America or Germany – Just who makes better cars?

Now there is a question? And it is probably one for which there is no definite answer because who gets to define what criteria are used to judge cars against?

A German was of course the first person to patent a petrol driven motor car when Karl Benz officially registered his Motorwagen in 1886….but Henry Ford of the United States of America was the man who brought the motor car to the masses with the Model T, first rolling off the production line in September 1908 and flooding the world with 15 million cars in the following nineteen years.

Over the years since both nations have produced some magnificent motor cars and some less inspiring models as well but does either have the right to claim that they make better cars overall?

Germany gave the world the Trabant, and whilst it is hardly considered an icon of either style or engineering it was produced in amazingly large numbers (over three million) and has now achieved a cult status that is collectable the world over.

America tried to give the world the Edsel; the first year sales were pretty good; second highest launch sales ever but thereafter it all wet downhill.  Ford tried for another two years but even the intensely patriotic late 1950s American public couldn’t learn to love the Edsel and it died the death in 1960.

Germany gave the world the VW Golf (aka Rabbit, aka Caribe) which the world bought is such numbers (over 25 million) that it is the third most popular car ever.  From this was developed the GTi the first ‘hot-hatch’ which became the blueprint for virtually every manufacturer in the world to copy.

America has been building the various models of the Ford F-Series pick-up trucks since 1948 and the vehicle is or has been the workhorse of the US military, the Israeli postal service, fire departments farmers and haulage companies for years and years.  32 million F Series have been sold over the 13 generations of the vehicle and Ford have recently sued Ferrari for unlicensed use of the F-150 designation on their Formula 1 racing cars!

Germany however gave the world the VW Beetle….designed with the expanding Nazi Reich in mind the car survived long after the political regime that inspired it had been reduced to rubble.  Albeit that you can argue that Beetles made in Mexico and Nigeria aren’t really “German”, over 21 million older shape Beetles were made right up until 2003, with the latest New Volkswagen Beetle model being unvailed on Monday at the Shanghai Auto Show.

But if you are going to define “best” on the basis of thirty-seven-million-car-buyers-can’t-be-wrong then it is neither the finely tuned engineering of the Teutonic race nor the mass production, democracy and raw materials of Uncle Sam’s land-of-the-free that wins the ultimate accolade.  It is the inscrutable island dwellers of Japan that have, in the Toyota Corolla sold more of one model of car wordwide….and if anyone wants to argue that the Corolla isn’t very popular in America, they can… it is only the fourth most popular selling car in the US, behind two American vehicles, the F Series and the Chevy Silverado, and its own stable mate from Toyota, the Camry.