When did American cars get so awesome?

After my girlfriend refused to ride in my rental Tacoma, I employed the age old American tactic of complaining. Your amazing customer service did not disappoint, and I was upgraded to a truck of my choice.

A very hobbit sized and sassy young black girl pointed to this truck and informed me it had a Hemi.

"SOLD!"

To be perfectly honest, I think Americans make better cars than the Germans now. I just got back from LA and my 400hp rental Dodge Ram 1500 with a 5.7L Hemi, had more power and the same economy as my girlfriends 3 liter v6 Mercedes SUV. Comfortable too!

This thing had about 400hp, and moved faster than a flatmate breaking their rental contract. The v8 was so smooth and truly brutal highway pulls barely stirred my usually nervous other half.

Conservative use got a no-bullshit 21mpg on the highway, and about 17 mpg in traffic.

The exhaust was a little quiet, and the cylinder deactivation seemed a tad ridiculous, ruining the sound of the v8 and realistically adding little to the economy. Four cylinders have to move the friction of 8 pistons, plus a car with the friction coefficient of a barn.

The Stereo was excellent, my ears are still ringing. On full volume the interior buzzed a little bit, and the wing mirrors vibrated; I enjoyed this, but I'm a little bit weird.

One thing I noticed about cars in the USA is that the features and interiors of economy cars were up to par with my lady's modern Mercedes. We were kinda jealous of the moon roof in Kias, and to be honest, Infinitis and Hyundais looked way cooler.

It's almost as though American muscle is becoming passe in the age of 35 mpg turbo 4 pots.

I'll tell you one thing though, when you grabbed this truck by the scruff of the neck, and that Hemi started howling, it had a character and a road presence. People smiled, or got the hell out of the way. My T count increased exponentially as I drove it.

This thing made me feel comfortable on LA highways, if a semi pulled into my lane, I had 400 ponies to pull me outta harms way. There was at least one situation where the power kept me out of trouble. My significant other pointed at a truck about to turn us into a metal salad. 1 second of full throttle launched us beyond the event horizon, and as far as I know the aberrant trucker is still stuck in a black hole, watching a video of his man-boobs growing in real time - actual hell.

Guys, if there's anything I've learned, it's that life is short, and smiles per gallon beat miles per gallon, every time.