Last week, over in Indianapolis, I put a 1000 miles on a Genesis GV80, Hyundai’s take on a luxury vehicle. Frankly, when you recall just where the Hyundai/Kia build quality bar was set even just 15 years ago, the fact that they are producing German-grade vehicles these days is breathtaking. Having said that, I’d take the Kia Telluride version of this SUV over the Genesis on looks alone. Shame the Telluride doesn’t make it to Australia.
To be honest, I’d have preferred to have been driving a Cadillac CT5 Blackwing but needs must, and space for people and luggage meant going the SUV route. In fact, given how good the roads are in the North West, it’s probably a blessing in disguise that the ultra quick Caddy saloon was out of the question – every chance I’d have been in trouble by now…
One of the other stand outs for me from this trip is the fact that, despite the perception that the United States car market is totally dominated by large pickups (aka utes) and SUVs, that’s actually not quite the case. Twenty percent of the market consists of good old saloon cars such as the very popular Toyota Camry, Honda Accord and Honda Civic. Certainly in states such as Indiana and California the traditional saloon cars are everywhere.
There are also a sizeable number of light pickups on the road such as the Ford Maverick, the Hyundai Santa Cruz and the Honda Ridgeline. These models would be more suited to the job that many urban-based Australian utes are put to than vehicles such as the Toyota HiLux, Ford Ranger and Volkswagen Amarok, to be frank.
My biggest shock though, from driving through those NW states, has been the sheer number of RVs, or Motorhomes to you and me. With between 400,000 and 500,000 new RVs taking to the road each year in the USA, they are everywhere. And some of them are mighty impressive. I took time out to visit an RV dealership in Reno and the choice across the board of different models has to be seen to be believed. If only we could buy similar vehicles in Australia at those prices.
Roland wanted to sample a Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing but thankfully for his licence’s sake he didn’t
And now, Areveeing is officially a word, a verb, in the American vocabulary. Yup, that’s the often used term for taking off for the weekend in the RV.
This has been a fabulous reminder that whatever prejudices we may individually hold from time to time towards aspects of life in the USA, it’s still an unbelievably diverse, huge and beautiful land. Moreover, the sheer scale of the economy, and how it manifests itself across the country in so many forms, from manufacturing to agriculture, is always awe-inspiring.
It’s a quiet reminder, to me, around the marking of the 80th anniversary of D-Day, that this is the country that was capable, by 1945, of building and running a factory (in Willow Run, Michigan) that could produce one B24 bomber aircraft an hour.
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Publish date : 2024-06-17 17:00:17
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