulled out of the market in 2010 – only four years after it was introduced.

Chevrolet were even worse if you can believe that. GM intended for Chevrolet to be the budget brand whilst they pushed Opel and Vauxhall upmarket. Opel and Vauxhall being more upmarket brands is just laughable to a European, thus it never came to fruition. The end result was two car brands with identical products (Chevrolets are based on Opel vehicles) and near identical prices, the Vauxhall/Opel models being the higher quality of the two (which is obvious when you consider Vauxhalls are sold as luxury Buicks in the states).
Car brands in the USA tend to have the same car badged across two or three brands with one being the more luxurious model. In Europe that business model simply doesn’t work, people simply gravitated toward Vauxhall because they knew the brand.

Chevrolet struggled to make a dent in the European market. In 2011 the guys and gals at Chevy finally decided that enough was enough and introduced the Camaro and Corvette to spice things up as halo models for the otherwise totally insipid brand. Just like with the 300 SRT8 and Cadillac range, both these cars were massively overpriced.
The Corvette only came in 3LT Z51 spec at the time, pushing the price to £75,000, about £10k more than a Porsche Cayman GT4, whilst remaining strictly left hand drive once again hurting its chances of success in the UK where it would’ve made the biggest impact.

The Camaro was also frighteningly expensive, tipping the scales on release at £37,000 for the V8 and far north of £40,000 for the Convertible, venturing into S5 territory. Cheap these cars were not, when in reality they would’ve sold by the bucket load if it were cheaper and, once again, available in Right Hand Drive.
If the Camaro was cheaper, came with a V6 and was sold as a Vauxhall/Opel Camaro it’d probably have been a sales success like the Monaro when that was imported from Australia. Chevy finally had its plug pulled and shut down in 2014.