Irish motorists are better off and much more colourful, even with the traffic jams, our creaking road infrastructure and road rage and high taxation.
It is coming out in the colours we are choosing for our cars and it is coming out in another way, in the sort of vehicles that are becoming fashionable.
Then again, we have never had it so good. The 2002 car comes with standard items that would have been inconceivable 20, or even 10 years ago. Air conditioning is almost the norm now, a sixth gear is no longer a rarity.
The emphasis on safety is enormous: ABS, front and side airbags are very much part of nearly every car's safety armoury.
Talking about the famous Model T, Henry Ford famously once said: "You can have any colour you like, so long as it's black." A quick look around at the cars on our roads shows how much - or little - his suggestion has been heeded, particularly among the Ford line-up. Surprisingly though, black has made a comeback.
When it comes to choosing an automotive complexion, we are still ultra-conservative compared with the Japanese. There, anything goes: there's a boom in way out or bizarre hues. Small eco cars like the Toyota Vitz (Yaris), the Honda Fit (Jazz) and the Nissan March (Micra) are largely at the forefront of this new colour movement.
Toyota may have started the ball rolling by offering 10 colour variations on the Vitz, Honda replied with 11 for the Fit. Nissan went to 12 for the cute new March while Honda topped everybody with 14 for its new designer 660cc mini, with the odd name of That's.
All of which is a bit different to how it used to be in Japan where white was the number one colour, year in, year out. White goes over well because it projects a clean, clear, almost timeless image. It has also a practical edge for matters like resale value and paint match when there's a scratch.
White is still very much a contender but for the Japanese under-30s crowd, the call now is for stronger more vibrant shades. Colour names are also revving up: examples are Honda's new "smash orange pearl", "very purple metallic" and a "clione silver metallic" that changes colour depending on the light.
In the car business, it's remarkable how effective a range of different colours can be for putting a bright new spin on things. There again, fashions move fast so what's hot today could be passΘ before long. For those not wanting to be caught out, maybe Henry Ford's words were sound advice, getting on for 100 years ago now.
In the US, pick-up trucks are a fashion item, albeit a very butch sort of one. Ford's best-seller isn't a car, but the F150 pick-up. Now there's every indication that the trend is coming here.
Mitsubishi and other Japanese like Nissan, Toyota, Isuzu and Mazda, all have smart double cab pick-ups on the market.
The double cab gives car-like comfort, allowing four or more occupants just as in a car. From a tax point of view it is, of course, a commercial vehicle. There's the obvious appeal of a car-like cabin with vast and unrestricted load space behind.
Patrick Murphy of Mitsubishi is expecting to sell around 700 of the L200 double cab pick-up this year. All his orders until the end of July have been allocated.
With a 2.5 litre turbodiesel engine and a high level of specification, it retails here at €29,000 ex-works.
"It's the best of both worlds, working as a pick-up and a car. It's the sort of vehicle that people like to show off a bit. We had one customer who spent €8,000 on accessories." Just the wheels for cool dudes!