The View From Greece

Cars.com’s Brian Neale (above) vacationed in Europe recently, and he took some notes on the automotive scene in Greece and Amsterdam:

Given that gas is 1.20 euros per liter (about $6 a gallon), I wasn’t surprised there were virtually no big passenger vehicles. The whole time we were there, the biggest “personal” car I saw was a Tahoe with a German EU plate.

Opel seemed to be the dominant make, but Kia, Daewoo, Mercedes, Fiat, Smart, VW, Nissan, Seat (I’d never heard of it, but there were some cool ones) and Citroen were well-represented. We also saw quite a few Fords, especially the cute little Ka, and a handful of Chevys that appeared to be a version of the Aveo. The well-to-do seemed to prefer Saabs, Mercedes and Alfa Romeos.

Scooters and motorcycles were everywhere, with many more and cooler models than are available here. I was in heaven on that front.

There were even a few old Ladas on the road. The locals, who call them “skatouli” (literally, “small piece of crap”), informed me that only Turks and Albanians drive those things.

Some additional observations:

• Virtually all taxis in Athens were Mercedes. No model badging, but they looked to be essentially C-Classes.
• In Amsterdam, especially, LOTS of Smart ForTwos. I guess it’s a good choice when you don’t need to go far, there’s no place to park and the biggest thing you have to worry about getting hit by is a bicycle.
• I’m positive I saw a few diesel-powered Toyota Camry taxis in Athens, though I have been told that this is impossible by a few Americans.
• Otherwise, not too many Toyotas — or Hondas, for that matter.
• I saw a few Mercedes A-Class cars. I had never seen one before; they look kind of like a Honda Fit.
• Fiat is selling boatloads of something called the Punto. That and pretty much every other Fiat model embodied everything I hate about econobox cars. Most of the other automakers are doing a much better job making stuff that appealed to me, anyway. I poked around on the Fiat sites, and at least I can say the ’07s are better looking than the Fiats from just a couple years back.
• Lots of new Citroens in Greece, and a fair number of classic Citroens parked in the nice neighborhoods around Amsterdam.
• My favorite (new, affordable) Citroen model I saw. Love the glass roof: C3 Pluriel
• Pretty much all “SUVs” look like this Berlingo Enterprise
• I fell in love with the new Opel GT. After all these years, it still kinda looks like a mini-Batmobile.