Dori A Schmetterling
With what engine? 3.5 or 5.2?
LOL. You think 3.5 is a large engine?
You guys in the UK have mostly engines under 2.5L because (historically) you were taxed an insane amount based on engine displacement, even engine bore, and also you tax automatic trannies because your gov't thinks they're evil. If it wasn't for that, you'd have more 3 and 4L engines in cars.
We also love out automatic transmissions too - but I think that most people under 40 (here in USA-Canada) at this point who grew up as teenagers driving-owning poo-box 4-cylinders (like VW's) with manual trannys tend to also look for manual trannys in new cars they buy now. People over 40 are more likely to have had only automatic-transmission cars at home while they were growing up, and tend to not have ever learned how to drive a stick.
People with large vehicles justify it because of the friggin kiddies (they need the back seat, or the 2 back seats, the baby poo, the perception of saftey in their land slugs. They buy a $40k vehicle so they can shlep $300 worth of kid-poo to the cottage or the grand parents place for the weekend.
They need 4 and 5L engines to move those 4500 lb vehicles around.
