All the cars are cheaper in the US than in Germany; either somewhat when the EUR/USD rate is low, or enough that (re)importing from the US becomes attractive.

Example: base 2019 Prius MSRP Germany: 28,450 EUR ($31,920) - includes 19% VAT MSRP US: $23,770 - does not include local sales tax

That’s even more of a difference than I was expecting, as the exchange rate is currently on the low side ($1.12, compared to the long term $1.20-1.25 or eye-watering $1.50 it touched about 10 years ago)

Yes, but cars are more of a necessity here than in Europe. No matter how poor you are, a 20 minute drive can still take over 2 hours by bus in some areas, and that's nearly impossible to work with.

Depends where in the US, and where in “Europe” (it’s a pretty big place you know...)

Indeed, but the US has 51% more cars per person than the Netherlands and 66% more than Denmark[1].

[1] https://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Transport/Ro...

I have no statistics to back this up, but as far as I can tell the US seems way bigger on both buying new cars instead of used and on buying cars on finance instead of outright.

You're not saving money buying a brand new BMW on finance in the US instead of Europe if you could have bought a perfectly good used car for 5000 USD in cash.

We still buy $50,000 cars