How the British saw American cars... in 1973

"duurtlang" (duurtlang) 05/24/2018 at 13:36 • Filed to: None

3

21

It’s an interesting take. Including a short review of the (and I quote Ash78) Mercury Markwiss Browham:

And what did the Brits think of ‘imports’ in 1974? The last minute of the video touches a subject that has become relevant again in 2018. Oh, and did you catch who they called the most reliable? You’ll be surprised.

Ash78, voting early and often > duurtlang 05/24/2018 at 13:48

1

Thames opening sequence TRIGGERED

Ash78, voting early and often > duurtlang 05/24/2018 at 13:49

5

He had me at “Mercury Markwiss Browham”

Svend > duurtlang 05/24/2018 at 13:50

0

My dad wanted to drive his Dodge Royal Monaco back from Saudi to the U.K..

Mother however had a very different idea.

jimz > duurtlang 05/24/2018 at 13:52

1

did he actually say “Mercury Markwiss?”

you’d think that they’d be able to get it right given their bouts of Francophilia (programme, aubergine, etc.)

interstate366, now In The Industry > duurtlang 05/24/2018 at 13:53

0

The way he says Marquis is, uh, strange.

jimz > duurtlang 05/24/2018 at 13:56

0

I can see why the roundabout is so popular over there, they seem to really love driving around in neat circles.

duurtlang > jimz 05/24/2018 at 13:59

0

I added a second video. They ask themselves who in their right mind would even consider a ‘foreign’ car. Like a French, German or Japanese one.

I’m not saying it’s racism, but they did seem rather skeptical to foreign things. Like words.

jimz > duurtlang 05/24/2018 at 14:02

0

*shrug* I can’t really fault anything in the first video, though. those cars were huge and totally inappropriate for many roads over there. At least he was charitable enough not to point out that the Cadillac’s “eight litre” (sic, it’s actually 8.2) only had ~200 hp.

Future next gen S2000 owner > duurtlang 05/24/2018 at 14:16

1

Why buy a foreign car when you can get a dependable British car with home grown Lucas electrical systems?!

My citroen won't start > duurtlang 05/24/2018 at 14:24

2

I was watching these last week.

Started with the Dolomite Sprint vs BMW 2002 and kept going.

This one is quite amusing:

FSI > duurtlang 05/24/2018 at 14:41

1

I really love old TV shows about cars. No script, no fake drama, no (obvious) advertisement. Just simple and honest reviews.

Rip Paul Frere.

jimz > Ash78, voting early and often 05/24/2018 at 14:58

1

heh. soon as the intro played I zoomed back to 1981:

Ash78, voting early and often > jimz 05/24/2018 at 15:04

1

Despite that, the Brits have an inherent aversion to foreign words and standards — especially French. Witness: Lieutenant, Fillet, Pasta, etc. Or using inches and miles.

But it’s not like American xenophobia (based on individual bigotry). It’s more a result of being in charge of half the world for a few hundred years. It just gets baked into the consciousness of superiority. It’s mostly gone, IMO. We Americans carry the torch, despite our professed love of multiculturalism.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > duurtlang 05/24/2018 at 23:50

0

how much would you ahve to hate yourself to drive one of those in the uk?

duurtlang > FSI 05/25/2018 at 02:22

0

That was an interesting video, thanks!

FSI > duurtlang 05/25/2018 at 09:53

1

Watching car videos in English really helped me learning the language. Might be the same for German videos helping you with our complicated language

duurtlang > FSI 05/25/2018 at 10:04

0

Weren’t you partly of American descent? Anyway, German is nothing but a dialect of Dutch so it’s relatively easy for me ;)
My girlfriend has been talking German to me for years now, despite her ability to speak (Flemish-)Dutch 99% flawlessly. Add German TV and German radio (in the car) and I’ve been exposed to a lot of German spoken language. I understand it quite well, Hochdeutsch that is. The rural accents are a bit more difficult.

FSI > duurtlang 05/25/2018 at 10:28

0

I am, but we never spoke English at home. YouTube and video games were more effective than English lessons at school.

Reading Dutch is (relatively) easy for me I guess? Understanding spoken Dutch is difficult to me.

Understanding German is one thing but how about speaking? :)

duurtlang > FSI 05/26/2018 at 06:50

0

Speaking? Schreiben geht eigentlich ganz gut. Fehlerfrei ist es sicherlich nicht aber ich glaube dass es absolut reicht. Der, die, das, den, dem usw ignoriere ich aber noch etwas. Sprechen ist etwas schwieriger. Es geht, aber es ist noch nicht gut genug für viele Arbeitsstellen. Ich brauche jetzt viel Übung. Also, wenn die mich trifft und es gibt keine Leute die kein Deutsch sprechen: spreche Deutsch.

Spanfeller is a twat > duurtlang 07/07/2018 at 09:48

1

Presenter: “Lady buyers”
Correspondant: “Oh not this bullshit again”

MultiplaOrgasms > duurtlang 08/19/2018 at 07:20

0

Necropost, but not accounting for rust Renault were very reliable cars. Like I said many times before, my granddad’s R16 did 160.000 problem-free km, which as we both know from our little field trip in april was a pretty big deal in those days , even if the engine was only held on by the gearbox at that point .