GM killed those two cars, not Europe.

Nothing wrong with displacement. GM however has waved the white flag in Europe a year or two ago, with only a theoretical presence in Europe with the Corvette and that other muscle car. Which no one bought.

“It’s the heat of the moment.”

In case you weren’t paying attention; the UK is trying to leave Europe. So UK English isn’t all that interesting. In my native language (not English) liter is translated to... liter. In German as well.

Yes, it has been extended.

This is mandatory in Europe, and has been mandatory for many decades. And rightfully so, IMHO.

To each their own obviously, but I think it’s hideous in real life. That minivan (‘truck’? Really?) looks like a whale too. I always expect 7 kids to roll out of them when I see them.

Chrysler didn’t merge with Fiat, did they? Fiat bought Chrysler.

Nah, Renault made more sense. Since the Italian part of FCA has been utterly neglected for a very long time you have FCA with access to the US market and a lineup of large vehicles, and Renault with access to Europe (and other places) and offers good compact vehicles and work vehicles. They were very complementary.

To be fair, 27 mpg is harder to achieve in a vehicle the size of a whale.

And why is there no space on the back seat, even compared to other cars in its segment?

95 octane RON is the lowest you can get in Europe though, so it makes sense they use that for their European statistics.

Indeed, it wouldn’t have sold. It would be a great Autobahn cruiser with that engine, but other than that? Apparently it wasn’t very sporty at all, it didn’t have a look/badge people liked, reliability was not that great, fuel economy sucked and depreciation was horrible. So what’s the point?

Rental specs are not very representative though.

I expect this to be a strategic step for Renault. With these talks about a merger they wake up Nissan, and can force them to commit when Renault promises not to merge with FCA.

While you are not given the freedom to import a new one, you can import a 25+ year old one.

I once drove a 1986 Mercedes 200D (w124). Cloth seats, manual windows, manual mirror on the driver side (and a power one on the passenger side). And a 4 cylinder diesel with about 75 hp. It was slow. Yet, that car just breathed quality. The materials, the seats, the smoothness, the quietness (on the inside), the lack…

Agreed, except for the power part. The engine should be smooth and quiet, it does not need to be powerful. 

Fiat had. Ever since the acquisition of Chrysler (and maybe even before), the Fiat brand has been utterly neglected. In Europe Fiat used to be a mainstream manufacturer with competitive cars in all/most lucrative non-luxury market segments. Now, all they have is the ancient 500, the ancient Panda (the citycar the 500…

Within the C part of FCA, sure. But Renault veeery easily outsells Jeep. Jeep is a niche manufacturer outside NA.