In Europe, most of those places were built before cars existed (and certainly before they were popularized). Still, people overwhelmingly prefer to drive cars there.

Yeah, and if you have a car in any of those city centers dating from before the car, it's inconvenient and you'll walk for little errands, it'd be insane to drive. In suburbia, car is convenient, and sure, europe has a lot of suburbia too

It's not just city centers. E.g. whole lot of London is pre-car. And yes, you'll walk for little errands, but you'll also drive a lot for many other things, often including commute, taking children to school etc.

yeah - i suppose so that the car coopted a lot of older parts too. i live in a pre-car neighborhood in the midwest, and end up driving a lot. public transport is very poor, and city center is a shell, there's nothing left to anchor the city, everything is essentially suburb, even the old parts.