Ford built plants to make Euro vehicles. Those Fords are made in Europe. No idea what deals they made with governments. GM had Opel but it wasn't called GM. You don't see US made autos sold in Europe because of the tariffs is what I'm saying.
Actually, no. Not because of the tariffs, not by a long shot.
- GM had Opel, and it was clearly labeled as Opel - GM. GM was not on the car, but was on all docs and ads.
- Ford Europe has been a German entity for about 60 years, since the late 50's or about. They were German cars for all intents and puproses. They only got tighter corporatively in the last few years or so.
- US-made autos did not sell in Europe because none of the mass-produced US cars are adapted in any shape or form to the Euro market. US car makers have no compacts, no Diesels, nothing to cover the Accord-class sedans that are the meat of the market along with the compacts. Notable exceptions were the Chrysler Voyager and all the Jeeps. And even those are europeanized and for many of them - built in Austria (Voyager), with local engines (diesels mostly).
The US market is very specific. Even the Accord has always been US-specific. In Europe, the Accord was the US Acura TSX. And the Euro market is comparatively so difficult and small that it doesn't make sense for the US manufacturers to make Euro-version cars. The Neon sold comparatively not to bad in Europe, as did the Olds Alero. But that was a while back.
No US automotive brand has any incentive putting money and resources in developing a small but complex car that will be expensive to build and will sell through a small margin, when they can put the same money in an F150 and rake big bucks off it locally. And selling an F150 in Europe will simply not work, not only because Europeans have brains and don't feel the need to commute to work alone in a 6000lb V8, but also because they can't do the majority of things a large pick up truck can do in the US.
Most of the things one can do with a large pick up truck in the US can't be done in Europe: loading heavy loads, or pulling long trailers and such automatically puts you in a bracket where you need a professional trucker's license. The limits in Europe are by weight and total length, and you hit these very fast with a large pick up truck.
There is a micro market for V8 SUVs and such, but they are exotics, and they barely count.
The imports go the other way. The last gen of Saturns were all straight off the mill Opels, a lot of Buicks were Opels till a few years ago, and most utility vans that took the US market in the last decade (MB Vito, Dodge and then Ram that were first MB Sprinters, now Fiat Ducato vans, and most of the Ford Transit and the little vans - are directly imported/adapted Euro models.
