In my previous post I wrote that the Swedes like it big. And while they don't drive modern US cars, they do love their 50s and 60s US models. Big battleships like the one you see above, which doesn't even fit in a normal parking space. Just look at that exhaust sticking out half a metre, try to get that through an inspection in Australia :-) Somewhat later the owner appeared, a huge bloke… my first thought was 'Swede little rock n roller' even though he wasn't that little; and that was before I saw the stickers on it making statements like: 'If it has tits or wheels, it will give problems' Right What did I say about Olaf again…?
The summer had been real good and the Swedes like to take their cars out for a spin on a Sunday. The Swedes love their cars, motorcycles, snow mobiles and boats. It seems the country of petrol heads alright. I'm not sure if there are more cars or boats here but both are extremely popular. Just up the road a bit from where I took these pictures we saw a huge Cadillac convertible driven by two young girls, clearly enjoying the sunshine and the V8 rumble and more 50s and 60s models appeared where-ever we went during the day.
The other thing we noticed is the enormous amount of Volvos and Saabs on the road. You would perhaps think that would be normal in Sweden but is it? In the UK for instance most people don't drive British made but foreign cars and are now up to the point where they killed off their own car industry. While Jaguar still exists there are a lot more similarly priced BMWs and Mercedes' on the road in Britain than Jaguars. Not so in Sweden. Volvo is Swedish made and most people seem to prefer that over foreign. I like that, in fact we all like that. From what we've been told Saab has started again after a difficult period and I hope they succeed.
Quite frankly a lot of it has to do with what Volvo produces too. They have always put the emphasis on safe cars and have probably more safety related inventions to their name than any other car manufacturer. Yet they have also made a huge step forward in design. Mike likes the Volvo style. In fact he likes Sweden. The other day we found him asking a Swede what it was like here in winter… he might drive a big battleship himself one day… let's just hope the tits and wheels don't give him too many troubles :-)
