LONDON— THE wave of consolidation that has swept over the auto industry has been accompanied by much verbiage about the need to achieve economies of scale. The message is clear. Competition among automakers has never been tougher, so they must work together to share costs.

In the process, they are creating more global products. This makes economic sense, of course, but there is a problem: a car is not a Coke.

The Ford F-Series pickup truck may be the best seller in the United States, but its size and fuel consumption dictate that it will never find much favor among European buyers, who live in medieval cities with narrow streets and have to cope with startlingly high gasoline prices. In Japan, the best-selling model is a Suzuki minicar that could almost be popped into the cargo hold of a Lincoln Navigator.

Not that global cars do not already exist; they do, and have for years. Henry Ford's Model T, which did so much to bring mobility to the United States in the 1920's, was manufactured around the globe. Volkswagen's original Type 1 -- the Beetle -- was conceived in the mid-1930's with a similar mobility goal for Germany. When it went into production after World War II, the Beetle became a best seller worldwide.

Today, specialized market producers like Porsche and Ferrari sell the same models around the world. So do some prestige automakers like BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar, although in many instances their suspensions and specifications are adjusted to suit local tastes.

And in cars, those tastes can be quite pronounced. For example, Europeans favor passenger cars with diesel engines, which have never made much of a dent in the United States market. They now account for a quarter of all new-car sales in Europe and appear to be headed higher. The popularity is a reflection of the diesel engine's economy and the generally lower prices for diesel fuel.

Europeans also like hatchbacks, while Americans prefer sedans. That can be seen in last year's sales figures for the Volkswagen Golf hatchback and its sedan equivalent, known in Europe as the Bora and in the United States as the Jetta. In Europe, the Golf is the most popular model, outselling the Jetta 6 to 1. In the United States, the Jetta four-door sedan is nearly seven times as popular as the Golf hatchback.

Automatic transmissions, the norm in the United States, are comparatively rare in the most popular models in Europe, where manual shifting still seems to be regarded as a symbol of virility.

Big-volume automakers know, then, that choosing a car is a complex exercise influenced by regional culture and national pride, and by more fundamental local issues like road space, tariff and trade barriers, taxes, currency exchange rates and household income.

It is difficult to categorize all national markets, but they fall into three broad types: those like, say, Finland, which are completely open; those that favor local production by placing heavy taxes on imports (South Korea, for example); and those that are the exclusive preserve of local producers, like China.

Although firm sales figures are not yet available, a random tour of the globe shows how these influences and realities affected consumer buying patterns last year.


In a country like China, where consumer credit is tight, buying a big-ticket item like a car is not done lightly. Volkswagen -- Germany's ''people's car'' -- is now China's people's car. The old Volkswagen Santana model, a sedan version of the 1980's Passat hatchback, was the most popular car there last year, followed by the Santana 2000, a long-wheelbase version of the same car. Both are made in conjunction with a local producer, the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation. The Daihatsu Charade hatchback, VW Jetta sedan and Citroen ZX hatchback are other popular models, each made in collaboration with a local partner.

Michael J. Dunne, the president of Automotive Resources Asia Inc., which has offices in Beijing and Bangkok, said the Chinese bought about 571,000 new passenger cars last year, and a total of 1.83 million vehicles of all types.

VW dominates the car market, with 55 percent, for several reasons: it got an early start in China, in 1985; it offers good value for money; and it has strong local partners. But it is facing new competition. ''VW's leadership will be challenged by new entrants like Toyota with its Vitz model, Honda with the Accord and G.M. with its Buick Century and Opel Corsa,'' Mr. Dunne said.


Like Volkswagen in China, the Suzuki Motor Corporation has a tight grip on the closed Indian market because it pioneered local production in the early 1980's in association with Maruti Udyog Ltd. Today, as any traveler to India can observe, Maruti sells two-thirds of all cars, with Suzuki-based economy models known as the 800, Zen and Omni occupying the top three sales slots.

But that may change in time. Ford, General Motors and Hyundai of South Korea have focused on India for expansion. So has Telco, an Indian company that is part of the large Tata Group, which is developing a car line. There are already indications of the challenge Maruti is facing in India: the Hyundai Santro and Tata Indica were fourth and fifth best sellers last year.