As Tuesday’s Internet-shaking post on the Ford Transit Custom reveal revealed, I’m in Birmingham, England at the sprawling Commercial Vehicle Show. The same new job duties that brought my regular contributions to Hooniverse to a full stop have also brought me to the UK for the first time.

Note – Tanshanomi created this post on his iPhone, a task which he equated to being “one step away from repeatedly poking [his] eye with a sharp pencil”, so let’s show him some love and appreciation. -KK

As a yank experiencing the Euro truck market firsthand for the very first time, and with only cursory knowledge of the market’s peculiarities, I can only offer a couple of insights:

• Heavy duty cabover semitractors are still pretty cool; I’m sorry they’re all but extinct in the US. The biggest ones have a cab like a second-story walk-up.
• Americans in the UK are not nearly as notable as running into a Brit in the Midwest.
• I literally would not be able to park the Town Cow’s 18-foot+ length in most British parking lots.
• I’m ashamed to say that I really cannot understand a thing people from Northern England say. Can’t even fake it.
• French vehicles are a much bigger part of the car and van market than I expected. I knew they sold them; I just didn’t realize that anybody bought them.
• I can report back to America that Isuzu’s pickup truck is alive and well.
• Great Wall’s China-built Steed pickup isn’t embarrassingly bad by appearance.
• Trying to write a post on an iPhone is really frustrating.

Small diesel cargo vans popular in Europe, such as this Citroen Nemo, need to come to America. Now.

The new Euro Ford Ranger is kinda Teh Hawt.