In our series of car cultures around the world/international street scenes we’ve taken a virtual tour to Morocco, Africa, Monaco, Europe, Nagoya, Japan, Bali, Indonesia and Singapore, now we’ll cross the Pacific and the US West Coast to land in Texas. And the automotive landscape in Texas is exactly as you’d imagined: lots of huge SUVs and pick-up trucks, one bigger than the other but all big enough to dwarf a Range Rover. Gasoline is cheap, roads are wide and straight and towing a big trailer, boat or caravan happens in a few occasions, but mostly they’re just big “because we can”.

As a result of this preference for bulky trucks and SUVs, the domestic US brands are more popular in Texas than in other parts of the United States, most notably the import-dominated East Coast (especially New York City) and West Coast (especially California). What did strike me in regards to import brands was the relative large number of midsized body-on-frame trucks like the Nissan Xterra and Toyota 4Runner, I’d almost say I saw one of each in just about every street of Austin. The Toyota FJ Cruiser must have also been popular in Texas, but not as extremely as in Dubai, UAE as you’ll see in the next report of this series. Other import models with an over-representation in Texas are the Nissan Pathfinder and the Infiniti QX80, and of course the Toyota Tundra full-sized pick-up truck. Sedans like the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord, among the best sellers in the nation, are much less omnipresent than in the rest of the country, but still no rarities. [Read more…]