[Steve Tinker]

That's not the whole story though.
Wages and car prices in individual countries compared to other similar countries are not the litmus paper for affordability. Its disposable income.
The US has always had cheap(er) commodities such as cars, refrigerators, fuel, TV's etc etc, but relativly expensive costs like state / federal taxes & housing prices (pre GFC) compared with other affluent countries.
Many car producing countries (Italy, France, UK, etc) slap on import duties to protect their local producers. BUT that tends to allow the local car manufacturers to raise their domestic car prices at home so that the delta $$ between imports and domestic is not too large and make the locals look "cheap" ...and because they can.
Ask any ex-pat how well off they are working overseas and is not paying US tax - I know I was when working in Southern Africa and only paying 10% income tax....