Reader Response to - "Americans Questioning Value of Free Trade"

Hello;

I recently read your article about "Americans Questioning Value of Free Trade" and being a Greek-American living in Greece I feel I have to question some of your findings about the Greek market for American cars.

To clarify things I have seen as many corvettes in Greece as you saw American cars during your stay in Italy-Greece(note that the price is around $110,000 usd for a C6).

I believe you visited the wrong areas to determine how popular American cars are,if you stayed in the center of Athens then I can justify the results because nobody drives big cars there.

I live in a suburb of Athens where there is one of the few Cadillac-Corvette-Hummer dealerships in the country and there is also one of the few Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge dealerships,I can tell you that there models are somewhat popular considering they are really expensive.

Jeep's are highly regarded for their off-road capabilities and are particularly popular around my area so much that I can't remember a day that I went out and didn't see one,they are popular because people don't care so much about parking which is a major problem here and of course it is one of the more affluent suburbs.

The Dodge Caliber has been pretty popular around here because of its powerful (by european standards) engine trendy design and fairly good reviews it got.

Also besides Opel GM markets Chevrolet cars which are selling so good that they almost overtook Nissan as the 10th best selling brand in October(pan-European results).

People don't buy that many American cars because they aren't appealing cause of there big engines low mileage and increased taxes, if they decided to make there cars more European they would have no trouble selling them.

Jim A. Athens Greece