Germans Love David Hasselhoff/Real Life/Automobiles


 * Toyota no longer sells the Hilux/Tacoma pickup in Japan; it has a small cult following among customizers but the commercial fleet buyers who actually buy trucks new prefer cheaper, nimbler 660cc keitorakku.
 * This preference against big-name pickup trucks was made painfully apparent to Japanese Transformers fans during the production of the franchise's Binaltech line; Takara refused to front the money to allow their American counterpart Hasbro make a Dodge Ram figure for the line unless they made it into a truly iconic and favorable character, fearing it wouldn't sell otherwise. Hasbro eventually gave in, and Binaltech Convoy (Optimus Prime) was created.
 * The Tacoma is quite popular among truck owners in Washington State, as there is a city named Tacoma. The city itself? Not so popular.
 * The Hilux remains an iconic and popular vehicle in South Africa amongst suburban families, rugged farmer types and weekend adventurers. A new TV ad campaign featuring a talking boxer dog with a disturbing mouth full of human teeth has driven the Hilux into modern cult status too.
 * Hilux are ubiquitous in Thailand.
 * Hilux has a bit of a Memetic reputation from the Top Gear episode where they demonstrated that the car is pretty much indestructable.
 * During the early 60's until mid 90's, the most popular car in Mexico was the Volkswagen Beetle (nicknamed there as "Vocho"), due to the fact it was cheaper than the imported American cars available at that time (the fact that the car was actually made in Mexico at that time, making the acquisition of spares helped too) and compact enough to fit anywhere. Its popularity ended with the mid-90's economic crisis, the lack of replacement components and the halt on the production of these cars (which ocurred around 2003). In spite of that it is very common to find these cars in big cities such as Mexico City or Monterrey, specially as taxi cabs until 2012, a date set by the Mexico City government as a deadline to get off the streets all of these iconic cabs.
 * Nissan also scored this in Mexico with two models: the Hardbody Truck, released in 1986, pulled in the rest of the world around 1997 but pulled in Mexico up until 2008; and the Sunny B13 (Tsuru), sold in Japan from 1990 to 1994 but sold in Mexico since 1993. The latter has to thank its ridiculously durable engine that can last 700,000 km -- a round trip between the Earth and the Moon -- without even opening the engine block for major repairs.
 * Similarly to the above, in Brazil, VW Beetles (nicknamed "Fusca") are still massively popular. Their production was discontinued in 1986, but after many popular praise and the president's vote, it went back to the factory lines in 1993 for more 3 years. But even today it still has a massive fanbase, partly due to being very affordable, having easy-to-find/cheap spare parts and being generally "cute and classy" looking. There are many fan-clubs around the country where proud owners exhibit their (custom or classic) Fuscas.
 * Thanks to the American auto industry's inability to live down its '70s Dork Age, Japanese cars, especially compact cars, have this status in America, to the point where many of the major Japanese automakers have built factories in the US to accommodate demand (and get around tariffs). For decades, Japanese cars have been seen by Americans as the benchmark of quality -- it's only been in the last few years that the (perceived) gap in quality between Detroit and Japanese automakers has closed. With trucks, on the other hand, American brands like the Chevy Silverado and Ford F-150 have a much stronger reputation than their Japanese counterparts.
 * At the exact same time, Americans Hate Tingle is also in play. Despite their success, Japanese cars have a very sizable Hatedom in America, composed mainly of those who feel that they are destroying the American economy, and that their reputation for quality is exaggerated. Back in the '70s and '80s, driving an "import" anywhere in or around the American Rust Belt (especially Detroit) may as well have been an invitation to get your headlights smashed out. Needless to say, this crowd cheered when Toyota got hit with one of the largest automotive recalls in history.
 * To wit: Elsewhere in the world, Mercedes-Benz is considered the pinnacle of car making. In the US, Lexus -- Toyota's luxury marque -- was thought to be better than Mercedes.
 * While we're on American automobiles, let us not forget this: Chinese. Love. Buick. Buick Century and Regal, models loathed by Americans, are selling extremely well in China, surpassing all Japanese marques. How? While Regal was discontinued in North America during most of the 2000s, it was continued to be manufactured in China and remained a bestselling model for years. And then the 5th-gen Regal that's again sold in North America in 2011 model year was first introduced in China in the 2009 model year... No wonder GM ditched Pontiac in favour of Buick during restructuring.
 * The Nissan Skyline GT-R (before the R35 GT-R in 2007) was never intended for sale outside Japan. Yet in the 90's it had such a following in the UK that the R32, R33, and R34 models had official limited export sales to the UK. Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson himself praised these cars as well (the R34 was listed as #8 in his Top 100 cars video).
 * Quite a few GT-Rs made it to the United States despite it being nearly impossible to make one street legal: It was that popular for racing.