The Muscle Car
An American Mainstay

The Germans invented the automobile. The romantic Italians fell head over heels in love with it. The Americans however have developed the deepest bonding between man and machine.
A paradox of the good American car is that it will inevitably be rated as a bad car by the rest of the world. This is not because of some degenerative engineering skills or that others can do a better job. It’s because the good American car is built to American standards. This naturally means the U.S produces large, powerful and thirsty vehicles that seem too in –your-face for the liking of non American brands. In terms of efficiency, the value scale of the American driver and counterparts around the world vary widely. Let’s take the MPG (miles to the gallon) of a popular American car-the Dodge Ram. It does 12 MPG .A gallon contains 3.8 liters so to travel 20 kilometers you would have to spend more than 25 ETB on fuel at Ethiopian prices. Not an attractive proposal in Europe with its high fuel prices or to Africa which anyway doesn’t have the cash even when supply is available.
Today, there are too few American cars in Ethiopia where once they were so common that an early crooner had included them in their song lyrics. One such tune was last covered by the charming Netsanet Melesse in a 1990’s hit which went.

Yilal Doju –Fwa –Fwa, Yilal Doju
Des Yemilgn Esu Melem Melke Liju

In transalation the verse reads as “His Dodge goes fwa-fwa (the horn of) that handsome guy I like.
Ethiopia’s roads up to the mid 1970’s, were not so congested as they are today – a good thing as the size of the average car in those days was considerably larger. To this effect large or full size vehicles are described as being “Shintam”-Amharic for “having hips” – and what country makes cars with such luscious feminine attributes if not the USA?
Powerful engined vehicles such as the Ford GTO, Shelby Mustang and Chevrolet’s Baracuda demand firm and robustly endowed drivetrains –making that high waist inevitable. Again, we should keep in mind what constitutes a big engine in American terms. Anywhere else, a Mercedes 200 with a 2000 cc engine would be considered pretty huge but in the US it would not deliver the goods for the demanding American driver. The ‘smaller’ US cars, for example the Ford Saturn and GM’s Cobalt are equipped with engines of up to 5 liters or 5000 cc. These power plants epitomize the often brash but still endearing American go-go mindset.