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I was thinking if the country that a car was designed influences design choices made. I think it does.
Although there are variations, in Europe, there are more manual transmission cars, roads are narrower, and there's a sense of economy and saving. What might result is that a Saab has optional fog lights and in the newest models, it's even hard to retrofit it (does the Tech II prohibit it in a 2009????). In contrast, many Toyota Corollas have fog lights. Toyotas have cigarette lighters (many in Japan smoke) yet Saab requires one buy a smoker's package to get the lighter.
Japan drives left so the gas filler cap is on the left. Sweden and Germany drives right and the filler cap is on the right. That's safer that way because that side gets hit a bit less than the other side. The exception seems to be some American GM cars, where the filler is on the same side as the driver for filling convenience.
Many European cars have available manual transmission while some Japanese cars and many American cars don't even make them available, particularly for the 6 cylinder engines.
Hatchbacks and wagons are yet another cultural phenomena.
Although there are wide variations and some boat like European cars, nimble handling is more common in European cars and less so in Japanese and American cars.
Some design language is artificial, such as the floor mounted Saab key or the upturned side rear window in a Saab. Some similar designs follow geographical patterns, such as the wheel bolts in many European cars and the lug nuts in American and Japanese cars.
Some marketing factors come into play. I like manual air conditioning but the rage is automatic climate control. Even Saabs only have ACC in US cars. Safety considerations are better now but still some companies still design less safe designs.
Will design features and standard equipment eventually converge in some years?
posted by 67.51.6...
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