You are excused. as for not being at odds with rest of the US , if you look at the cars we have that are Renaults you will find two diesel Extra vans in there. We also run two Land Rover Discoverys, one a 1995 which we fitted with a 300TDI engine and a manual gearbox and the other a 1997 that has the Rover V8 (and that will get the diesel treatment as soon as we are able and import another diesel engine from England. Generally, the Yanks are motoring morons and obcessed with pick trucks (yuk)
Not only are the Renaults more reliable and fun to drive, with petrol at $2.0 a gallon, its cheap motoring given that mpg the Renaults and the diesel Land Rover get, the V8 Rover is more thirsty at 17mpg locally and 24 on a run, but is not used everyday.
As for American cars, would not touch them, horrible things and even the Jap stuff nade here or imported from Japan are way down on power and economy of their UK/Europe counterparts
As we do ALL our own work, we do not suffer the rip off yank prices for useless mechanics
Yes, I say I envy your trips to the gas station. And I can't stand pickups or most American cars either. With those Land Rovers in addition to all the Renaults, I hope you're situated far from the salty ocean air...?
Useless mechanics? Where in the States is this? I have a Florida house and the mechanic just down the road is excellent and quick and reasonable - costs actually around 1/4 or 1/5 of getting similar work done here in Norway. There I have an E300D 1996 Mercedes sedan (owned since new) with only 24,000 miles on it, and a 1998 Jeep Wrangler (no rust) - both cars white of course. The Wrangler, top and doors off, is fun to drive in summer and a most excellent vehicle for my 4 young sons since it seems to be going terrifically fast when it is only doing about 50 mph.