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The country that occasionaly says they are the most American nation in the world is finding out giving up big wheels is hard. (http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/04/business/emit.php)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/2007_Volvo_S40_-_E85_capable.jpgIvar Ekman - International Herald Tribune - July 4, 2007

DANDERYD, Sweden: Perhaps more than most Europeans, Swedes have a love affair with big, comfortable cars.

And with good reason: Volvo and Saab, two of the world's best-known brands for luxury and safety, are manufactured right in their own back yard.

"We're real Svenssons," said Victoria Klintberg, a teacher who believes her use of a roomy Saab to ferry her brood of two small children, a Labrador retriever and her husband, Matti, around town constitutes the essence of Swedishness. "We have to have a station wagon," she said.

Olle Maberg, a 76-year-old retired executive, got into his four-wheel drive Volvo V70 outside a shopping center in Danderyd and said, "It feels much safer to be in a big car than in a small one."
… http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/04/business/emit.php

The Swedish car industry, which represents only Volvo and Saab, maintains that it is moving toward emissions reductions and that further regulation is not needed.

Hmmm, sounds familiar. What? You say that Ford owns Volvo, and GM owns Saab? Oh, okay, now it makes sense.

Sweden is doomed. At least their car industry...

Harry

Sweden is a big country that's relatively sparesely populated. I have visited there, and the thing that blew me away is that once you're outside of Stockholm or Goteborg, the place looked and felt very much like the rural America that I grew up in. It is not as urbanized to the extent that much of mainland Europe is. So in the geographic respect, they are similar to North America, and perhaps their vehicle choices also reflected those conditions. Even though the country is rich, the roads can occasionally be horrible due to the toll that the weather takes on them, so you want a sturdy and substantial car.

They probably will always have higher vehicle emissions, because they simply will need to drive more, just like Canada will always have high greenhouse emissions, because it's cold.