A farewell to small cars, the industrial icons that put Europe on wheels

Placing a Peugeot 208, Europe’s bestselling car last year, next to a Ford F-150, its American counterpart, is like comparing a Chihuahua to a Great Dane. Both have four wheels and typically serve the same purpose: to ferry a single driver from one place to another. Beyond that they have little in common. The F-150 weighs over two tonnes, twice as much as the lithe Peugeot. The driver in the American pickup truck sits a half-metre higher than the tarmac-scraping Frenchman in his family compact. Forget the flat bed attached to the back of the Ford—its interior alone feels roomier than the entire European car. A Parisian driver ever-confident of his parking skills might well attempt to squeeze his vehicle inside the cab of the American behemoth.