Nothing screams quintessential Americana quite like the idea of the open road: car enthusiasts the world over fantasize about driving across the United States’s thousands of miles of scenic highways.
Despite its indelible place in car media, however, one recent analysis revealed that the U.S. is not the best country in the world for car enthusiasts. That honor goes to our northern neighbor, Canada.
The J&Y Law analysis, which looked at highway speed limits, gas prices, the average annual cost of insurance and maintenance, road quality, and the annual automotive events, gave Canada top marks highlighting its average highway speed limit of 74 miles per hour and for hosting the annual Canadian International AutoShow.
Second place Spain benefits from its high quality roads – according to the World Population Review, the southern European country has some of the best driving conditions in the world.
The U.S. placed in fourth – an achievement largely driven by the country’s comparatively low gas prices, which enable travelers to go on longer trips for less money than their counterparts. The analysis also highlighted American road quality – U.S. highways outscored their counterparts in Canada, Italy, Australia, Belgium, and New Zealand.
Australia also appeared in the top five, receiving high marks for its average speed limit of 80 miles per hour, but receiving deductions for having high average maintenance costs. Neighboring New Zealand was in ninth place – the analysis attributed the lower score to its relatively low highway speed limit.
The remainder of the top ten countries are in Europe: the strong presence of the automotive industry boosted the rankings of nations like Italy and Germany, but higher than average gasoline prices contributed to lower rankings.
Continue reading to see which countries were ranked among the best in the world for car enthusiasts.
