The best cars never sold in America

This meant that all car makers did their level best to get a piece of the action. But there have long been substantial differences between the American market and those in Europe and Asia. And those differences tend to account for why certain models were never sold there.

But it does mean that America misses out on great vehicles like the BMW M3 Touring (pictured), a hot wagon that got rave reviews from most people. Take a look at all the other cars America never officially sold in America, in chronological order:

The 4 isn’t the pettiest or the fastest Renault ever to grace European roads, but it was an honest, humble car that ticked every box of basic transportation. Renault’s entry-level model offered winter-friendly front-wheel drive and a functional hatch well before either became common. Admittedly, the dash-mounted manual gear-change might have intimidated a few motorists, but this was good honest motoring.

Toyota created the Lexus brand in 1989 to vie for a slice of America’s ever-growing luxury car market. Lexus was new to every class it entered, but Toyota had learned valuable lessons in building an opulent car from manufacturing the Century, its flagship saloon in Japan, for over two decades.

The second-generation of this car was powered with a V12 engine and lasted all the way from 1997 to 2017; it is the official state car of the emperor of Japan. A third-generation model arrived in 2017 (pictured), now powered by a V8 engine, and is still on sale.

Utilitarian beach cars never caught on in the US, partly because the cars they were based on often weren’t sold there to begin with. Citroën made a half-hearted attempt to market the Mehari but stopped after just one year when American regulators made seatbelts mandatory.

We think the Renault Rodeo would have fared a lot better; it was more usable than the Mehari, and Renault had a better grasp on the American market than Citroën.

Volkswagen’s Brazilian division enjoyed a significant amount of independence from headquarters in Germany. The SP2 was designed in Brazil solely for the Brazilian market, using mostly off-the-shelf components like a chassis borrowed from the 412 and a 1.7-litre air-cooled flat-four engine. Its fastback-like design secured the SP2’s spot as one of the most handsome cars ever to wear a Volkswagen badge.

Lancia built the Stratos for homologation reasons. Developing and building a small series of high-performance cars was an immensely expensive project, especially for a company like Lancia that has often found itself in financial trouble. So trying to sell the car to Americans was ruled out. It’s a shame; a car like the Stratos could have helped salvage the brand’s sinking image.

Citroën was ready to launch the GS in the US. It sent a small batch of cars to its dealers in preparation for the launch, but it changed its mind when it became aware of new safety regulations mandating a fixed ride height.

The GSA (an updated GS with a more practical hatchback and many of the original problems ironed out) could also have been sold in the US had it been allowed in, and it would have launched at a time when motorists were in the market for smaller and more efficient cars.

For decades, the G-Class wasn’t part of the Mercedes range in America. The German brand represented the pinnacle of luxury, so executives worried selling a utilitarian 4x4 wearing a Mercedes badge would harm the brand’s image.

The popularity (and very high transaction prices) of personally-imported cars convinced Mercedes to begin selling the G-Class in the US in 2002. By that point it had become much posher than anyone had envisioned when production started.

A US import tax that started in 1964 places a 25% tariff on all imported light commercial vehicles (including pickups), and remains today. It means that importing such vehicles and selling them is more or less impossible.

This meant that the excellent and interesting VW Transporter pickup never made it to the USA.

Alfa Romeo didn’t sell the 33 in the US because a small and economy-oriented model didn’t fit the image of Italian luxury it was aiming for in America. In hindsight, would it have been a volume model for Alfa? Probably not.

Would it have saved Alfa’s ill-fated American division? Definitely not. But the remaining examples would still be cherished by Alfa Romeo fans today.

A marketing campaign billing the original Fiesta as the “Wundercar” completely failed to entice buyers, so Ford dropped the pint-sized hatchback from its US range after 1980. So Americans never got the hot 96bhp XR2 version of the second-generation Fiesta that young Europeans enjoyed.

The nameplate returned to America in 2011 model year and brought the formidable ST model along for the ride, though the Fiesta was dropped in the US in 2019, and the model died entirely in 2023.

The Peugeot 205 GTI was often considered the benchmark of the fast hatchback class in the 1980s – except in the US, where Volkswagen had a monopoly on the segment. Peugeot’s popular hatchback never joined the 405 saloon in America . Americans are realising what a gem they missed out on, and clean examples imported recently are becoming increasingly expensive.

Toyota still builds the Land Cruiser 70 for certain places in Africa and elsewhere. Cheap it isn’t, but it enjoys a loyal following in the off-roader world.

It has adopted modern features like cruise control and Bluetooth connectivity while staying true to its roots, and to the design that made it an icon over the past three decades. We bet it would do well in America even today.

Reliability and rust issues slowly killed Lancia’s reputation in America, and it shut its doors in 1982. It was unfortunate timing because the Ferrari-powered Thema 8.32 would have done well in the surging market for sports saloons in the late 1980s. Instead, Americans who wanted a high-performance saloon built on the same platform had to order a Saab 9000 or wait for Alfa Romeo to introduce the 164.

BMW’s first 3 Series Touring combined performance and utility in a spectacular fashion. It was a daring model from a company known for making conservative decisions, but the company wasn’t brave enough to sell it in America. Later generations of the 3 Series Touring did make it to the USA, but the current 3 Series is only available as a saloon.

This man is Max Reisböck; he is the BMW engineer who built a Touring prototype in his spare time to show senior management that it could be done. They loved it and placed it into production. BMW eventually gave him the last model of that generation ever built - of over 100,000 it ended up building - as a thank you for his initiative (pictured).

Nissan went on a retro car offensive in the late 1980s. The Japanese company took a trip to the heritage well and came back with styling cues echoing the Citroen 2CV, the Renault 4, and the original Mini, among other so-called people’s cars. The blend somehow worked, giving the Pao a look of its own.

Americans missed out on all of Nissan’s retro-inspired models, presumably because the company thought the designs lacked mass appeal. The car’s small size wouldn’t have helped either.

The Volkswagen Rallye Golf illustrates what today’s Golf R would have looked like in the 1980s. With its aggressive look and four-wheel drive, it served as a homologation special built so Volkswagen could go racing.

Executives considered selling the model in America, and they even sent over a few test cars for evaluation purposes, but they ultimately voted the project down because the this fastest of all Volkswagen hatches would have cost far too much.

Volkswagen dipped its toes in the SUV segment before any of its rivals with the Golf Country, a hatchback sitting on a lifted suspension, with a rugged look and four-wheel-drive.

The Country was surprisingly popular among buyers in Europe who had grown tired of the basic Fiat Panda 4x4 and the ageing Lada Niva. Could it have competed with Subaru in the America’s mountainous regions?

On the road, the Suzuki Cappuccino looked like a scaled-down Mazda MX-5. It took the traditional long bonnet, short bootlid proportions that characterized Mazda’s acclaimed roadster and packed them into an appreciably smaller footprint.

Suzuki’s clever roof design let the driver use the Cappuccino as a coupe, as a targa or as a full convertible. Safety concerns and federal regulations ensured it couldn’t be sold in North America when new, but early examples are beginning to arrive under the rule that allows cars over 25 years old to be imported to America.

The Autozam AZ-1 was developed by Suzuki and built by Mazda; it was a mid-engined roadster, with gullwing doors. Engineers designed it as a kei car so no one seriously considered selling it in America, let alone tried making a sound argument for it.

The AZ-1 is ready to challenge the “size matters” maxim. It’s now over 25 years old, and American enthusiasts are already seeking the best examples left in Japan.

The Xantia possessed every trait a mid-size Citroën should have. It was eccentric, tough, aerodynamic and (importantly) had Citroën’s familiar suspension. Doubters changed their mind after going for a spirited drive in a V6-powered model. Selling it in America was out of the question because Citroën was long gone by the time production started. It’s too bad; it could have been the Saab 900’s quirky French rival.

Co-developed with Porsche, the limited-edition RS 2 is the precursor of every Audi high-performance model sold globally today. The idea of an estate car capable of beating a Porsche 911 in a drag race was brilliant on paper, and it was even better in the metal, but Audi decided not to certify a low-volume model for the American market.

It’s now available for import under the 25-year rule, however, and they occasionally sell at auction for up to $100,000.

This car stood out with its striking design and powerful, mid-mounted turbo four. Renault pulled out of the American market in 1987 so it no longer had a dealer network capable of distributing the car.

Safety and emissions regulations were another hurdle. We imagine it could have competed in the same market as the original Porsche Boxster, but positioned as a more driver-oriented model.

The 156 marked a stunning return to form for Alfa Romeo. It was one of the most handsome saloons on the road when it arrived, and it was good enough to earn the coveted European Car of the Year award in 1998.

Unfortunately, Alfa’s division in America has already closed gone belly up by the time the 156 arrived in European showrooms.

With this car, Peugeot placed a 1.3-litre engine in an ultra-compact, lightweight body shell. The 106 Rallye was unlike any enthusiast car sold on the American market at the time, and it was never seriously considered for export there because Peugeot closed its American division in 1991.

Had it been available, we bet it would have enjoyed a small but loyal following among autocross racers.

For nearly two decades, American Honda fans who wanted to slip behind the wheel of a Civic Type R had to do so in a video game like Gran Turismo, or by flying to a country where the car was sold. The first four generations of Honda’s fast hatchback never made the trip to America for reasons that remain vague.

The good news is Honda finally listened to enthusiasts across the pond, and the fifth-generation Type R was designed with American regulations in mind and it went on sale in 2017.

Introduced as a limited-edition model, this car benefited from a long list of mechanical modifications including a hand-built, 2.2-litre flat four cylinder engine, a strengthened five-speed manual transmission as well as numerous suspension and braking upgrades.

Subaru’s American dealers didn’t receive the original WRX, so they were deprived of the right-hand drive-only 22B.

Argentina-born Horacio Pagani was an engineer with Renault and then Lamborghini, before striking out on his own firstly with an Italian consultancy and then, in 1999, he unveiled his first car, the Zonda. The original version, the C12, featured a 6.0-litre Mercedes-Benz V12 that delivered 395bhp or 444bhp, and its looks and performance immediately made the world take notice.

The company has since delivered numerous versions, but all produced in tiny numbers, and never enough it seems to make examples available for US regulators and crash testing to make it legal to drive on the road. It’s a shame as the US is a very major market for its Italian and British hypercar rivals.

The R34-series Nissan Skyline GT-R was the ultimate forbidden fruit for American motorists. Enthusiasts knew what it was capable of because it starred in several Fast & Furious movies, and it was prominently featured in Gran Turismo, but they couldn’t buy one.

While it was never officially imported to the US, some examples found their way into the country through dubious channels as interest grew. US Customs quickly caught on, and illegal examples usually end up seized and crushed.

Most Americans have never heard of TVR, a small maker of British sports cars that was established in 1946, but the models were sold in the US in small numbers until the 1980s, but not since. Which meant the market missed out on TVR’s last and arguably greatest creation, the savage-looking Sagaris. And it was pretty wild as well.

It featured a 4.0-litre 406bhp straight-six engine, with no ABS or traction control. However the company closed down in 2006, and a revival is taking a long time to arrive.

The 300C Touring was Chrysler’s first serious attempt at building a European-flavoured car since launching the Horizon in 1978. Basic market research showed Europeans liked estates, especially diesel-powered ones, so Chrysler set out to build just that.

The Touring was a Dodge Magnum with a 300C face and either a V6 diesel from Mercedes-Benz or a Chrysler Hemi V8. Steyr assembled the 300C Touring in Graz, Austria, alongside the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Mercedes G-Class. Perhaps too obscure for its own good, the 300C Touring failed to gain traction in a class dominated by the Germans.

The Holden Ute embodies a concept Americans are intimately familiar with. It’s on the same branch of the pickup truck family tree as the Chevrolet El Camino. The El Camino died after the 1987 model year, but the body style continued thriving in Australia during the 1990s, where it became a lifestyle-oriented model rather than as a workhorse.

Reports suggest the Ute nearly went to America to join the now-defunct Pontiac brand in the late 2000s, but General Motors dropped the project in the wake of the global financial crisis, and closed down Pontiac in 2010.

Both the first two generations of Scirocco were sold in America, but not this third generation model. That was a shame as the car was a great looking car with entertaining handling, as well as a good range of engines to suit every driver, with petrol power ranging from 120bhp up to 280bhp; it even had two diesel options.

Apparently Volkswagen didn’t think it could make money selling it in America because of the Dollar-Euro exchange rate at the time.

Americans would consider the Dacia Duster a subcompact SUV. The segment is big, and it’s going to get much bigger in the coming years, but it currently lacks an affordable, no-nonsense model capable of holding its own off the beaten path.

Enter the Duster, with its budget-friendly price and available four-wheel drive. Can you not picture one parked among cactus on a ranch in the American west? A third-generation model arrived in 2023 (pictured); like the original model, it’s still a lot of car for your money.

The N-One is an endearing machine with a surprisingly spacious interior, though Japan’s kei car regulations force Honda to use a tiny 658 cc engine. It’s not just Americans missing out on the N-One; Europeans can’t get their hands on this retro-fantastic Honda, either.

Unlike Audi, Volvo and BMW, Mercedes-Benz never paid much attention to the compact estate segment in the US. The phrase “Americans don’t buy estates” has prevented every single long-roof variant of the C-Class from roaming the nation’s vast network of motorways.

The German brand surprisingly perceived enough demand from buyers in Canada to build a market-specific C-Class Estate, though it’s a niche model rather than a volume offering.

No brand is more closely associated with estates in America than Subaru. That’s why we’re surprised the Levorg remains off the US market. Subaru can’t use the “Americans don’t buy estate cars” argument everyone else employs because it almost has a monopoly on the class, and the Levorg would slot nicely between the Impreza and the Outback.

For years, motorists on both sides of the Atlantic drove roughly the same Volkswagen Passat. That changed when the German company gambled on reaching more buyers and decided to develop a Passat specifically for the US, and built at its large plant in Tennessee.

The Passat Europe got is handsome, well-appointed and sharp to drive in the right conditions; however the Passat that America received was a cheaper car didn’t look as good and had less equipment. Fortunately, the latest US Passat, launched in 2019, is much better.

Seemingly from nowhere up Aston Martin launched this graceful super-sedan, designed for wealthy folk in the Middle East with an extraordinary price tag to match – around $1 million. Apart from the price, we rather admired its V12 pace and credible claim to be an uber sports limo.

200 examples were planned but that large price tag led to just 120 or so being produced, and none made it to America.

America has been able to get its hands on the RS3 in saloon form since 2016, and it’s a scintillating machine: it delivers 396bhp from an oddball 2.5-litre straight-five-cylinder engine. Europeans also get to buy that version, but they can also buy it in proper hot hatchback Sportback guise as well, which is a whole load more practical, and has stealth properties to boot.

When you drive the A110 you discover one of the best-resolved sports cars ever made. But while it sounds like a budget Porsche Cayman would do well in the US, one of the largest markets for coupes in the world, the car won’t be available in the US.

Among other challenges, Alpine and parent Renault lack a dealer network there.

The Up is a useful enough citycar, but in GTI form it becomes a proper bundle of fun. Sure, a 1.0-litre engine delivering 113bhp doesn’t sound like it will light up your life, but it comes in a small 3600mm-long package and weighs just 997kg.

We think it’s as genial and charming a car as any pint-sized hot hatchback and may even be the most desirable of the lot.

Suzuki quit the American market back in 2013, but even when it was present it never sold the Jimny mini-SUV in the US. Americans expect their SUVs to have a certain minimum size, and the diminutive machine may be cute but at 3480mm (137 inches) it’s not entirely practical, nor is it much fun at all on a fast highway.

This is a shame because it’s a charmingly capable mountain goat, capable of springing around harsh environments with alacrity, helped by its low weight of just 1135kg. Sure, it only has a 100bhp engine and is no hotrod, but we’re huge fans of this small four-wheel drive - complete with switchable low range gearbox as standard - that thinks big. And now it even has modern-day equipment like Apple Carplay and Android Auto. It's a shame that strict emissions rules brought its life to an early end in Europe, in 2020, though it lives on as a commercial vehicle, without rear seats.

With prices starting at the equivalent of US$28,000 (€25,800), we can’t help but think it would find some fans in mountainous parts of America.

This car was unveiled at the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show and offers a 2.9-litre turbo V6 giving 444bhp and 0-62mph in just 3.9sec, all in a relatively compact 4781mm package.

But not in America, where the most potent A4 you can get is an S4, and then only in saloon form; at least the Audi RS 6 Avant is available.

The previous model Fiesta ST held the title for being one of the very best hot hatchbacks and the new generation retained that title. The hot hatch is powered by a three-cylinder 1.5-litre Ecoboost engine which makes 197bhp, 17bhp more than the older generation.

Sadly this new generation Fiesta ST never got to America since the entire Fiesta lineup was withdrawn in 2023.

In Europe buyers for a while could can get the latest Focus estate in both 187bhp diesel and 276bhp petrol forms, Americans could not buy either car, and the US didn’t receive the latest Focus at all.

Which is a shame, as the Focus RS acquired quite a following in America in its brief stint on sale, and we dare say this slightly less hot ST version of the latest model might have had a few fans too.

After a troublesome few years, Volkswagen aimed to change its image wholesale with the launch of its first mainstream all-electric model called the ID 3, which in some versions has a single-charge range of over 300 miles.

But despite the success of Tesla’s Model 3 stateside the ID 3 rival won’t be coming anytime soon. America instead gets the ID 4, an SUV sister vehicle built at VW’s plant in Tennessee.

Honda’s cute little urban electric car, the E, also didn’t come to America. That was probably because of the E’s small size (its length was 3894mm – 153 inches) and meagre 130-mile range; average American journeys tend to be a fair bit longer than in Europe or Japan, though we reckon it might have been popular in places like New York City and San Francisco, nevertheless.

Sadly its limited range seems to have counted against it in Europe and Japan, and sales were disappointing; it was cancelled in 2024, after less than four years on sale.

In 2019, Mercedes unveiled its latest pocket-sized hotrod, the A45 S AMG. This remarkable car features a 415bhp engine that gleans all that turbo-charged power from just a 2.0-litre four-cylinder. And while markets in Europe may have no problem spending very serious money on a four-cylinder hatchback, America is different.

America did eventually get the 45 S engine, but only in the CLA model, in late 2023 as a 2024 model. Europe gets the model in shooting brake wagon form as well, but America is again a no-go.

The Puma name was first used on a well-regarded small sports saloon based on the Fiesta, sold in Europe between 1997 and 2001. The name’s was revived on a compact SUV built in Romania, and it’s one of the very best of the type you can buy.

It’s great to drive, interesting to look at, and has strong economy due to a 48V mild-hybrid system. There’s no word on a US appearance, which is shame.

The GR Yaris is one of the most exciting small cars made this century. It fizzes along with a cool 276bhp from a turbocharged 1.5-litre engine driven through a six-speed gearbox, and is hilarious to throw around on a country road. But the Yaris is deemed too small for the US market, which means America doesn’t get the GR Yaris either.

The Unimog has a cult status these days both because of its unusual looks and its amazing off-road capabilities. Simply speaking, there is nothing better in the rough stuff this side of a tractor. Small wonder then that they’re the vehicle of choice for emergency services, farmers and the military across the world – just not in America.

The model was briefly sold in the USA in the late 1970s, but we think it could do very well in a market that loves its rough and tough off-roaders…

BMW sells plenty of M3s and M4s in America, so perhaps it would be a natural home when Munich made the brave decision to make the first wagon in the M3’s long history. It enjoys the same 502bhp turbocharged six-cylinder engine and engaging handling as the other shapes in the M3/M4 range – but with far more space for family, stuff, and dogs.

But the USA doesn’t really like wagons much these days, so no M3 Touring.

Electric cars are all really expensive and always too large and heavy, right? Well, there’s some truth to all of that, but the industry is responding, in Europe at least. The new Renault 5 is small, relatively light (1449 kg – 3188 lb), but still practical enough for four people and their luggage. It has a decent real-world range of around 200 miles, and all for the equivalent of $29,000 or so.

But Renaults haven’t been sold in America since 1987, and that isn’t changing anytime soon.

Skoda sold cars in the US between 1946 and 1967, well before Volkswagen purchased and rejuvenated the brand, but is no longer present in the market. Among other cars, America is missing out on the Superb (pictured), a well-appointed but reasonably-priced saloon and estate car that effortlessly cruises for hours on end.

Rumour is that an entry into America was actively contemplated until the Dieselgate scandal in 2015 turned everything upside down at VW.

SEAT is one of the few European automakers that has never sold a single car in the US. For decades, exporting cars was impossible because the brand operated as Fiat’s Spanish satellite. Its international presence has grown considerably since it joined the Volkswagen empire in 1990, but America has never been on the list.

Part of the issue lies in its name, no doubt. VW would probably do better with its new SEAT spin off brand Cupra, which at least doesn’t have the name/language issue, and also makes some great cars like the Formentor crossover (pictured).

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