Gallons and litres - some thoughts on cars and culture

Recently, I heard a radio ad (or, rather a podcast ad) for the new Ford Focus. These days, every brand and company takes every opportunity to boast its green credentials and high environmental standards. This ad was no exception. The claim was forty miles to the gallon of petrol, which I believe is pretty good.

The ad was an American one. Had it been Norwegian or European, it would have had the same claim, I’m sure. But in would have been reversed. It would have claimed so many litres per kilometer. The difference is perhaps a subtle one, but I think it contains some important insights to our cultures, which in many ways are quite different.

Everything is bigger in America, they say. Cars are bigger, cans of coke are larger, and of course meals are bigger (note the fact that MacDonald's doesn’t have small sized meals, only medium and larger). Likewise with this particular example. First of all, a gallon is a larger measure of volume than the litre. A gallon is roughly four litres. And the mile is slightly more than one and a half kilometre (more precisely 1609,344 metres).

But most interestingly is this: In the American way of measuring petrol consumption, the focus is how far you can go on one unit of petrol (i.e. gallon). In the European measure, the important thing is how little petrol you use on a set distance (i.e. kilometer). So, it seems to me that the miles per gallon measure is more focused on how far you can go, not on how «green» or environmentally friendly the vehicle is and how much petrol you burn off. More so with the European way whose mentality is perhaps a bit more reserved and modest.

Also (and according to the «big in America»-thought), the more miles per gallon, the better. For the European way it is completely opposite; the smaller the litres per kilometer measure, the better. For the Ford Focus, the measure was 40 miles per gallon. For a fuel-saving European car, 0.5 or so would be good, but less would be even better.

In the American psyche, according to my understanding, a car is freedom. And the further you can go with your car, the more free you are. Driving into the sunset with your Mustang along the Route 66, and all those other clichés. The Americans were never much for trains and other means of collective transportation, but rather a nation of drivers.

Anyway, it's interesting to see how little things sometimes can say a lot about different mentalities...